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Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier

Katie Hafner (Goodreads Author),

John Markoff

3.84 · Rating details · 753 ratings · 29 reviews

Using the exploits of three international hackers, Cyberpunk provides a fascinating tour of a bizarre subculture populated by outlaws who penetrate even the most sensitive computer networks and wreak havoc on the information they find -- everything from bank accounts to military secrets. In a book filled with as much adventure as any Ludlum novel, the authors show what mot ...more

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Paperback, Revised Edition, 400 pages

Published November 1st 1995 by Simon Schuster (first published 1991)

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· 753 ratings · 29 reviews

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Aug 27, 2014 Thomas Strömquist rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-collection

I find myself drifting back to this book now and again; it tells the fascinating story on how the computer hacker was born. And it is a strange tale; the 'pioneers' in this field (at least the ones pictured in this book) were obviously not interested in school or learning very much - except when it came to computers! This does not sound so odd today, when computers are all about games, movies, music, interaction and much much more.

But imagine the dedication that needs to be put into sneaking in ...more

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Apr 15, 2010 Artnoose McMoose rated it really liked it

Having heard the basics about these stories, I decided to read up on it, officially. I mean, as official as testimony gets, and I'll get to that in a minute.

This book is a look into a particular era of hacking, an era early enough in the game that: 1. you could hack a computer through the phone line, 2. once getting the right user name you could conceivably have access to an entire computer system, 3. everyone but the most savvy still used passwords like "guest" or "system", 4. operating systems ...more

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Apr 24, 2010 Wil Wheaton rated it really liked it

Shelves: hackers

Many of the subjects profiled in this book, most-notably Kevin Mitnick, contest the conclusions drawn by the authors.

That said, it's a fascinating read about some of the earliest and most (in)famous hackers. It's a great companion to The Hacker Crackdown and The Cuckoo's Egg.

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Jun 15, 2011 Christopher M. rated it really liked it

I liked Katie's book for both its style and storytelling, as well as the subjects that she put under her microscope.

Kevin Mitnick made up the first portion and, while I enjoyed the biography and tale of "the Dark-Side Hacker", it was not my favorite of the trio. If I recall correctly, even Kevin Mitnick himself found flaws in the story although, to my knowledge, it was not determined if it was valid or simply sensationalism.

Pengo and Project Equilizer made up the second part of the trilogy and w ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, digital-world, cybersecurity

Cyberpunk takes readers back to the early days of hacking, when it was so old-school that computers weren’t involved. Using three case in the United States and western Germany, Katie Hafner’s history introduced readers in 1991 to the general idea of hacking, and her history sheds some light on what hackers were, what they did, and what they might want. It’s a fun look at early internet history, with the net as we know it developing slowly throughout the course: ARPAnet, the internet’s predecesso Cyberpunk takes readers back to the early days of hacking, when it was so old-school that computers weren’t involved. Using three case in the United States and western Germany, Katie Hafner’s history introduced readers in 1991 to the general idea of hacking, and her history sheds some light on what hackers were, what they did, and what they might want. It’s a fun look at early internet history, with the net as we know it developing slowly throughout the course: ARPAnet, the internet’s predecessor, only appears halfway in.

The story begins with telephone lines, which -- in the mid-20th century -- bored teenagers began to examine with great interest. Kevin Mitnick and Susan “Thunder” met over their mutual interest in learning to detect the patterns used by telephone switching systems and reproducing the sounds to manipulate their way through the boards, arranging free phone calls for themselves. (This was a bit of a cultural education for me -- evidently there were conference call lines advertised where people called in and just chatted with whoever was also on the circuit, a telephone chatroom!) When the systems became controlled via computers, Kevin, Susan, and a few more of their friends began tinkering with them. (For readers born in the eighties, whose first computers came with web browsers, it takes a bit of chewing to realize that Mitnick and Thunder were literally dialing other computers; telephone and computer network access systems were much more closely related) Their explorations would eventually led to purloined and privileged accounts on sensitive systems across the United States; Susan had a particular interest in looking at military hardware. The group weren’t plundering records for profit.

