Stats for nerds
3recommend
4mentions
3people
2021–2024years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- On a smaller scale: The Cyberthief and the Samurai (1996) is about Shimomura and Kevin Mitnick https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18163.The_Cyberthief_and...
The Cuckoo's Egg (1989) is about Clifford Stoll and a West German hacking for the KGB https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18154.The_Cuckoo_s_Egg
- The Cyberthief and the Samurai (along with a few other books like Snow Crash, Hackers, the Cuckoos egg etc.) were books that made a big impact on me earlier in my life. It wasn't as much about facts as much as about building a virtual map of the digital world in my head. This was before I had actual access to a fast internet connection.
I had a printout of the MIT guide to lock picking and used to try out stuff with some hand crafted "tools". I'd forgotten about Mitnick and later (probably via. Slashdot) came across his site again and saw this https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/kevin-mitnicks-famous-lockpi... which suddenly brought back the same image I had formed about him. Playful to the extent of not caring, irreverent, and curious.
Rest in Peace.
- I don't know if I really even believe in the idea of "must read" books, but here are at least a few I highly recommend. In no particular order.
FICTION
The Mysterious Island - Verne
The Time Machine - Wells
Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
Brave New World - Huxley
Snow Crash - Stephenson
The Shockwave Rider - Brunner
The Fountainhead - Rand
Cryptonomicon - Stephenson
The Foundation trilogy - Asimov
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Bradbury
Strangers - Koontz
After Dark - Murakami
It - King
The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
The Hobbit - Tolkien
Perdido Street Station - Miéville
Permutation City - Egan
Glasshouse - Stross
NON-FICTION
Report from Engine Co 82 - Smith
Godel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter
How the Mind Works - Pinker
The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Blank
Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Bly
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Levy
Artificial Life - Levy
Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Haffner & Markoff (Note: this book is not without controvery. There is a lot of debate about the veracity of much of the material on Mitnick. However, it is a wildly entertaining read, and an introduction to a number of interesting characters. But I'd suggest following up by reading other related titles, especially regarding Kevin Mitnick)
Ghost in the Wires - Mitnick (Mitnick's autogiography, basically)
Takedown - Shimomura & Markoff
The Fugitive Game - Littman (of the books written about Mitnick, but not by Mitnick, this one has a reputation for being a little more "pro Kevin" whereas a couple of the others are sort of pointedly "anti Kevin" in their bias. Maybe it all balances out in the end if you read them all).
The Cyberthief & the Samurai - Goodell
The Cuckoo's Egg - Stoll
How To Create A Mind - Kurzweil
On Intelligence - Hawkins
Engineering General Intelligence (volumes 1 & 2) - Goertzel
The Hidden Pattern - Goertzel
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity - Wallace
- Funny you would bring that up. So, all joking aside... my introduction to the world of phreaking / hacking was primarily reading Cyberpunk by John Markoff and Katie Haffner about 1995 or so. I was immediately in awe of Kevin Mitnick and his cadre of phreaker friends, and those were the guys/gals me and my little circle of phreaker friends most wanted to emulate. KM was one of my heroes back in those days (and truth be told, I guess he still is to a degree).
What is interesting is that it was only later that I came to know that that book was very controversial, is of doubtful veracity in parts, and may portray KM in a somewhat inaccurate light. Nonetheless, it launched me on my path to a (short and inauspicious) "career" as a phone phreak. But I've remained fascinated with Kevin's story all the way to the current day, and actually just finished reading The Cyberthief and the Samurai and a couple of other books about his story, which I had not read before.
