The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier

by Bruce Sterling

A journalist investigates the past, present, and future of computer crimes, as he attends a hacker convention, documents the extent of the computer crimes, and presents intriguing facts about hackers and their misdoings.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Technology, Computers, Hackers, Cyberpunk, Science

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

About the author

Bruce Sterling is an author, journalist, critic and a contributing editor of Wired magazine. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns and introductions to books by authors ranging from Ernst Jünger to Jules Verne. His non-fiction works include The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier (1992), Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years (2003) and Shaping Things (2005).

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nonfiction! Woo! Computer CRIME!

This is a classic non-fiction about late eighties and very early nineties hacking from both sides of the law, but what is most most interesting is not that it's written by a classic cyberpunk author, but that it's written in such a way as to awe and amaze us readers even this late in the internet game... before there was truly a real Internet. BBS's and phreaking was is its own kind of world, as was trashing and other kinds of social engineering.

Not that we don't have our modern equivalents with our threads and skype.... and trashing and social engineering. :) Ah well, some things never change. :) But these days, the kinds of overreactions have really changed into all new kinds of overreactions. :)

Still, it was kinda amazing to see just how crazy the computer world was back then. SOMEONE COPIED AN ELECTRONIC FILE! And each copy was worth 80K! (To who? No idea. It was about how the emergency 911 calls got routed through the telecom system. No one intended to do crap with it, but of course it became a big hoo-haw. With time in jail.) Seriously. It's like dark age stuff, and we're talking 1990.

And then there was the phone outages that were AT&T's own fault, and yet they tried to blame everything on hackers who had absolutely nothing to do with it, and let's not forget the scares and the craze about just how evil these people are! You know, that 14 year old who is bragging to all his mates because he got into someone's system and he's treating it as a game without consequences? Yeah! That EVIL PERSON.

Of course, there are real criminals out there but they're all identity theft people and credit swindlers, but most of them are just individuals who's gotten very specialized with very specific features of a computer. These aren't coders or creative types or explorers. These are just people trying to steal your wallet, and those people are a menace.

It's really interesting to read about both sides of the coin and to see what horrible and stupid mistakes both sides made. Steve Jackson Games being the most prominent example, of course. Paladium Books! Obviously they're in deep. And the Secret Service never gave them their computers back. How embarrassing.

This is equal parts a blast from the past and it's an exploration about how idiotic people are in real life. It's kinda freaky. :) I wouldn't be surprised if this book remains popular twenty years from now as a classic frontier novel. :)

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I expected, and it was interesting learning about these events now that it is 20 years later. Having been a victim of hackers at work, an incident that actually made our processes much more robust once we fixed everything, I have a very dim view of the assholes. However there was certainly law enforcement overreach in these cases. Seems it is a tricky path to walk.

[Punk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non-Fiction. On January 15, 1990, AT&T's long-distance switching system went down. It was due to a flaw in AT&T's software, but it was easier to blame hackers for the period of lost service. Because hackers, nobody likes 'em, right? This led to a nationwide crackdown on phone phreaks and computer hackers, which lead to the beginning of a political movement to protect online activities as free speech, which lead to you and I, able to discuss a book about computer hackers without the FBI kicking down our respective doors and seizing our computers, cds, cell phones, staplers, and anything else they like.

This book records a piece of internet history, but it's full of digressions and contains a lot of background information that we, probably, could live without; the complete history of the telephone, for example. Or how the United States Secret Service got its start. Interesting, but not really necessary to understand the situation at hand.

I liked the final section the best. It's got courtroom drama and the triumph of nerds over The Establishment. It also goes into the origin of WELL, the formation of the EFF, and their role in the online civil liberty movement. It's good stuff for any geek to know.

Available for download at Gutenberg, but be warned all emphasis is RENDERED AS ALL-CAPS OH MY GOD BRUCE STERLING WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME? That's how old this story is. When Sterling released his book as an electronic file, he broke it into four pieces so it wouldn't choke anyone's dial-up connection, and it was actually IN text, which means no non-ASCII characters, which means all caps. At least he didn't use asterisks?

