At Large: The Strange Case of the World's Biggest Internet Invasion

by David H. Freedman, Charles C. Mann

Hailed as "a chilling portrait" by The Boston Globe and "a crafty thriller" by Newsweek, this astonishing story of an obsessive hacker promises to change the way you look at the Internet forever.
At Large chronicles the massive manhunt that united hard-nosed FBI agents, computer nerds, and uptight security bureaucrats against an elusive computer outlaw who broke into highly secured computer systems at banks, universities, federal agencies, and top-secret military weapons-research sites. Here is "a real-life tale of cops vs. hackers, by two technology writers with a flair for turning a complicated crime and investigation into a fast-moving edge-of-your-seat story" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred). At Large blows the lid off the frightening vulnerability of the global online network, which leaves not only systems, but also individuals, exposed.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, History, Computers

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Michael Mitsuda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

Way too many people involved being ignorant of the technology they were using and blaming others for their mistakes.

Sad that these kinds of "invasions" are still happening and on a much higher scale.

[U · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were multiple parts of the book in which I found myself confused, not necessarily because I am not someone who understands computers particularly well, but because the actual plot changes point of view so often, sometimes multiple times in one chapter. Although the author did make sure to give readers the definition of technical terms, and did a fair job explaining how the computer systems work, I personally still had to look up multiple words to better understand what was going on with the hacking. The parts which detail the FBI’s relation to computer crime in the early days of hacking was interested to find out about. Kanaka and his team seem to be quite interesting characters, but the most intriguing individual mentioned in the book was definitely Matt, who was the hacker. Finding out about Matt, his personality and way of life, relationship to the outside world, and getting into his head was interesting.

[Eric Starker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun nostalgic read that was much more interesting to me because I knew several of the players personally (one of whom, Patrick, recommended this book to me) from growing up in Portland and hanging out on online bulletin board systems. It’s also interesting to look back at the onset of cybersecurity and how little people cared about it - which is clearly taken very seriously now. The only flaw I found was the book felt very meandering and could have been structured better.

[L. Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this. It's amazing. It would make a perfect retro 90's movie. Maybe with Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Paul Dano in a key role.

[Tanya Hakala · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting telling of this story. The descriptions of individuals were odd to me and the editing could have been tighter, but still a good read 25 years later!

[Gerald Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea Unix was so vulnerable to hacking in the 90's.

[Christopher Brehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting narrative story exploring the story of this hacking incident. I found it to be a page turner.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one I read in high school. I recall enjoying it.

[Stephen Corgiat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.