Although this group acquired an enormous amount of access via its steady experimentation, little was involved in the way of programming. They weren’t creating bugs to invade systems; at most they rooted through the dumpsters of phone and computer-access companies looking for manuals, notes, and other juicy bits of detritus. The manuals not only allowed them to understand the systems they were ‘phreaking’, but often included passwords from people who hadn’t yet developed any sense of security. They also engaged in what Hafner calls ‘social engineering’ -- lying, essentially, and obtaining information by talking to telecommunications and networking personnel under different guises -- almost exactly like phishing, but they did it in person. Eventually an interpersonal feud led to one of the crew being turned in, and the tip was used to great effect by a security specialist who had been doggedly tracking their excursions.

From here, Hafner moves to a group in Germany whose hacking begins to resemble what we in the 21st understand it to be. Initially, they too were interested only in the thrill of entering computer systems. Unlike the American group, “Chaos” did experiment with programs to do their work for them -- and unlike the Americans, some of the Germans became interested in converting their skills into currency. Specifically, they approached East German border guards (who connected them to KGB personnel), offering to sell them information obtained through the networks. The Soviets’ real interest was in the actual software -- compilers, especially -- but they were willing to engage in occasional business. (Chaos also claimed to be working on behalf of world peace, since if a balance of power was maintained, war was less likely.)

The third act in Hafner’s book concerns the “Morris worm”, the invention of a son of the NSA who invented a self-spreading program to explore the size of the internet. An error in judgement allowed the program to collect several instances of itself on one machine, consuming their memory, and causing system after system to grind to a halt. The worm infected ten percent of all machines then connected to the internet. Needless to say, this unexpected attack caused a panic, and in the resulting trial some members of the cyber-communications industry were out for blood despite it being fairly obvious that the culprit hadn’t intended any harm and had in fact sent off anonymous warnings within a couple of hours of noticing that his creation had gone berserk. Although a zealous prosecutor -- and an equally zealous witness, the man who had led the hunt for the Mitnick intrusion -- did their best to incarcerate Morris, in the end the judge erred on the side of mercy and concluded with a sentence of community service, probation, and a large fine.

Cyberpunk was quite the education for me. My interest in the early days of the internet, and in particular the quasi-libertarian ethos of some of the personalities attracted to it, first interested me in the volume. Most of the people cataloged here are quirky individuals, all uncomfortable in school but obsessive about learning the ins and outs of different systems. They were driven to explore a new world, to prove themselves masters of it -- but they were also inspired by the literature they were reading. From time to time books like Shockwave Rider, Neuromancer, and the Illumantus Trilogy show up. (Interestingly, the latter was used as a staple of one of the hacker characters in David Ignatius' The Director..) Although Hafner was recounting these cases to an early 1990s audience just starting to explore the consumer-oriented internet, the cases as arranged offer a look at the internet and its cultured as they evolved. I enjoyed it enormously.

As a side note: the case of Kevin Mitnick continues provoking controversy, with numerous books authored by him and others arguing with one another over the "truth". According to this book's epilogue, Hafner's own account is "80%" true. ...more

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Jul 30, 2017 Isaac rated it liked it

Review in Catalan. I read it for a university course on Ethical Aspects of Computer Science in 2009.

---
3. Comentari del llibre
3.1 To i estil
Els autors del llibre van haver de prendre una decisió important a l'hora de redactar el llibre. El fet
d'adoptar un caire novel·lesc va permetre ajudar a la narrativa i així fer el llibre més atractiu al gran
públic, cosa que pel que sembla els ha sortit prou bé pel que fa a les ventes del llibre (havent-se fet
diverses edicions del mateix). El fet d'explicar ...more

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May 07, 2017 Paul rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, audiobooks, technology

This is a decent book considering the subject matter and time written, but it's really quite dated. Kevin Mitnick's story was far from over when this book was written, and many of the characters in the Morris story (including Morris himself) went on to make big waves in the tech scene. Mitnick's own version of his story (much more complete) is probably better told in Ghost in the Wires , which is a more complete and detailed, but obviously more partisan version. My problem with books like the ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrttttt rated it liked it

It was OK, but it was very much written from an outsiders perspective. The book comprises 3 chapters/extended stories. One covers the Cliff Stoll/Markus Hess story, which was told much better in the Cuckoo's Egg by Stoll himself. Another talks about Mitnick escapades, and the man himself has written better (Ghost in the Wires). The third chapter recalls the Bob Morris/Morris Worm story. To my knowledge there isn't a book on this, but again its written very much from an outsiders perspective.