Two stars. Good information, but sloppy presentation; the core story's surrounded by way too much padding.

[Jarrodtrainque]

Bruce Sterling's classic work highlights the 1990 assault on hackers, when law-enforcement officials successfully arrested scores of suspected illicit hackers and other computer-based law-breakers. These raids became symbolic of the debate between fighting serious computer crime and protecting civil liberties. However, The Hacker Crackdown is about far more than a series of police sting operations. It's a lively tour of three cyberspace subcultures--the hacker underworld, the realm of the cybercops, and the idealistic culture of the cybercivil libertarians./ Sterling begins his story at the birth of cyberspace: the invention of the telephone. We meet the first hackers--teenage boys hired as telephone operators--who used their technical mastery, low threshold for boredom, and love of pranks to wreak havoc across the phone lines. From phone-related hi-jinks, Sterling takes us into the broader world of hacking and introduces many of the culprits--some who are fighting for a cause, some who are in it for kicks, and some who are traditional criminals after a fast buck. Sterling then details the triumphs and frustrations of the people forced to deal with the illicit hackers and tells how they developed their own subculture as cybercops. Sterling raises the ethical and legal issues of online law enforcement by questioning what rights are given to suspects and to those who have private e-mail stored on suspects' computers. Additionally, Sterling shows how the online civil liberties movement rose from seemingly unlikely places, such as the counterculture surrounding the Grateful Dead. The Hacker Crackdown informs you of the issues surrounding computer crime and the people on all sides of those issues./

[Rose Smith]

I wanted to love this book, but instead I just sort of liked it. The book definitely was not a bad read, but it did not fit my needs.

[Pramod Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

When ‘The Hacker Crackdown’ - written by the cyberpunk novelist Bruce Sterling – was released in 1992, it was a hugely acclaimed journalistic study of the cyberspace of the late 80s and early 90s detailing the affairs and people who have influenced this chaotic electronic frontier. Written during a period when the modern day Internet was taking it’s first steps, this book is a historic chronicle of the outlaw culture of the electronic frontier right from it’s beginner days, and inspects the series of criminal activities that plunged this frontier into chaos and law enforcement activities that were set in motion to counter these criminal activities.

This is a book, which stands at par with ‘Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution’ written in 1984 while dissecting and presenting the hacker subculture. It is one of those early books that discussed criminals on the cyber world; cyber crimes; the shortcomings and frustrations of traditional law enforcement agencies in effectively curbing these computer crimes; the emergence of various special task forces aimed at defending against this serious threat; the first civil liberties movements on the cyberspace and the ethics and legal issues connected to the countering of cyber crimes.

By delving deep into the world of actual participants in these activities – both from the criminal and law enforcement side – the author has created a pretty accurate historical snapshot of the 90s electronic frontier which was thriving with multitudes of characters like hackers, rebels, outlaws, cops, cybercops, cyber civil rights activists and bureaucrats.

Since this is a book from the early 1990s - when we consider the lightning speed in which modern Information Technology & Internet got evolved and is still evolving - most of the technology and concepts that it describes are outdated but from a historical perspective this is a great read for those who are interested in the evolution of computer crime, cyber civil liberties movements and cyberspace in general.

[L. Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anybody that has ever typed anything on the internet.

[Nis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intersting slice of history, and a great perspective on how quickly the computer world has changed. Kinda surprised how much Sterling seemed to be on the side of law enforcement and the status quo.

[Mau Villarroel Saez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un interesantísimo libro de historia de las telecomunicaciones, los BBS, conexiones por modem, hackers adolescentes y cybercrimen, que es intrigante, excitante e incluso emotivo e inspirador. Lo recomiendo en particular a quienes son de las generaciones que alcanzaron a conectarse a internet a través de la línea telefónica.

