Rating: 
Summary: Excellent history lesson...
Review: The tales in this book are old ones now. Mitnick's escapades continued on to more infamous heights than this book, as the new epilogue explains. Having grown up working with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) computers, the descriptions of Mitnick's hacking on PDP-11 and VAX systems was like a dark-side of my high school days. Having worked at Radio Shack just after graduating college, I knew a lot of "phreakers" who worshipped the people mentioned in the book.I teach classes for computer professionals in UNIX. One of the courses is a 2-day class in unix security, and the "Morris worm" is one of the case studies we discuss. We don't go into too much detail in the class on the subject, and I usually recommend this book for those who want to go further. The other reason I recommend this book to students in my class is the story (in Kevin's section) of Susan Thunder. The concept of "social engineering" is one that transcends computer model, operating system version, etc. Many computer types just don't understand it, in the same way they don't understand office politics. If you fall into this category, or if you have an interest in the social side of hacking/cracking/phreaking, Hafner and Markoff do an excellent job of presenting these concepts.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent...
Review: This book is an excellent start for anyone wanting to get a
sneak preview into the life and motivations of a "Hacker"
The book is well written and provides a history for 2 other books following the same characters.
"The cuckoos egg - Clifford Stoll"
"Takedown - Tsutomu Shimomura"
John Markoff and Katie Hafner have pieced together a web of
intrigue that held me spellbound....
Rating: 
Summary: a waste of trees ..
Review: this book is john markoff's attempt to play both ends against the middle and unfortunately he succeeds. if you're trying to vilify the "evil's" of hackers and hacking this is a fantastic book to read. if you're looking for a book that remains unbiased, read Jon littman's THE FUGITIVE GAME or THE WATCHMAN. littman handles this topic with the skill of a surgeon. he takes the cyber-world of 0's and 1's and gives it weight, color and sound.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading and discriminatory
Review: This book is misleading about the events that lead to the arrest of Kevin Mitnick. If you would like to know the truth read "The Fugitive Game"
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe it was better years ago
Review: This book now seems very dated. Much of the great worldwide hacker scare is now past, I hope. The lives of three hackers are explored in the book, but all feel distant and uncertain. I didn't like the style of the writing and I didn't learn very much about the people or about computers. As a window on recent history, I can recommend the book, but not for fun or education.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe it was better years ago
Review: This book now seems very dated. Much of the great worldwide hacker scare is now past, I hope. The lives of three hackers are explored in the book, but all feel distant and uncertain. I didn't like the style of the writing and I didn't learn very much about the people or about computers. As a window on recent history, I can recommend the book, but not for fun or education.
Rating:
Summary: Better than I thought!!
Review: This book was actually more entertaining than i thought. I read it during finals week. It was very interesting, took only two daysof my leisure time. I enjoyed the way that it captivated me. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good book with some real life tones. d:)~
Rating:
Summary: It's alright, I guess
Review: This book would be well written and entertaining, if it were fiction. However, in its current state it is grossly biased reffering to Kevin as: "The Dark Side Hacker" and although it shows the motivations of his often backstabbing cohorts it does not peer into what he was thinking. It's an easy read with little technical information, and worth the money...I guess
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, Awesome, AWESOME
Review: This is absolutely the best hacker book up to date, regardless of how old its stories go. It goes in depth of describing the ill deception of the corpulant hacker, Kevin Mitnick, the curious and yet dangerous exploration of Pengo, and the tragedy of a Cornell genius, Robert Tappan Morris. This book is thrilling to the core, it doesn't mix in too much irrelevant information--everything is germane to the subject--, and it shows the shrewd tactics of social engineering, trashing, and pure hacking. The book is divided into three large sections: one on Kevin, one on Pengo, and the other on Robert Morris. Even if you are not interested in computer hacking, you should still read it! It just illustrates to you the dangers that lurk in the cryptic electronic world...FANTASTIC!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: "THE" Original Hacker Book
Review: This is the book that brought out the hacker
culture into the mainstream, like it or not.
Great Stories about '80s Hackers.
But reading it in 1997 makes it more of a hacker history lesson than anything.
I wonder what happened to Pengo, and the rest of the German hackers???
| 
