Rating: 
Summary: Finger lickin' good!
Review: After reading so many badly researched, badly written, self-effacing and / or bloated books on the subject of hacking and computer security, at long last here is a book that is well researched and written. It's a real page turner, and IMHO it is absolutely THE book to read on this subject.Ironically co-author John Markoff has also co-written the absolutely WORST book on the subject, Takedown, with Tetsuo Simomura.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so great
Review: After reading the other reviews on this book, I felt that it may be a good read. I was mistaken. This book was sketcky, boring, and poorly written. It should only be used for casual bathroom reading. "Easy to put down"
Rating:
Summary: On the Outside Looking In.
Review: Although Markoff is an exceptional writer and the book is both easy to read and entertaining, the content is presented as factual when the truth is that these guys definitely wrote the book with only part of the whole story at their disposal. One of the main "cyberpunks" depicted in the book is Kevin Mitnick, who claims that he has never even met John Markoff. How can the book fairly and accurately speak to the topic of hacking during the early days of the Internet revolution when they never did any investigations with real "hackers"? The story is told only from a law enforcement point-of-view. I am sure that the Rodney King story is told differently by King than the LAPD. Same goes for this case. Like many works today that seem to be written for financial reasons, it seems very one-sided and sensational.
Rating:
Summary: Readable, well written, insightful
Review: Cyberpunk looks at three famous cases of computer hacking, explains them so that the layman can understand the situations, and writes them in such a way that they are entertaining to read. Best book on computing I have read.
Rating:
Summary: Quite Entertaining
Review: Definately worth the read. I think the section devoted to the German hackers was a bit drawn out in parts, but the story was still pretty good
Rating: 
Summary: Inaccurate, unengaging, and wildly libelous
Review: First off, John Markoff does NOT tell an unbiased story, especially regarding the Mitnick case. Kevin Mitnick, preferring to keep a low profile, has not promoted his own story, and as a result he has had his name slandered by mediawhores like Markoff. Markoff traveled extensively with Tsutomu Shimomura, the security expert who eventually (and with much government aid) apprehended Mitnick. It is quite clear whose side he is on as he repeatedly demonizes Mitnick as a fat, malicious, juvenile person with no self-control and no respect for anyone else. This typecasting is quite understandable though, once you know that Markoff has a share in the Miramax movie Takedown that details Mitnick's capture. Nobody wants to see such unfair treatment happen to a real, sympathetic person. (Takedown, incidentally, is more slanderous than Cyberpunk and from which the real Kevin Mitnick, whom it is based on, is not getting a dime). But apart from my distaste for Markoff, this book still failed to be a interesting read. I enjoy reading about the early history of hacking, etc, so I bought it with high hopes. The only reason I didn't put it down was because it was my only reading material on a six hour bus trip. The Internet revolution was fascinating and the people involved in it were interesting, dynamic people. But to hear Markoff tell it, everyone was petty, whining, insecure, and one-dimensional, with no other motivation than to cause trouble for others. He hasn't got a gift for writing novels with well-rounded and interesting characters that the reader can actually sympathize with and care about.
Rating:
Summary: True entertainment
Review: I bought this book because I was interested in human aspects of these stories (RTM especially), more than the technical side. I found it very satisfying, and more. I could have not imagined it is so detailed and even ... entertaining. Reading this book I've felt again that nice atmosphere I first met while reading the superlative Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg". Indeed, those of you who have luckily read it too, will find Stoll himself here in an important role in the chapter about RTM...
Rating:
Summary: One of the most informative books I own
Review: I bought this book when it first hit the market in the early '90s, and it was one of the best books on the subject I had and still have ever read. I have not read the updated version, but am looking forward to seeing what they have changed. I read Cuckoo's Egg, and this is a great companion.
Rating: 
Summary: Three short stories dealing with hackers and cyber thieves.
Review: I found this book interesting, whether you are interested and/or work with computers, or not. The three stories deal with Kevin Mitnick, the now infamous hacker who has had several brushes with the law; a German hacker breaking into U.S. Govt. computers; and the story of a Cornell computer science student who inadvertantly caused numerous systems across the internet to bog down due to a program he had written to expose a security flaw in the UNIX operating system. All three stories are entertaining regardless of the reader's technical knowledge. It also is an eye-opener to the vulnerabilites which exist in the nation's computing environment. Very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining
Review: I found this book very entertaining, couldn't put it down until it was done. Since I started fooling with computers back in the days of the Commodore 64 and before the mainstream Internet this was also kinda nostalgic for me. If you like books like Masters of Deception (ISBN 0060926945), you'll dig this book too.
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