The Hacker Diaries : Confessions of Teenage Hackers

By Dan Verton

Book Overview

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. To many who knew him, there was nothing odd about him. He was a normal kid... On February 7, 2000, Yahoo.com was the first victim of the biggest distributed denial-of-service attack ever to hit the Internet. On May 8th, Buy.com was battling a massive denial-of-service attack. Later that afternoon, eBay.com also reported significant outages of service, as did Amazon.com. Then CNN's global online news operation started to grind to a crawl. By the following day, Datek and E-Trade entered crisis mode...all thanks to an ordinary fourteen-year-old kid. Friends and neighbors were shocked to learn that the skinny, dark-haired, boy next door who loved playing basketball--almost as much as he loved computers--would cause millions of dollars worth of damage on the Internet and capture the attention of the online world--and the federal government. He was known online as "Mafiaboy" and, to the FBI, as the most notorious teenage hacker of all time. He did it all from his bedroom PC. And he's not alone. Computer hacking and Web site defacement has become a national pastime for America's teenagers, and according to the stories you'll read about in The Hacker Diaries --it is only the beginning. But who exactly are these kids and what motivates a hacker to strike? Why do average teenagers get involved in hacking in the first place? This compelling and revealing book sets out to answer these questions--and some of the answers will surprise you. Through fascinating interviews with FBI agents, criminal psychologists, law-enforcement officials--as well as current and former hackers--you'll get a glimpse inside the mind of today's teenage hacker. Learn how they think, find out what it was like for them growing up, and understand the internal and external pressures that pushed them deeper and deeper into the hacker underground. Every hacker has a life and story of his or her own. One teenager's insatiable curiosity as to how the family's VCR worked was enough to trigger a career of cracking into computer systems. This is a remarkable story of technological wizardry, creativity, dedication, youthful angst, frustration and disconnection from society, boredom, anger, and jail time. Teenage hackers are not all indifferent punks. They're just like every other kid and some of them probably live in your neighborhood. They're there. All you have to do is look.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0072223642
• ISBN13: 9780072223644
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Length: 219 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Fun and Informative

I really liked this book. Even though there were a few things I disagreed with and what I would call a few minor errors, overall this is a great read and a valuable insight into how hackers grow up. It also doesn't get lost in stereotypes like almost every other book on hackers out there. And it doesn't strike me as a book for technical geeks, most of whom would probably not want to read this anyway since they all think they are the experts and the "real hackers." Anyway, if you're a parent or a teacher or just somebody who is interested in learning about how some young kids get involved in hacking and how different they all REALLY are as PEOPLE, this is a good book for you. The Chapter on Mafiaboy, a 15-year-old Canadian, is really strong and provides never before published details about one of the most notorious teen hackers in recent years -- even if he wasn't a very good "hacker" -- as well as the behind-the-scenes look at the FBI investigation. I also liked the fictional "hacker diaries" that open and close the book. They are very interesting and fun to read. The bottom line is that the author picked interesting people to interview --not just techno geeks. He showed them as real people. Nobody wants to read about techno geeks or the history of computer hacking. And this book avoids that.I recommend this one.

An absolute great read about the world of Hackers

I really liked this book and learned a lot about the hacker scene. Verton does not portray all hackers as bad, that's what surprised me so much. Many have had good intentions and ethics from the beginnings, others have become aware of the negative effects of what they were doing and many are now valuable security officers at respected companies. Hey, what about Starla Pureheart, who won the Defcon ethical hacking contest! The book truly presents an insight!

The best non-hacking book ever

I can not put it down. It's not a Hackers How-to book AT ALL. The author of the book, Dan Verton, followed around about 9 different teenage hackers and profiles their lives and what/why they hack. I think it's a GREAT book. It's well worth every penny. I think it's a great concept to know what goes on "behind the scenes".

Let me see...

What goes on behind those eyes? The cover of this book really sets the feel of this book. What goes on in the deep minds of teenage hackers and what hides behind their eyes? Dan Verton has done his research and it shows. His conversations and interviews with these teenage hackers take us on a tour not often taken by the everyday public. This book tells fascinating tales of intrigue and information security curiosity from the hacker "underground".This book sheds light on the dark rarely discussed area of a few teenagers' lives that are heavily influenced by computers, computer security and more importantly hacking. If you are a struggling parent who wants to try to understand what is really going on in the mind of young hackers today, or if you are a security professional needing to study how the young hacker's mind can potentially work, then you should pick this book up. Definitely a different perspective to view the topic of "hacking" from.The book is easy to read. Each chapter is devoted to a particular person Dan Verton has interviewed and/or had conversations with, discussing their lives in relation to hacking. Not only does Dan dive deep into their childhoods and the social, emotional, and psychological influences that steered them to hacking, but also he brings the reader into the teenager's lives today. Reading through some of the quotes sent chills up my spine.