Amazon.com
This is a first-rate detective story--and all true. It's the story of a seemingly invincible electronic thief, con man, and stalker--and the people who tracked him down. Jonathan Littman brings his readers straight into the world of cyberpunk crime as he shows the origins, development, and climax of the wildest and most audacious known crime spree in cyberspace. Hundreds of hours of interviews allow Littman to tell much of the story through the eyes of those who lived it, and his own edgy style and excellent pacing make for a thriller that's hard to put down.Book Description
This is a first-rate detective story--and all true. It's the story of a seemingly invincible electronic thief, con man, and stalker--and the people who tracked him down. Jonathan Littman brings his readers straight into the world of cyberpunk crime as he shows the origins, development, and climax of the wildest and most audacious known crime spree in cyberspace. Hundreds of hours of interviews allow Littman to tell much of the story through the eyes of those who lived it, and his own edgy style and excellent pacing make for a thriller that's hard to put down. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Great read!
Computer security is not only part of my job, but a bit of a hobby of mine, so I love reading books like this.This book was fun to read and I read it in pretty much one night.This is a rare feat for me... I barely ever read books in one night, much less a few nights.So that should tell you how much fun the book was to read.

The reason for 4 stars instead of 5?1) It only comes in a hard cover instead of a paper back?At least, I couldn't find a paper back anywhere!2) It's obvious (and Poulsen has commented on this) that the author has made up some things that Kevin said or did.However, this is obviously to keep the book interesting and make for a better read...So, don't take everything that the author says to heart, but the underlying story is still pretty much what happened from what I understand and have found to be true, anyway.

Great read, thrilling, exciting and fun.If you like stories about computers, security and hackers.

a decent read but woefully inaccurate
I had Kevin for dinner on 1 July 1999. It seems he was about to marry my wife's first cousin, who--at the time--was an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Neither was I impressed by Kevin's putative depth of knowledge, nor did he indicate that this book bore the least relationship to his exploits. I was just disappointed all around. I believe my wife made her Polynesian meatballs.

An absorbing story...
Jonathan Littman's The Watchman is well written and engaged me enough to read it in one sitting. I wanted for some time to learn more about Kevin Poulsen having heard about some of the exploits attributed to him. This story accomplishes that in a compelling way and manages to be pertinent years later. This is required reading for anyone wishing to know the darker side of the hacker sub-culture, about Kevin Poulsen, Ron Austin or Justin Petersen and some of their creative mischief and crimes.

The ultimate hacker - a true crime story
If you like true crime stories, this one is for you. I wont try and debate the truth of the book, (it's a controversial subject)because I dont know the truth. But I know this is a good story, even if there are a few fabrications here and there.

I am a computer geek at heart, so I especially loved this book. But even my non-technical girlfriend loved it, it's a great story.

The storytelling in this book is magnificent, you really get a feel for his personality right off the bat, and the story is filled with excitement and suspense, and pardon the cliche, is impossible to put down. The first time I picked up the book, I sat and read it to the end, despite my best efforts to walk away from it.

The imagery is great, and you start to feel a closeness and sympathy for Kevin, and you forget at the time he was a criminal. You hope he doesn't get caught, and cringe when he does. You watch him do well, and slip, like an addict who can't take control, and you start to feel an understanding of what it was like for him.

Overall, I would say from a technical standpoint, it's a great read. From a true crime perspective, great read as well. Good all around book that's entertaining from start to finish.

An inside look at hacker culture
I had no idea who Kevin Poulson was when I picked up this book.All I knew was that I wanted to read a book which dealt with computer hackers and this book had been recommended to me by a friend of mine.Suffice to say I was not disappointed.

Littman writes a compelling story about Kevin Poulson, who is perhaps the second best known hacker in North America best Kevin Mitnick.And what makes this book such an interesting read is that it is a modern day, and real life, version of the Fugitive.But unlike the Fugitive, Kevin is hunted to tapping in to phone systems and learning much more about the telephone networks than the average, non-telco employee, should be allowed to.

The book is filled with first hand accounts and funny anecdotes of the escapades that Kevin and some of his company managed to pull off.After reading the book, I was left scratching my head in disbelief.It was almost as if the feats Kevin was able to accomplish were too good to be true.But in the end, that's what makes this book so great. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Essential information for anyone wanting to protect Internet-connected computers from unauthorized access. Includes:

• thorough discussion of security-related aspects of TCP/IP;
• step-by-step plans for setting up firewalls;
• hacking and monitoring tools the authors have built to rigorouslytest and maintain firewalls;
• pointers to public domain security tools on the net;
• first-hand step-by-step accounts of battles with the "Berferd" hackers; and
• practical discussions of the legal aspects of security.

Customer Reviews (21)

What, you don't own this?
You should buy this book.Then you should read this book.

A great overview, but a little thin on details.
This book is an excellent comprehensive introduction to computer security from policies to technologies.However, as pointed out by other reviewers, the depth of content when it comes to specifics is rather shallow, but one must take into account that to discuss each of these topics in depth would require volumes of text, and much of the specific information can easily be found in texts devoted specifically to those individual topics or from online sources.Given the breadth of information discussed, I think it strikes a very effective balance in displaying the information necessary to understand the basics of computer security.

The book should have a home on the bookshelf of anyone who deals with computer systems.It also serves as a great primer for those in management or anyone else who is less than technical but needs a pretty concise 30,000 ft. level overview to understand what their technical staff is talking about.

