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

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

book by Suelette Dreyfus, researched by

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

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

black hat Black hat, blackhats, or black-hat refers to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Black hat (computer security), a hacker who violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain * Black hat, part of black and whit ...

hackers A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

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

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

), administrator of two important Australian

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

(''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 charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...

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

computer crime A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing th ...

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 and the

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

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 ...

''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 which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

'' 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 m ...

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

computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

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/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

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 advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evalu ...

, 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
{{Gutenberg, no= 4686 , name= Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier by Dreyfus

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

See also

References

External links