The ...more

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Aug 11, 2017 Harijan rated it it was ok

Shelves: history, tech-hacking

If you never read a book on the history of early net hacking (1990 to 2005) this is as good as any. You don't need to read more than one.

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Jun 13, 2016 Brad Mills rated it really liked it

I thought this book was a modern take on computer hacking… I was expecting to hear stories like the Myspace “sammy is my hero” bug, or Wikileaks, the story of Kim Dot Com, or more modern counter culture computer hacking rebels.

I figured the neon art deco cover and tacky music in the audiobook were just stylistic choices.

However, I quickly found out that this was a story of hackers from the 1980s. It’s actually a pretty interesting snapshot of a bygone era of hacking, computers and society in gen I thought this book was a modern take on computer hacking… I was expecting to hear stories like the Myspace “sammy is my hero” bug, or Wikileaks, the story of Kim Dot Com, or more modern counter culture computer hacking rebels.

I figured the neon art deco cover and tacky music in the audiobook were just stylistic choices.

However, I quickly found out that this was a story of hackers from the 1980s. It’s actually a pretty interesting snapshot of a bygone era of hacking, computers and society in general. It’s worth a listen in 2016+ if only to see how the system worked back in the 80s and 90s.

I would not recommend this for a general audience, you have to be interested in early technology. The book drags on in places, and it’s very journalistic in that it covers an absurd amount of information. I feel like it could have been shaved down by half (200 pages) and I would have gotten the same information out of it.

I would never have gotten through this if I was reading it … listening, I was able to put the speed on 1.25X and hack away at it on drives and walks for about a month.

The first part is focused on a group of US phone hackers called “phreaks” who seemed to have more power than hackers today have. They could use the phone system to not just make free long distance calls or free calls from phone boots, but change credit reports, wire money, make fake identities, issue police warrants, etc. This first section had lots of intrigue and betrayal. This section focused on “Kevin Mitnick”

The second section was all about some young European computer hackers who started stealing software from university and government computers and selling it to the KGB. It went into detail about the friendship and betrayal between the 3-4 main kids in that hacker group, following one of them specifically “Pengo” through to his trial.

The third part was all about the brilliant son of a prestigious NSA computer engineer who wrote the first virus in the late 1980s that crippled the internet. An entertaining tale of his upbringing, his time in university and the events that unfolded as he inadvertently took down the internet, including his trial.

At the end there’s an updated epilogue that takes place 5 years after the book was written (1995) and updates us on the 3 subjects of the book. I’d love to hear where they all are now, 20 years later.

Overall it’s an interesting cultural and historical look at the snapshot of where we were in the 1980s and 1990s, for that I’d say it’s worth a listen … but it’s definitely too long for my liking. ...more

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Feb 18, 2017 Justin rated it it was amazing

Great book. A real slice of history at the dawn of the Internet age. I highly - and I mean highly - recommend this to anyone interested in hacking. However, cyber-historians will take great delight in these tales form the early years. The book is essentially three stories: Kevin Mitnick, The Chaos Computer Club in Germany, and the Morris Worm. Don't worry, you don't need a Computer Science degree to enjoy it, either. (Full disclosure, I listened - and therefore reviewed - the audio version found ...more

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Aug 20, 2016 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016

Wow. Wow! How far have we come in 15 short years? Can I tell you how much I loved this book? I wish it were 10 times as long as it were, with 10 times as many hacker profiles. I kept on reading snippets to Cliff (husband, and a developer, and a computer engineering major in college, who obviously had his own phone line back in 1992 when he was in middle school so he could have his own BBS in Funster Munster etc. etc. etc.)

Sentences like, I paraphrase, "the 56K modem was so fast it could download ...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone

This is an old, but very detailed account of three different groups/individuals that were talented and (eventually) visible computer hackers. I picked it up at a library book sale. Lucky me!

If you are only interested in current technology, Denial-of-Service attacks, zero-day exploits, etc., then you may not enjoy this book. On the other hand, if you are old enough to have experienced the technology of the day, or have an abiding interest in technology, history and the evolution of the same, then ...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Joe White rated it it was amazing

Shelves: on-shelf, systems

Published in 1991 with epilogue in 1995, this is a classic look into the early hacking world in my opinion. It also presents the other side of "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll, which I first read about 15 years ago, and keep as a piece of early networking memorabilia.

