CYBERPUNK: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, Revised (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It was partnership, if not exactly friendship, that kept the group together..." (more)
Key Phrases: West German, Kevin Mitnick, Bell Labs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A classic look into cracker subculture, Cyberpunk tells the stories of notorious hackers Kevin Mitnick, Robert T. Morris, and the Chaos Computer Club. Like Where Wizards Stay Up Late, the book Hafner co-wrote on the origins of the Internet, Cyberpunk is informative, well-written, and entertaining. The story of Morris, who became infamous for unleashing a crippling worm that brought the Internet to a grinding standstill, is still as relevant and ominous today as it was at the time. The space devoted to Mitnick is a must-read companion to either Takedown or The Fugitive Game. Many of the stories surrounding the Dark Side Hacker, such as the story of his Norad break-in, are called into question in Cyberpunk, making this book a good launching pad for many different accounts of the Mitnick legend. The portrait of the two members of the Chaos Computer Club is a memorable look into the minds of the younger generation of computer hackers. Before you check out any book of this genre, read Cyberpunk.

From Publishers Weekly

The spirit of cyberpunk only flickers in these three more-or-less able pieces of journalism about headline hacker cases that shook the computer industry. The authors' straightforward style serves the topic well, and portraits of the hackers' personalities are tantalizingly good. But the programming jargon invoked suggests little of the "outlaw" mentality that converts programming talent into hacking. The only case that really earns the title is "Pengo and the Project Equalizer," the story of a West Berlin punk turned hacker, which contains enough exotic characters to cast a miniseries. Hafner is a computer reporter for the New York Times ; Markoff is a former Business Week reporter.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Updated edition (November 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684818620
• ISBN-13: 978-0684818627
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #736,529 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars On the Outside Looking In., January 13, 2003

By A Customer

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining, But Only Half The Story, November 27, 1998

By	Robert Carlberg (Seattle) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I read this book last summer and enjoyed it immensely. It's very well-written.

However, having just finished Jonathan Littman's "The Fugitive Game" I have to recommend reading both books to get the full story. Markoff's conflicts-of-interest and questionable journalistic practices aren't apparent from reading just "Cyberpunk." What appears to be a non-fiction account is, in reality, more complicated than that.... You really owe it to yourself to read both sides of the story.

So read this book and enjoy it for what it is -- and then read Littman for another perspective.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sterile collection of facts, February 18, 2001

By	Adam Luoranen (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

To me, what makes this book different from most other "hacker documentary" books is the detached style in which it's written. The authors are both journalists, and it shows: The book lacks the warmth of a normal story told from a normal storywriter. Instead, it's a cold, sterile collection of facts, like a 300-page newspaper article.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. It just means the writing is kind of dry. But that doesn't make it boring. Indeed, most of the book is quite fascinating. In fact, after a while I began to appreciate the objective air that this style lent to the book: Most authors of this kind of book either try to be sympathetic to the crackers, representing them as harmless kids who only try to explore, or an evil menace which must be destroyed for our own safety. Markoff and Hafner, however, write with the unbiased, unopinionated journalism that befits people of their background.

Of course, when writing a book, you don't need to express opinions to make the text biased; You just need to present only one side of the facts. However, I do not feel that this is the case with this book. The book does not try to represent one side as good and the other bad. It just tells you something about both. There's both good and bad there.

So what's with all the people who say that the book is "biased"? I'm really not sure. I notice, however, that all of the people who say that are pointing specifically to Kevin Mitnick's case, and recommending Littman's "The Fugitive Game" (which is more sympathetic to Mitnick and his case) as a "better" book. The only reason I can figure for this is that the FREE KEVIN people are upset because the book does not agree with their ideals that Kevin is innocent and should be praised for being a "hacker". Sounds to me like those reviewers, and not the authors, are the ones with the personal bias.

SCREW KEVIN. He overstepped the line and went too far when he should have known better. Yes, his case has been mismanaged, but... But, I digress. Anyway. This book is not the be-all, end-all for learning about the hack/phreak culture (it's only three case studies, after all), but it's a good place to start if you've never familiarized yourself with that culture before. And even if you have, you'll probably find some tidbits here you didn't know. Score one for investigative journalism.