Books on the History of Hacking?

heliocentric asks: "I have been asked to speak the upcoming SIGCSE conference of the ACM and I would like to give a presentation on the history of hacking. I'm thinking about security incidents that have altered either Computer Science as a whole or set precedence for legal actions. I have been following this subject for years and I have compiled several useful links, but I'm wondering why a book on this subject hasn't been written? Yes, it would go out of date the moment it hits the press, but wouldn't it stand up better than so-called hacker guides that show how to exploit 1980s telephone systems that are being printed today? I'm not looking for links about this subject (I guess they wouldn't be a bad thing at this point) but information about hold-in-your-hand books covering this subject. I'm looking at this presentation as a college researcher should, you want many and diverse resources - entirely relying on the Internet for sources does not make for good research."

Comments

Hackers - Steven Levy

[martyb]

I would highly recommend you read the first two parts of: Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy (ISBN: 0-385-19195-2). This book provides an extremely readable early history of the hacker ethic (with attendant cracker exploits). One of the chapter titles is illustrative: "The Midnight Computer Wiring Society". It has some minor errors (primarily spelling), but it wonderfully captured the spirit of that time. (I started programming in 1972 and it was a real trip to read this book and remember all those names of people and systems from "long ago"!)

There's an extensive bibliography and index, so it would likely prove helpful in locating additional material.

My Bookshelf

[Ratbert42]

In no particular order:

• Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier
• The Hacker Crackdown
• The Fugitive Game: Online With Kevin Mitnick
• The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen
• Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw-By the Man Who Did It
• Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace
• Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Since four of the books revolve around Mitnick and/or Poulsen, I would read them in this order: Cyberpunk, Takedown, Fugitive Game, Watchman. Cyberpunk precedes the Takedown/Fugitive Game by quite a while. Takedown and Fugitive Game cover nearly the same time period from different sides. Watchman takes place prior to Fugitive Game and isn't too closely related, but Justin Peterson (aka Eric) and Mark Tanner appear in both books.

You've got to be careful taking what's written in these books as 100% truth. For the most part they are based solely on interviews of hackers and their friends.

Littman's books (Fugitive Game and Watchman) in particular are nearly autobiographies of Mitnick and Poulsen. There is much criticism of Markoff's books (Cyberpunk and Takedown) and his articles about Kevin Mitnick. The main argument is that he glorified Mitnick and (with Shimomura's help) may have helped make him "America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw".

As for ignoring the web, I think that's a mistake. For one, Justin Peterson's site has some of his rebuttals to Littman's books and other criticism he's received. Kevin Poulsen has his own site but it's getting a bit out of date now that he's busy with SecurityFocus.com. Mitnick probably won't have much to say online or in print until he completes his probation.