Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good book that reads fast
Review: A good story though not very technical. This book does not go into any indepth details on how InfoMaster got into systems. All in all, it's a good book. Much, much (a thousand times) better than "TAKEDOWN" written by Tsutomu Shimomura & John Markoff.
Rating: 
Summary: A waste of time.
Review: A poorly witten(example - page 112 - "Things would have been going wonderfully for Phantomd if they hadn't been going so badly." ) account of the inability of the FBI to take action against a mentally handicapped 20 year old who broke into computer systems simply for the challenge. Full of mis-information(Since when does DOS stand for Digital Operating System?)and UNIX bashing, this book is an extremely difficult read for anyone with any computer or networking knowledge. Written by two money hungry would be writers trying to jump on the Cliff Stoll and Tsutomu hacker bandwagon, this book may appeal to 14 year olds tired of reading about Kevin Mitnick
Rating:
Summary: ugh....not worth the time
Review: After reading Cliff Stolls book, The Cuckoo's egg, i was up for another great book about hacking. This wasnt it. It was somewhat melodramatic at times, throwing in adjectives to make things sound interesting, but being written from an outsiders perspective it couldnt convey the feeling required to get you into the book. I also disliked the constant jumping between characters plots, sometimes every other page. The capper was when it said "anyone who has worked with DOS has a rough idea of what Unix is like". NOT! This is good for the armchair non-computer person.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: At Large is essentially the tale of a cracker who was bright enough to electronically steal the source code of Solaris - described in the book as "over 100 Mb of corporate lifeblood" - but then, after the theft, wasn't smart enough to realise that his own hard drive wasn't large enough to store the pilfered material. This book is subtitled 'The Strange Case of the World's Biggest Internet Inavsion', but there are more appropriate adjectives than strange. Crazy, astonishing, mind-boggling and unbelieveable would be more apt. This is a compelling account of cracked computers and confounded cops - with the cracker and confounder being not an evil consortium of hacking dudez, but ONE mentally retarded loner cooped up in his bedroom. Basically, one Matthew Singer of Portland, Oregon roamed the Internet almost at will during 1991 and 1992, taking over whole networks and inspecting their contents. No-one was immune from his wandering - he invaded commercial, government and educational networks. Through dogged persistence and nifty cracking techniques Singer (who went by the handles of Phantomd and Infomaster) did whatever he wanted, from reading other people's email to penetrating supercomputers. The most amazing thing is that Phantomd did almost no damage. His opportunities to cause havoc were vast. He seemed more interested in cracking for the sake of it, instead of trashing files. This was just as well - one of the networks he conquered, for example, controlled a huge dam in California. The message of At Large is clear: if Internet security is so bad, what's to stop real damage being done by a malicious cracker? There are numerous sobering quotes throughout the book, like 'Internet security isn't lousy. There just isn't any,' and 'The typical computer network...is more like a gauze tent encircled by a band of drunk teenagers with lit matches.' Systems administrators had a hard time keeping up with Phantomd. They also had great difficulty in convincing the FBI that real crime was being commi! tted - especially when there was no blood or outraged victim at the scenes of the crimes. No special computing knowledge is required to enjoy this book. Like all good science books, it imparts the necessary information needed to understand the sometimes-bizarre world of hackers and crackers. The explanation of TCP/IP is the best I've seen, and they are mostly dependable on other technical points - except when they say DOS stands for Digital Operating System - it's actually Display Only System. One of the best features of At Large is their descriptions of how some of the key characters in the book became so enraptured with computers and coding. Whether it was being entranced from learning Basic in a weekend, or wrestling with the Zen-like possibilities of Unix, they relate many instances of how otherwise-normal people are seduced by the digital. The authors show real narrative skill in pacing their account of the invasion, as the book switches from one location to another.
Rating:
Summary: Technically lame Unix bashing.
Review: Being a Unix SysAdmin, I was extremely disappointed with the haphazard handling of the technical details presented in this book. First, since when does the "change" time of a file reflect its last access? And since when did the /etc/fstab file have any security similarities to the .rhosts file? This book is riddled with technical mistakes, incorrect information and misinformed opinions. Don't waste your money unless you're an computer neophyte looking to be scared to death about the vulnerability of the Internet due to the pumice-like number of holes in Unix security.
Rating:
Summary: Persistent hacking gets through most security defences
Review: Following the tradition set by Clifford Stoll in the Cuckoo's Egg, Mann and Freedman describe 'The strange case of the world's biggest Internet invasion'. I have often said that internal systems could be cracked open by anybody who tried. I wasn't expecting a book documenting how thousands of computers on the Internet had fallen one by one to a rank amateur with nothing going for him other than persistence. A fascinating story. It should be read by everyone who uses computers. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The guy didn't get locked up and could well be visiting a computer near you!
Rating: 
Summary: Love it. The end just blows you away
Review: Following the tradition set by Clifford Stoll in the Cuckoo's Egg, Mann and Freedman describe `The strange case of the world's biggest Internet invasion'. I have often said that internal systems could be cracked open by anybody who tried. I wasn't expecting a book documenting how thousands of computers on the Internet had fallen one by one to a rank amateur with nothing going for him other than persistence. A fascinating story. It should be read by everyone who uses computers. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The guy didn't get locked up and could well be visiting a computer near you!
Rating:
Summary: Easy and fun read.
Review: I am always up for true computer crime stories so I purchased it even though other customers dumped all over it. The book was very accurate (minus two inaccuracies in terminology) and easy to read. It did lack suspense but then again I read it for the historical perspective and not so much as a "who done it". Overall it was a fun read. Not as good as the The Cuckoo's egg but still worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Easy and fun read.
Review: I am always up for true computer crime stories so I purchased it even though other customers dumped all over it. The book was very accurate (minus two inaccuracies in terminology) and easy to read. It did lack suspense but then again I read it for the historical perspective and not so much as a "who done it". Overall it was a fun read. Not as good as the The Cuckoo's egg but still worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A 296 page X-Files plot.
Review: I bought this book when I needed a reading fix. I thought, "Hey, computers. This might be good." What I found was an interesting story about a handicapped kid, who, through single minded determination, hacked his way throughout the early net. When he succeeded he didn't know what to do. He was very good. Everyone got scared. They gang up on him, etc... Actually, in style, I felt this was more of an embellished chronoligical report. The authors tossed in some UNIX, some DOS, some typical computer nerds, a few inattentive/ inexperienced government employees, a good bit of sermonizing and stirred heartily. With a little tweaking this would make a good X-Files episode. Especially the scene where the our intrepid heroes rush in to capture the criminal and his Quasimodo like appearance makes Scully feel sorry for the poor guy. If only someone could tell me why there's an index at the end.
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