| Bibliographic Data | Book Review | Book Critique |
Suelette Dreyfus is an Australian author and journalist, currently working on her PhD. This book is a non-fiction work about the computer underground, as told from the perspective of young Australian hackers as well as some international hackers they associated with. It is the result of years of research by the author to verify the truth of the tales and piece together what was happening on both sides of the story. The book is written in somewhat general terms for the average computer user, and the author takes the time to explain complicated hacking procedures in enough detail to be understood. The book is easy to read and flows well.
The book begins with a chapter about the WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers) worm crisis at NASA in 1989, as told by the system administrators at NASA and associated government agencies dealing with the worm in their systems. As the worm gained access to a system, it had instructions to duplicate itself and send that copy out to other machines. It gained access to machines by using default passwords that were included in the system when it was shipped by the manufacturer: for example account name "System" with password "System". Sometimes the worm would leave a harmless message on a person's screen, such as "Vote Anarchist". As it developed, however, it was able to leave messages such as (p. 7):
deleted file <filename1>
deleted file <filename2>
deleted file <filename3>
deleted file <filename4>
deleted file <filename5>
It was unclear if the files had been deleted, because some staff members ended up erasing their hard drives out of paranoia. A week after the first WANK worm crisis, a second more virulent worm was unleashed on the networks. NASA and the Department of Energy were able to deal somewhat more efficiently with this worm.
The next chapter introduces the reader to the early days of the Australian computer underground. This underground began on bulletin board systems (BBSes) in Australia, which in 1988 had 60-100 operating BBSes. The two main BBS hubs for hackers in Australia were Pacific Island and Zen, run by a hacker named Thunderbird1 from his bedroom. In addition to hackers, the BBSes were used by 'phreakers', who basically hack the telephone system to make free calls, which was useful in gaining access to long distance computer networks.
Chapter 3 is the tale of "The American Connection", Parmaster (Par for short), an American hacker who was Thunderbird1's protege'. Using the underground's DEFCON scanning program, Par gained access to CitiSaudi's computer banking network, which then dumped thousands of valid credit card number accounts into his computer. Through his carelessness and boasting on the BBSes, he was later investigated and raided by the Secret Service. He had also found information on some top secret U.S. military defense systems by hacking, and became paranoid. He ended up fleeing, at age 17. As described in Chapter 4, he was on the run in the United States for over a year and a half. He became very paranoid and delusional during this time. He was eventually captured after being turned in by one of his fellow hackers who was boarding him. He spent 1 week in solitary confinement, which nearly broke his spirit completely. He then was sent to Riker's Island prison in NY, until he could be extradited to California. He was nearly killed in prison by a psychopathic serial killer. After spending a month at Riker's, he was sent to California ,and spent a few more weeks in prison, sharing a cell with Mexican drug dealers. He ended up getting out of all his charges due to a glitch in the legal system.
That is a brief summary of the first 150 pages. The following pages continue to describe the lives of other hackers, their dysfunctional families, their hacking successes, and their confrontations with system administrators, the government, and police. For Midnight Oil fans, their songs are quoted throughout. The book concludes with a glossary of abbreviations, research notes, and a bibliography.
For people interested in gaining some authentic insight into the evolution of the computer underground, I highly recommend this book. The author shares all aspects of their lives, from their hacker friendships and alliances to relationships with girlfriends. While most of the characters were quite brilliant, they were also obsessed with hacking and phreaking and became quite paranoid. I was in disbelief throughout the stories that so many things could happen to a small number of people. I found myself empathizing with the hackers and their plights. I also found I did not have much sympathy for system administrators with weak authentication protocols that got hacked. For example, on p. 307, Mendax hacked into a NorTel system, using the username nortel and the password nortel. That is the equivalent of leaving the bank vault open at night, and being upset because someone takes the money.
Similar themes noted in the movie "Freedom Downtime" were noted in this book. Par being attacked in prison was similar to Bernie's prison attack, which left him disfigured. The book described the role of government and police officials in detail, as well as their general misunderstanding of the hacking community and intolerance of being embarrassed by their computer break-ins. It is disheartening to see the stiff penalties some hackers endure.
One aspect of the book that I particularly liked was that it read like a novel rather than a research paper. The author keeps the story flowing and offers a lot of detail for clarity. I felt like I really knew the characters. I found the fact that Phoenix hacked Clifford Stoll's computer (author of The Cuckoo's Egg) quite humorous.
My only recommendation to the author would be to get an American publisher. She clearly spent several years on this project and deserves to reap the benefits of her labor. I also believe that more widespread awareness to the real hacker underground could educate the public on hacker ethics, lifestyles, and motivations, and may decrease the fear and paranoia most people have of hackers. Perhaps the number of hackers would even decrease if hardware/software developers and system administrators worked more diligently on system security on the front end, rather than chasing hackers post-invasion.
Last Updated 5/7/2002