La narración incluye muchos datos duros, nombres reales, nicks, entidades y corporaciones, avanzando en el tiempo desde la época del telégrafo, de Graham Bell y el revolucionario teléfono, hasta llegar a 1990, con una narración ágil que a momentos presenta unos extensos paréntesis -en sentido figurado- que te llevan hacia atrás y adelante en el tiempo, saltando de un tema a otro (casi como si hoy leyeras un artículo con texto con hipervínculos que te llevaran a un tema anexo y luego a otro y otro...) y luego regresando al tema central que es la persecución de hackers por parte de las policías y la eventual consecuencia de la defensa de la libertad y los derechos civiles en el ciberespacio.

El libro está dividido en cuatro partes:

Parte 1: reventando el sistema
Parte 2: el submundo digital
Parte 3: ley y orden
Parte 4: los libertarios civiles

Y el epílogo, escrito en 1993, del cual destaco esta cita:

"...dentro de 50 años, este libro podrá ser algo interesante, y en 100 años, parecerá alucinante y arcaico. Probablemente resultará más extraño para una audiencia en el 2092 que para el lector contemporáneo."

Sin duda sería extraño para un joven que nació en la era de los smartphones.

Quedo a la espera de que Bruce Sterling escriba una segunda parte que nos cuente todo lo que ha pasado en los últimos 30 años.

[Boris Morales Rios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un clásico informático, es bastante entretenido, nada más que decir.

[Pablo Pelluch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menudo viaje.

Leído en 2024, cuando el grueso de lo que aquí se narra tuvo lugar en 1990.

La internet de los BBS y también de los phreakers... y tantas cosas que nos suenan arcaicas, ¡si es que nos suenan siquiera!

Sterling hace algo muy interesante, tratar de mostrarnos el punto de vista de las compañías de telecomunicaciones, los hackers, las fuerzas de la ley y los libertarios digitales. Pero eso no quiere decir que sea objetivo; claramente tiene favoritos (un intrigante desprecio por el FBI y unas loas desmedidas al Servicio Secreto) aunque muchas veces se encuentren en bandos enfrentados.

En cualquier caso, creo que trata de ser justo con todos los implicados en esta historia. Historia que en su mayor parte transcurre delante de pantallas de ordenador, en el interior de ordenadores y en los juzgados... y aún así resulta cinematográfica hasta trepidante. Hay una gran labor periodística por el volumen de información manejada, pero Sterling hace un gran esfuerzo por orientar; es fácil liarse con toda la de nombres (y nicks) y siglas de asociaciones que aparecen en esta trama pero yo he sabido seguirla sin mucho problema.

De hecho, resulta especialmente impactante la habilidad de darle cualidades narrativas de Sterling a una historia tan caótica, porque cualquiera sabe que la vida no se desarrolla como una narrativa.

Lo más bonito, para mí, ha sido acceder a esa internet salvaje, donde todo estaba por decidir. Internet Cowboys de 15 años explorando ese vasto territorio, configurando su propio sistema de valores y decidiendo qué es ser «élite». Hasta que llegaron las autoridades, los magnates... de hecho hay un momento en que se especula con qué pasará cuando se democratice Internet.

Leería cualquier cosa que Sterling tenga que decir sobre nuestro presente.

[Joe Tullio · Rating 3 out of 5]

My "hacking" career never got much further than making a few free long-distance calls to random people and pirating a few (maybe more than a few) games for my Commodore 64. Still, I spent time on BBS's and had an awareness that there were plenty of people much, much deeper into hacking. So I had high expectations given the author and the subject matter. I think though, that the author's love of the subject results in a lot of detail and digressions that make the read a bit of a slog.
It's neatly organized into 3 sections, each focused on a different party in to the hacker crackdown. The first is the hackers themselves, the second law enforcement, the third the internet libertarians who came together to form the EFF. I felt the book didn't really get engaging until that third section, where the momentousness of the event really becomes clear, and we get a sense of perspective around the community of elites that led to the WELL and a libertarian stance on the future of the internet. I will say, the last line of the book is really great.
So overall I'd say it's a good history lesson whose technical aspects are well-handled by the skill of the author. But it's also not a page turner, and you may feel compelled to skim quite a few digressions.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would be hard for me to write an unbiased view of this book, so I might as well be up front with why I was predisposed to like it. One, I know Bruce Sterling, count him as a friend, and have always liked his writing style. In fact, I credit Sterling (along with Mike Godwin, about whom more later) for helping me to develop my reading palate, that is, to urge me to examine what I was reading with a critical eye, in order to discover a wider variety of interest. Two, although I’m not a hacker, I play one in my mind. Oh, I know that I’m nowhere near the anarchistic fellows of the Legion of Doom–I’m not even in the same class as Gail Thackeray, former assistant attorney General of Arizona and one of the leaders of the “Crackdown” of the title. But ever since my cousin showed me his modem, and what you could do with it, I’ve been a hacker at heart.

