Sterling, Bruce. The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

 

 

Review:

The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling provides a historical perspective for the burgeoning hacker in all of us.  The story covers from the early days of hacking when teen boys were allowed to work telephone switchboards to some of the more recent and daring computer hacking incidents.  For any reader new to the world of “phone phreaking” or hacker culture in general, Sterling’s book provides easy to digest breakdowns of the technology being used and often exploited.  The author reveals his attitudes towards hackers in general when he makes reference to them as being the cowboys of the electronic frontier.  The author describes them as having somewhat of a noble mentality and representing the rebellious aspects of American culture towards “all bureaucracies, including technological ones.”  Once the reader understands the author’s views towards hackers the reader begins to realize the diversity of the word “hacker.”  The author maintains that hackers are generally highly educated individuals who in their quest to further their knowledge gain access to systems and resources that are forbidden. 

As the story progresses the author expresses the difficulty and frustration that law enforcement went through when trying to define “computer crime.” 

 

“In the cop world,” another guy said earnestly, “everything is good and bad, black and white.  In the computer world everything is gray.”

 

The first mention of “Operation Sundevil” refers to it as being a sweep of warrants, computer seizures, and prosecution related to “illegal computer hacking activities.”  It is later revealed that “Operation Sundevil” had very little to do with actual computer hacking but more to do with ridding the United States of digital credit card theft and telephone code abuse.  This highly publicized “hacker crackdown” was a very calculated measure by the authorities based on a two year investigation culminating in a series of legal actions.  The author further discounts “Operation Sundevil” to just a search and seizure of about forty computers with only four arrests.  The reader is taught that hacker crackdowns mainly consist of taking any technological or printed material from a suspected hacker, analyzing it, and after a period of weeks, prosecuting the hacker.  These revelations help the reader understand that this book is not simply a story about hackers and their evolution in society, but of the law enforcement officials and their quest to define and regulate crime on the electronic frontier.  No individual, hacker, or law enforcement member alike is depicted as being on a higher moral standing.  This moral equality helps the reader to accept the author’s conjecture when it comes to the feelings of both the justice system and the hacker culture.

            Possibly the most interesting social group portrayed in The Hacker Crackdown are the civil libertarians, more accurately, the song writer John Perry Barlow.  Barlow, a cattle farmer, attempted politician, and self described “techno-crank” used his influence, experience, and his technical knowledge to help create the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Incorporated with fellow “high-tech computer entrepreneurs”.  The foundation sought out to take the rights of speech granted by the constitution and apply them to cyberspace.  The author details different stories of hackers and their journey through the legal system.  It is made very clear that the EFF only supports hackers that are in the pursuit of knowledge and the protection of their civil rights, not hackers who amount to common digital criminals.  This illustrates the author’s willingness to portray both sides of the story and deglamorize the hidden life of some hackers.  The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling gives the reader a fair and balanced history hackers and the way in which the law progressed to deal with digital crime and the rights granted to people when in the context of cyberspace.

 

 

Critique:

I chose this book for two major reasons.  I wanted to learn more about the evolution of hacking culture and it was freely available to download the entire book.  The first thing a reader will notice about this book is the common language with which it is written.  Bruce Sterling uses coined words and phrases along with slang, and the occasional grammatical feauxpas to provide a more entertaining experience for the reader.  However, after about the hundredth page the casual language becomes frustrating to read and the sometimes dimwitted puns provide the reader with some undue annoyance. 

This book is intended to be somewhat of a chronology of hacking.  However, some of the tangential historical diversions and references could afford to be left out.  For example, when the author is giving the history of the development of the telephone:

 

“Another would-be technical breakthrough was the Bell "phonautograph" of 1874, actually made out of a human cadaver's ear. Clamped into place on a tripod, this grisly gadget drew sound-wave images on smoked glass through a thin straw glued to its vibrating earbones.”

 

This and other references like it, although interesting, serve no real purpose with the plot or intention of the book.  This sadly ends up as a theme in this work.  Descriptions of the personal lives of individuals, past habits of individuals, or even the depth at which the author describes the Grateful Dead all add nothing to the book but page length.  The author actually takes the time to name twenty five different major publications that a letter from an AT&T executive appeared in.  At points the reader is exasperated by the fact that the author is including information in the story just for the sake of including information.  The book is a little dated, and anyone looking for a high tech romp through computer hacking knowledge will be hard pressed to find it in this book.

            Overall, this book is a very quick read that in spite of its shortcomings remains very informative and entertaining to the reader.  Sterling’s use of dialog and description of events provide a very vivid reading experience.  This book is great for any information security beginner wanting to know where the hacker culture originated.