The writing style reads like very good prose with emphasis on detail to the point that it sometimes becomes difficult to keep names, dates, and actions straight in each segment. If you're not interested in the early period of ne ...more

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Jun 09, 2016 Alexander rated it liked it

This book collects three journalist-driven stories about some of the early hackers: Kevin Mitnick, Pengo, and Robert T. Morris. The writing reads a little dated and a little narratively forced in some areas, but each of these stories is really compelling to read and covers a wide swath of hacker activity, from one of the great social engineers (Kevin Mitnick) to the creator of the first major worm/virus (rtp). A must-read if you want to better understand the hacker mindset and where it comes fro ...more

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May 29, 2010 Lynne-marie rated it liked it

Insight into three computer criminals and their psychological backgrounds: Kevin Mintick, Pengo and a third. The details were terrific and I got a lot of precise chronology of these earlier crimes sorted out from the mix-ups in the perspective fothcoming Take-Down & The Cuckoo's Nest. Also I had a chance to see a different view of CLifford Stoll from his stance in Silicon Snake-Oil. ...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Troy Stephen Sanders rated it it was amazing

This book was awesome and, along with 2600, was my introduction to Kevin Mitnick (I read this a long while back) and other like minded individuals. At the time it was the best read ever for me and for anyone else that owned a computer and a modem. I am more than sure anyone reading this now will feel the same, even if only for the purpose of nostalgia.

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Apr 10, 2008 Tresuiri rated it really liked it

Recommended to Tresuiri by: Claire

Educational in accounting for historical aspects of 80s and early 90s hacking and phreaking. Insight into how hackers come to be, thier view of themselves, and of the world around them. An interesting non-flattering view of Mr. Mitnick's exploits.

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Jun 24, 2008 Simon Magnus rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Anybody interested in espionage (what hooked me) or to computer technology from 1970-90

Recommended to Simon by: A shelf find

An interesting book. I thought it was pretty amazing, and likely would have given it a four, if I hadn't done my own research afterwards and found out that half of the stuff about Mitnick was lies. Great fiction, though dissapointing journalism ethics.

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Feb 18, 2008 Robert Linnemann rated it really liked it

This is non-fiction about hackers in the US. It is a good read. It shows that the author has no idea about computers, but it is sourced and annotated very well bearing that in mind. I recommend it to any programmer geek who wants to read about hackers.

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Apr 13, 2013 Barry rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

Interesting insight to the world of computer hacking, not too technical so can be accessed by anyone.

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Aug 11, 2012 Rob rated it liked it

Shelves: computers, read-before-goodreads, nonfiction, own, author-male, author-female

I read this back in high school. It has 3 stories about the early days of hacking.

It felt pretty biased, especially the stuff about Mitnick, but still a good read.

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Aug 28, 2009 Sara Marcus rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: technology

I loved this book, it made me think. It was like Cuckoo's Egg times 3. Very intriguing to see it from the other side.

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Oct 15, 2013 David rated it really liked it

Shelves: computers-security, biographical-memoir

Stories from the early days...

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Jul 25, 2010 Ryan Marthaller rated it really liked it

Very interesting stories. Not bogged down by too much detail

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May 20, 2007 Christine rated it liked it

Recommends it for: bluebox users

Shelves: cyberpunk, non-fiction

A look into some classic hacking schemes done by the most notorious hackers (i.e. Kevin Mitnick). Maybe a little outdated now but still interesting.

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Jan 20, 2017 Bob added it

I read this when it came out. It was rad! It really initiated my interest in the internet and got me into Library school.

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May 23, 2012 Nik rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cyberpunk

I read this book back in high school. What a buzz it used to have then.

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Samer Miqdadi rated it really liked it
Jan 02, 2014

mike rated it it was amazing
Jun 26, 2020

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About Katie Hafner

Katie Hafner

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Katie Hafner was on staff at The New York Times for ten years, where she remains a frequent contributor, writing on healthcare and technology. She has also worked at Newsweek and BusinessWeek, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire,Wired, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, and O The Oprah Magazine. She is the author of five previous works of nonfiction covering a diverse rang ...more