Customer Reviews

Secrets of a Super Hacker

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I didn't buy this book expecting to be informed. Generally, if I see a book on hacking in the mall, I mark it as lame. However, I figured it would be a good laugh, so I bought it. What I got was a return to my childhood. Back when the XT and the Apple II were high tech. Back then, these methods actually worked. Alas, if you don't live in a rural area that has yet to see indoor plumbing, this book won't be much help. In fact, all of it is pretty much common sense and *WAY* outdated. If you use the stuff in this book, expect to get caught. Old timers like me will dig this book for the memories alone. Newbies, on the other hand should steer very clear. If you're reading this, then you are probably online. Save some money and look up everything you can on computer security. You'll learn more about modern hacking online and you won't have to waste money on something soooooo outdated.

The book may have been written by a person who had collected lot of news paper articles and complied them to a book. If you want to know what the book is all about follow a link in any www site on hacking and you will have more material than you can read on this book.

This book may have been good reading in the early 90's, but now it is only good if you are interested in reading about the good-ole-days of BBS's and 9600 baud modems. A little too anecdotal and vague for anyone interested in learning about the true methods of a hacker. For real info, read phrack: http://www.phrack.com

If you are a Cracker this books reinforces everything you already know. Yet for those who aren't crackers (illegal hackers), this book is informative. It gives the common computer user a look into the world of knowledge possesed by the computer specialist. I would however like to say that this book also likes to point out in Knightmares stories that "without a true hacker most of the internet sites would not get informed about their secuity problems". He also points out that there are two types of hackers. The type that help sysops by informing them of security problems and holes (hacker), and the type that exploit and damage computers and users (crackers). The thing I liked most about the book is how Knightmare points out how people have mislabled the word HACKER.

The book is entertaining, but it was written for a completely different era. This book can no longer be seriously accepted as a guide to computer hacking. If you know what a dial-up BBS was, you may be entertained by the stories within. If you're an old-timer techie, you may be amused with how the Knightmare describes how to repair a 5 1/4 inch disk; slice it open and place the magnetic material inside of a fresh disk. Other than the nostalgia, I do like how the book emphasizes hacker ethics, and the friendly pursuit of knowledge. If anything useful is to be gleaned from it besides that, it would be the segment on the lost art of social engineering. The book does not mention Unix, or the Internet.

Simply put, this book may be entertaining, but is no longer useful.

This book , is a good book i suggest it to anyone wanting to learn a little more on Hacking and the Internet! Buy it you will not regret it! i promise! good luck on your choice~

It never ceases to amaze me how individuals with the least amount of experience can scam the general public. This book follows suit. Along with "The Happy Hacker", it is a product of an aspiring mind destined to land in criminal refines. The information in this book is far from original and can be downloaded from any dedicated underground site on the Web. If you want to become a hacker, approach the goal in the following manner:

Books from Amazon.com to study: <'The C Programming Language', 2nd edition> <'Learning the BASH shell'> <'Firewalls and Internet Security'> <'Practical Unix & Internet Security'> <'Linux: The Complete Reference'> <'Beginning Linux Programming'> <'Applied Cryptography'> <'The Cuckoo's Egg'>

These manuals alone would not account for the tremendous quantity of information that a hacker must obtain and understand. But they are classic references which are written by authors who are *known* to be authority figures on the subject at hand. This may not be an appropriate space to make suggestions such as this, but, in addition to the previous works, you may wish to examine RFC files which are distributed on the Net. You'll progress rapidly.

In short... don't waste your time, nor your money. The author's intentions were probably sincere, but I assure you that the practices described in this book would easily result in various legal afflictions thrown at you, for the techniques are heavily outdated and primarily ineffectual.

This book is sickening. I find it harsh that someone would actually waste time writing such a horrible book. I am a Unix sysadmin, and can honestly say that there is absolutely nothing in this book even remotely related to Hacking.

This book was so bad and so outdated, I sent it back for a refund. I DO NOT recommend Super Hacker to anyone curious about hacking. This book is a rip off!

To start, this text was published in 1994. I've read this book several time.

Yes, it's outdated. The author him/herself notes that any real technical info would be outdated quickly. A lot of the social engineering advice is *STILL* useful. There are still plenty of people who will do silly, silly things that experts would facepalm over.

The anecdotes are interesting, and provide some insight into an older "spirit" of hacking -- one of exploration and learning.

One of the things that have stuck with me that came from this book was a statement of the reason that makes hacking/cracking/etc possible: "Anything a human mind can achieve, so can another."