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The Hacker Crackdown
Nonfiction e-Book-of-the-Month, Feb 2000. BRUCE STERLING'S INSTANT CLASSIC is a freeze-frame of time, when in 1990, scores of suspected illicit hackers were arrested by law-enforcement officials. The raids, and the cases that followed, became a metaphor for the clash between civil liberties and the need to fight computer crime. Against this backdrop, The Hacker Crackdown illuminates several different subcultures - the hacker underworld, the world of the cyber detectives, and the realm of civil libertarianism. From hijinks that began with teenage pranks on the phone system, Sterling traces how a combination of technical wizardry and a low threshold for boredom converged to produce several types of hackers - from those fighting for a cause, to those in it for kicks, to traditional criminals out to exploit a new world. From here Sterling describes the world of those forced to deal with these hackers and how their own subculture developed. Finally, ethical and legal issues are brought up as new and unforeseen issues connected with online law enforcement come to light. Some of these issues, such as an individual's privacy when e-mail is stored on others' servers, are still relevant today. The Hacker Crackdown is a cyber tour de force.
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