So a book like this, that attempts to show me what I’ve been living through for the past ten years, and, more importantly, what I’ve been missing, is like reading a biography of someone you know. In fact, it contains two such biographies among other things: brief sketches of both Sterling himself and Godwin, staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and my former unofficial collegiate advisor.

But I don’t think this book is of interest only to me; anyone with an electronic mail account should find this an enlightening study of the burgeoning electronic community. Sterling does an excellent job of linking today’s electronic growth with the rise of the original telephone industry, pointing out some startling similarities. Sterling also comes across very even-handed, even though he admits to the fact that he has a stake in the power games that are being played out over the lines and in the courts.

The best thing about this book, however, is Sterling’s novelististic sensibility–that is, Sterling knows what makes a story, and his non-fiction is structured with plot, dialogue, tension, revelations, and conclusion. If only more non-fiction read like this! Needless to say I strongly recommend this to everyone receiving this message.

[Christopher M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a veritable "Who's Who" of the early internet days and those who stepped outside of the lines of the law of this new frontier, often times before the lines were marked in ink. Stirling has done a masterful piece of work with this book, making the internet's history come alive in such a way that you could almost hear the humming of vacuum tubes and taste the tension in the air as a literal Old West battle ensued between the 'white hats' and 'black hats', new sheriffs taking power in freshly settled digital 'towns' and new bands of outlaws rising in on their beige steeds to challenge them.

Of the 'hackers', I will say this - without their desire to push the envelope on the law, we probably would not have as many innovations as we do today. One way or another, everyone in this book helped make history in nanoseconds.

A definite must-read for true crime enthusiasts.

[Cow · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's almost two decades old at this point, so, well, it's dated. But it's so excellently written, and it covers such a wide range of topics. It also has a whole lot of that early 90s cyberpunk-hacker spirit that I can't help but feel a bit of nostalgia here.

That said, it covers rather well some of the first battles pitched over civil liberties on-line in US courts, and the resulting founding of EFF and other such groups. Two decades later, it's a fascinating artifact of its time.

It does tend to fly all over the map; it feels less like a book than a collection of clippings and thoughts. It would have made a very interesting blog, had blogs existed in 1991. But it's absolutely worth reading, and it's kind of surprising how many of these issues we're still struggling over today.

[G. Branden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book forced me to save up my money and buy a modem.

I could only scrounge enough for a 2400 baud Hayes; at the time, the U.S. Robotics Courier was the top-of-the-line running at 14.4k.

I got to see the twilight of the BBS era as the crepuscular Internet age broke over an unsuspecting nation.

Which quickly led to the "September that never ended"...

[Ezequiel Merino Cabrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crònica del incidente que provocó la caza de hackers en Estados Unidos, una breve historia de los mismos así como los términos legales, sociales y éticos.
El propio autor avisa que es libro sonará desactualizado el mismo año que fue editado, 30 años después lo veo totalmente actual,sobretodo la última parte.

[Diego Contín · Rating 4 out of 5]

muy interesante pues nos recuerda a todos los post 40 muchas de las tecnologías que fueron surgiendo y como la sociedad fue adaptándose a la misma.
los comienzos de las BBS, la lucha con las telecos, como unos estudiantes de la prepa con su curiosidad podían poner a los servicios de seguridad en aprietos.

[Ben Chenoweth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting snaphot of the early years of the Internet. I especially loved the part where Sterling includes the text of the "stolen" document, and finding out that it is almost completely unreadable! And worth only about $13! That was priceless...

