home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Night Owl 9
/
Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO
/
034a
/
aum001.zip
/
FILE1.AUM
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-03-23
|
3KB
|
59 lines
Computer Book Review
The Hacker Crackdown: Law and disorder on the electronic
frontier.
By: Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling, widely accomplished author of many books and
short stories, has outdone himself on this, his latest book.
THE HACKER CRACKDOWN is a book generally based around the
American police and FBI arrests of several individuals in 1990.
Many issues were raised in the book regarding such things as
the ethics during the raids of homes and businesses involved
in computer crimes. It asks the questions: "Are what these
'Hackers' doing illegal?" "How does one protect him/herself
from 'Hackers'?" "How does one protect him/herself when the
police crash through your door rightly or wrongly?"
Generally, it is a very intriguing and binding read. It only
took me 3 days to traverse the 300+ pages, glued to it at every
second I could spare. I was only a little disappointed in a few
minor instances. Firstly, Bruce spoke very little of the Legion
of Doom (LoD) arrests, and generally, didn't have much information
on the 'hackers' themselves. I was appalled at the way fellow
electronic publisher Craig Neidorf (Knight Lightning) of PHRACK
magazine was treated, but Bruce simply didn't go into enough detail
about what happened.
Above all, it was *NOT* a police-bashing novel, defending the
'hackers' all the way. Law enforcement was given the benefit
of the doubt in most cases, and the many vehicles of the
american governments justice system as well. The only point that
was made in the book regarding law enforcement that I disagreed
with is that "The law is one step ahead of the computer criminals
and they will remain that way." Let me explain that this was said
in an interview with an official, not by Bruce himself. I
agree that they would be one step ahead, simply because they
know what could possibly be broken into, however, it has generally
been seen that the side of "good" is lax on security, giving the
side of "bad" an advantage every time.
Further on in the magazine is a short text written by Bruce
prior to the release of his book. It deals with the Steve
Jackson Games raid and lawsuit. For further reading on this
topic, please see Computer Underground Digests #510-516.
In closing, I highly recommend reading this book, if only for the
entertainment value. It isn't a 'how to' handbook for the would
be 'hacker', it's a fair and unbiased account of the happenings
during the arrests made and the following court cases after the
1990 'hacker' crackdown. I applaud the fact that computer crime
is finally coming to an honest light, not being blown out of
proportion, and that finally, we can all UNDERSTAND it.
Reviewed By: Todd Clayton.