The Masters of Deception

What Hacker News says

1. omnibrainFeb 2026
   Try reading Masters of Deception first, to get in the right mood.
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2. bdcravensJan 2024
   The Cuckoo's Egg was a fantastic read to me back in the mid-90s as my worldview was shaping up. (among other, like Soul of a New Machine, Hackers by Steven Levy, Masters of Deception, etc)
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3. doopy1Dec 2020
   Books that have changed my life:

   Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace

   Illuminatus Trilogy

   Neuromancer

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4. cpachMar 2020
   Lots of good recommendations in this thread. Here’s some more:

   • Turner, Fred (2006) From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism

   • Slatalla, Michelle & Quittner, Joshua (1995) Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace

   • Schlender, Brent & Tetzeli, Rick (2015) Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader

   • Isaacson, Walter (2011) Steve Jobs

   This one might also be worth lookin in to:

   Hertzfeld, Andy (2004) Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made

   I haven’t read it in book form but AFAICT the contents of the book are also available over at https://www.folklore.org/

   By the way, you might also want to have a look at this project someone published recently:

   Meta book recommendations from Ask HN threads https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22693634

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5. CuriousSkepticJan 2019
   Not really about the internet as such. But do checkout the book “Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace”

   IIRC it does a wonderful job of capturing the cyberpunk feel of growing up with it.

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6. severineAug 2018
   This? http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=5A8FE70517FD734D720...

   Title: Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness, and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier

   Author(s): Suelette Dreyfuss

   Publisher: Mandarin Australia

   Year: 1997

   ISBN: 9781863305952, 1863305955

   >> This book provides a great overview of a number of computer intrusion incidents and links them throught not only the technical nature of the activity but the persons behind them. UNDERGROUND provides an excellent overview of intrustion activities focusing on the UK, Australia, and the United States. It covers the late 80's to the early nineties with stories on incidents such as the WANK Worm outbreak and 8lgm's activities. The stand out attribute of this book is that it examines what happened to the intruders after their activity rather than focusing on the activity itself. It also examines the interrelationships between intruders worldwide giving some insight into how the culture allows for several key persons to be involved in or have siginficant knowledge of many different activities. A must have to include in your library along with other staples such as Cuckoo's Egg, Masters of Deception, Fugitive Game, and Hacker Crackdown. However, like the other books noted, there are apt to be a few points that persons will take exception too with regard to accuracy.

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