The Hacker Crackdown

Bruce Sterling of Cyberpunk fame takes a journalistic approach to researching law and disorder on the electronic frontier by examining two specific events in depth : the 1990 Operation Sundevil, a concerted nationwide effort by district attorneys, the Secret Service, the FBI, local authorities and various Telco security to bust and publicize a hacker crackdown; and the resulting trials and creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and rise of the civil libertarians. The book is divided into four parts: crashing the system, the digital underground, law and order, and the Civil Libertarians. Mr. Sterling does a credible job explaining the telco systems and motivations and actions of the people on both sides of the issue - phone phreaks/hackers and law enforcement/district attorneys without succumbing to a lot of jargon or taking sides. The book is replete with interesting accounts of Alexander Graham Bell and history of telephony, the origins of the Secret Service and its' early battles with "Boodlers", and the dissemination of the E911 document that came to cause grief to many people. Reading this in 2006 and beyond will cause a few chuckles at his penchant for describing and drooling over advance systems (I have a real urge to drive down to the storage unit for my Commodore 64 and IBM clone), yet the events of the early hacker sub-culture remain relevant to anyone interested in computers, freedom and privacy.

Sterling's book is a must-read for anyone genuinely interested in the roots of Cyberculture. It documents everything from old-school phone phreaks to the 1990 crash of AT & T. It goes into great detail as to how "cybercops" were established, their training, and the mass-reluctancy a decade ago to utilize their services. While this may sound like a history textbook, it is not. It is a fair and unbiased look at the past from the eyes of one of the greatest cyberpunk authors ever, which is probably why the book is so often quoted in academic research papers and in other works on the subject. The book does not lack charecter nor does it lack accuracy. Those who are looking to find an entertaining yet accurate, if not dated, historical account of hacking need not look any further.

This is one of three books I trust on hackers and hacking (Levy and Turkle are the other two trusted authors). Bruce, a very distinguished author in WIRED and science fiction circles, went to great lengths to investigate and understand what was happening between hackers exploring corporate systems, corporate security officials that were clueless and seeking scorched earth revenge, and Secret Service investigators that were equally clueless and willing to testify erroneously to judges that the hackers had caused grave damage to national security. Bruce is a true investigative journalist with a deep understanding of both technical and cultural matters, and I consider him superior to anyone in government on the facts of the matter. Update of 31 May 08 to add links: The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, Twentieth Anniversary Edition Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution Information Payoff: The Transformation of Work in the Electronic Age Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace (Helix Books) The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

If asked, I would easily suggest my favorite thing about this book is its intriguing story. I was relieved to find the book easy to read; Sterling spares us of gory technical details involving computer jargon or complex code. This book is pure drama! Wonderful! If you like "different," you will like this book. The topic is far from mainstream. You may find yourself locked into reading it, just as you are locked into watching a 20/20 episode as it airs a scam caught-on-tape. Very original. Highly entertaining. 5 Stars! Easy!

An exciting read - if you are in any way interested in the early development of the electronic side of our world, right the place were you read this now.Hacking - OK, sounds like a good selling story. But this is also about traditions of e-commerce: the phone companies. And about democracy: government vs. civil libertarians meeting on the electronic frontier, both exploring.It is the history of the settling of cyberspace (how I hated this word until I read this book!).Yes, history. Although it is less than a decade ago, the times of adventurous exploration are "long" ago, and books _have_ to be read about this. Example: You read this book about people making their first unsecure steps into cyberspace, and then some day you recognize one of its main actors, Jerry Barlow, in the news speaking for the EFF, now an important organization in the world of civil liberties, but just in its early founding days, when mentioned in "The Hacker Crackdown"Shurely our children will have excerpts from this in their history books at school :)-Ulf