[Sheena Dykstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Jacob Markrof · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Hacker Witch Hunt.

I went into this book knowing that it was dated, but hoping I would learn more about real-life computer hacking and not what was portrayed in the movies. It turns out, the 1995 cinematic masterpiece, Hackers, wasn't far from the truth. Hackers really were just a bunch of weirdo kids playing around with phones, talking in coded jargon, creating a subculture of their own, and doing anything they could to hack a mainframe and find a trophy file to brag to their friends with on obscure message boards. They were cyberspace cowboys on the bleeding edge of a new frontier, pushing the boundaries and somewhat unknowingly, breaking the law! (Judge Dredd voice). Computers were seized, large fines doled out, trials started with looming sentences longer than murderers would get, and long probationary periods where computers were banned. This wasn't a crackdown, this was a witch hunt.

The book is more than just a history of a specific trial that wasn't talked about in the news or media of the time. It is a social commentary on how humans react when someone can do something that isn't understood. It must be witchery! Burn them at the stake! But it is also about idiocracy, big corporations and government institutions throwing their weight around and pointing accusatory fingers when they themselves are (partially) to blame, in such a way that Joseph Heller would shake his head.

It was a good book, very informative with first-hand accounts and interviews, about a subject that isn't well-known or documented. I feel that the book could have been a bit shorter as there was redundant material, making room for a possible expanded version as trials were still active at the time of writing. All in all, it was a great slice of life in a world where people who could use computers were akin to magicians (or freaks) but looked on as criminals. Now that almost everyone has at least one type of personal computer (most likely a smartphone), computer enthusiasts aren't that scary, and the real digital criminals are extremely organized (mafia) and so big you never hear about them. There are other witches to hunt nowadays, and the term "hackers" is something people generally laugh at (hackerman) instead of fear.

For further or more contemporary reading, I highly suggest "Future Crimes" by Marc Goodman, 2016. It was a read that made me want to unplug from the internet forever.

[Harold Hoss]

I'm willing to admit that I read this book less out of an interest in Hacking and more out of a desire to understand 80s/90s cyberpunk culture.

I do think this book works for readers looking to understand the world Cyberpunk was born out of. However, while it is pretty entertaining, it occasionally feels very, ornate. Almost like you're reading dated science fiction, although this is a very true story. There are the phreaks who use phones for petty scams, hackers with retro cool handles, and all of the bad guys are big corporations. It all kind of sounds like something out of a Cyberpunk movie/book.

However, I want to warn readers that huge sections of this book still kind of drag. Mostly because the issues being litigated at the time the book was written have long been settled. So the court cases are less than riveting. There's also occasionally a piece of new tech, like a message board, that feels both quaint and alien at the same time. On the one hand, we live in a world where everyone engages with Reddit in some way. In Hackers, message boards were more like private meeting rooms where strangers gathered to talk through dial up modems - they were underground, man. The mileage the reader gets out of stuff like this will vary, but I liked it.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sterling first delivers the background of the telecommunications system in the United States, specifically the expansive growth of AT&T and its recent dismemberment at the hands of the courts system. A near-total network outage during a national holiday, while entirely a spontaneous glitch based on weaknesses in AT&T’s software, was blamed on outside intruders ; the government’s own increasing interest in suppressing pirate BBSes distributing pilfered, sensitive, or suspicious materials (everything from emergency telecom protocols to bombs), coupled with AT&T’s need for a villain, combined into a general campaign against “cyberpunks”. Hacker Crackdown is a fun look back at ‘the internet prior to the World Wide Web.

[Hex75 · Rating 4 out of 5]

sterling riesce a fondere (con una modalità che finisce per ricordarmi il nostro lucarelli dei vari "blu notte") l'abilità e la scrittura del romanziere con l'accuratezza e l'obbiettività del giornalista: sa di cosa parla e fa di tutto perchè anche il lettore possa seguirlo tra bbs, hackers, telco, polizia informatica, difensori della libertà d'opinione e altro ancora.
dovrebbero usarlo come manuale per chi voglia scrivere di informatica per un pubblico di non addetti ai lavori, vista la sua capacità di rendere comprensibile quel mondo senza apparire forzatamente didattico o eccessivamente semplicistico.

