''Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier'' is a

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

book by

Suelette Dreyfus Suelette Dreyfus is an Australian technology researcher, journalist, and academic. She is a lecturer in the Department of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, as well as the principal researcher on the impact of digi ...

, researched by

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

. It describes the exploits of a group of Australian, American, and British black hat

hackers A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break ...

during the late 1980s and early 1990s, among them Assange himself. *''Craig Bowen'' (

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

), administrator of two important Australian BBS (''Pacific Island'' and ''Zen'') *''Par'', ''a.k.a.'' ''The Parmaster'', an American hacker who avoided capture by the

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...

from July 1989 to November 1991 * ''Phoenix'', ''Electron'' and ''Nom'', who were convicted in the first major Australian trial for

computer crime Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cybercriminals may exp ...

s *''Pad'' and ''Gandalf'', the British founders of the notorious '' 8lgm'' group *the Australian ''Mendax'' (

) and ''Prime Suspect'', who managed to penetrate the DDN,

NIC Nic is a gender-neutral given name, often short for Nicole, Nicholas, Nicola, or Dominic. It is also a component of Irish-language female surnames. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Nic Dalton (born 1964), Australian musician * Nic En ...

and the

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

internal network, and the

phreaker Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term ''phreak'' is a sen ...

''Trax''. Together, the three were known as the " International Subversives". *''Anthrax'', another Australian hacker and phreaker The book also mentions other hackers who had contacts with the protagonists, among them ''Erik Bloodaxe'' of the ''Legion of Doom'' and ''

Corrupt Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

'' of the ''

Masters of Deception Masters of Deception (MOD) was a New York–based group of hackers, most widely known in media for their exploits of telephone company infrastructure and later prosecution. Origin of Masters of Deception MOD's initial membership grew from ...

''. The first chapter of ''Underground'' relates the diffusion and reactions of the

computer security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...

community to the WANK worm that attacked DEC VMS computers over the

DECnet DECnet is a suite of network protocols created by Digital Equipment Corporation. Originally released in 1975 in order to connect two PDP-11 minicomputers, it evolved into one of the first peer-to-peer network architectures, thus transforming DEC ...

in 1989 and was purportedly coded by a

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

hacker. , the book has sold 10,000 copies. The author made the electronic edition of the book freely available in 2001, when it was announced on

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories on science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site ...

, the server housing the book crashed due to the demand for the book. It reached 400,000 downloads within two years. The 2002 documentary '' In the Realm of the Hackers'', directed by Kevin Anderson and centered on ''Phoenix'' and ''Electron'', was inspired by this book.

References

External links

Book Website

{{Julian Assange Computer security books 1997 non-fiction books Hacker culture Julian Assange Books about computer hacking Works about computer hacking

See also

References

External links