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read on MIT's website, of all places, as "literary freeware" as the author describes in his preface: https://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html

This book provides a nostalgic look back at things I was only tangentially aware of perhaps a decade after they happened. It's a look at when the internet was young, it references some pop culture views of hacking, and it talks about the roots of hacking in phone phreaking.

What lead me to read it, of course (?), was the Steve Jackson Games connection.

(edit: Didn't realize I had initially shelved this over a year prior, so SJGames led me to it twice, it just stuck the second time.)

[Hannah Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴘʀᴏꜰᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴᴀʟ ʜᴀᴄᴋᴇʀꜱ ᴛᴏ ʜᴀɴᴅʟᴇ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ɪꜱꜱᴜᴇꜱ ʟɪᴋᴇ ꜱᴘʏɪɴɢ ᴏɴ ᴘᴀʀᴛɴᴇʀ, ʀᴇᴄᴏᴠᴇʀʏ ᴏꜰ ʟᴏꜱᴛ ꜰᴜɴᴅꜱ, ᴅᴇʟᴇᴛɪɴɢ ᴄʀɪᴍɪɴᴀʟ ʀᴇᴄᴏʀᴅꜱ, ʀᴇᴄᴏᴠᴇʀʏ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴏᴄɪᴀʟ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛꜱ. ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇꜱᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ᴏɴʟʏ ʙᴇ ᴅᴏɴᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ʜᴀᴄᴋᴇʀ. ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ꜱᴏ ᴍᴀɴʏ ꜰᴀᴋᴇ ʜᴀᴄᴋᴇʀꜱ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱᴏ ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ꜱᴇᴀʀᴄʜɪɴɢ ꜰᴏʀ ʜᴀᴄᴋᴇʀꜱ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱʜᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ᴄᴀʀᴇꜰᴜʟ. ɪ ʀᴇᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴅ ᴊʙᴇᴇ ꜱᴘʏ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ : ᴏɴ ɪɴꜱᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ ᴄᴏɴʟᴇʏᴊʙᴇᴇꜱᴘʏ606@ɢᴍᴀɪʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇꜱᴛ. ᴍᴀɴʏ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴛᴀʟᴋ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴊʙᴇᴇ ꜱᴘʏ ᴛᴇᴀᴍ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴡᴏʀᴋꜱ ᴏɴ ʀᴇᴅᴅɪᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ ꜱᴇɴᴅ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴀʟꜱᴏ ᴏɴ ᴛᴇʟᴇɢʀᴀᴍ +44 7456 058620

[Jordan McFarlane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a good review of what happened during the hacker crackdown - sterling’s analysis of the shutdown of bulletin boards and the way that affected the cyber community’s relationship with the government was really interesting. Also gave a good background of the USSS and the way our government dealt/deals with cybercrime. I enjoyed this book but it was hard to keep track of the information because the author uses sections instead of using chapters to organize the material.

[Rikard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was released in 1994 so sometimes it may feel a little outdated. On the other hand it is a history book. It describes the crackdown on presumed computer criminals, some of them were guilty and some were not. Sterling also describes the founding of the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), a direct outcome of some of the most ridicolous lawsuites of the era.

Definitely worth reading (and available on gutenberg.org).

[Paresh Mathur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't take my 5 star rating on this seriously. I read this book first as a teenager and it changed my life. It gave me heros I looked up to for quite some time and I think I have retained the good parts of it even today. This book also introduced me to another author Cory doctorow who is basically the person who shaped me the most.

[Eric Starker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting read, both due to nostalgia of my old BBS days (and dabbling around and near the hacker community at the time) and as a historical piece. Cybercrime is serious business now but back then it was a complete mess. I definitely learned a lot from this, even if it’s not as relevant now as it was at its publishing. And it’s well-structured and full of information.