Good upgrade to a classic
This second edition has all the qualities the first edition had 10 years ago: Their writing is clear, they provide a sober assessment of the costs & benefits of various services (as opposed to other reviewers, I don't think the authors had much of an anti-Microsoft bias, just a realistic perspective on where Windows products are regarding security). The book is still fairly compact and it comes with an excellent biography and pointers to security software.

Yet another worthwhile book for us all in the IT industry!
Addison-Wesley in cooperation with William Cheskwick, Steven Bellovin and Aviel Rubin have produced yet another well-researched publication.

This book is all about Internet security, firewalls, VPNs and much more, all of which are hot topics and renowned buzzwords within today's IT industry.

In the first chapter, the authors express their view on network security and demonstrate the different methods an Administrator can use in order to secure their network(s). This is carried out by categorizing security into Host-Based and Perimeter security.

The second and third chapters are approximately 50 pages covering basic protocols, including IPv6, DNS, FTP, SNMP, NTP, RPC-based protocols and a several more like the famous NAT. The chapters are concluded with a summary on wireless security.

The next five chapters (chapter 4 to 8 inclusive), analyze various attacks used against networks and server operating systems in an attempt to exploit them. There is a wealth of information concerning hacking, allowing the reader to enter the mind of a hacker in terms of what they think and how they proceed to meet their goal.

One complete chapter is dedicated to various password tactics in which one can ensure that a hacker's life is made more difficult should they attempt to break into a few accounts using well-known methods related to password guessing. CHAP, PAP, Radius and PKI are also analyzed.

Chapter 9 to 12 are dedicated to Firewalls and VPNs which, in passing, happen to be my favourite chapters. They offer an in-depth analysis of the Firewall concept, packet filtering, application-level filtering and circuit level gateways. It proceeds with information about the filtering services, giving detailed examples on how one could use IPChains to create a simple or complex set of rules to efficiently block/permit packets entering in and out the network.This is perhaps the only downside to this informative book, where IPTables would have been beneficial to include, since people rarely use IPchains these days.

Lastly, chapter 12 talks about VPNs, their encryption methods, and considers both their weaknesses and advantages.

In addition to this, the book continues with several more chapters covering general questions that may arise for the reader, such as intranet routing, administration security and intrusion detection systems.

Towards the end, the authors talk about their personal experiences with people trying to hack into their companies and, as a result, explain the step- by- step process of how they managed to fight them and secure their networks. These pages are simply a goldmine for anyone interested in this area.

In summary, I'd say that the book is well worth its money and would suggest it to anyone interested in network security and firewalls. I am certain they won't be disappointed simply because the book has a lot to offer...

No longer the only, but still the best, book on the topic.
This book is not just about firewalls, although that is its
primary focus.Nor does it try to cover the entire field of
Internet security, although it does provide a fairly good survey
of that field along the way.A fair description would be that it
is about building a security strategy around a firewall, which is
the practical outcome with which most potential readers should be
concerned.

The first edition of this book was, for nearly a decade, pretty
much the only work on building firewalls.This edition is a
nearly complete rewrite, not so much because of the new
functionality needed of firewalls, but because system
administrators no longer write their own firewall software.In
some ways, this has given more attention to the services being
protected, reducing the emphasis on firewalls per se.

Some readers will undoubtedly consider parts of this book to
engage in Microsoft-bashing.I don't see it that way, for
reasons that the authors sum up in the introduction, in one of
their "security truisms": "Security is a tradeoff with
convenience."They do consider Windows hosts on their networks
to be insecure (and possibly unsecurable), but that has as much
to do with letting users install software on their own machines
as it does with the OS itself.Not only do the authors fully
intend the implication that there will be different tradeoffs to
be made for different situations, but they illustrate this in a
number of situations, where they describe implications of
tradeoffs that are driven by different end-user needs.

The book is quite complete, although the technology changes
quickly enough that this will be quite a bit less true by the
time a third edition might be written.The only issue that I
think deserved more attention was that of multi-homing.
Protecting a multihomed network is particularly difficult because
extra configuration is needed to identify packet spoofing, and
any filtering done by the upstream providers will make life even
more difficult.This problem deserves at least more recognition,
if not a full treatment of its own.

This book is not the ultimate reference on the topic that the
first edition was in its time.But it is not possible for any
one book to fill that role any more, and if it's no longer the
only book, it's still the most important.If you are after that
"ultimate reference," your best bet is probably the combination
of this book and Zwicky (et. al.), "Building Internet Firewalls". ... Read more

Book Description
This major new study by one of the most penetrating and persistent critics of philosophical and scientific orthodoxy, returns to Aristotle in order to examine the salient categories in terms of which we think about ourselves and our nature, and the distinctive forms of explanation we invoke to render ourselves intelligible to ourselves.

• The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind
  
• Written by one of the world’s leading philosophers, the co-author of the monumental 4 volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell Publishing, 1980-2004)
  
• Uses broad categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature
  
• Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted
  
• Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Good entertainment for a hardcore hacker
I went through this book in about an hour and solved all the puzzles I had any inclination to solving (perhaps 30% of the book).The difficulty of the puzzles ranges from mere puns to some number puzzles to involved reverse engineering projects where intricate knowledge of a particular operating system is necessary.I would not buy it again for myself, but it would make a pretty good gift for someone who considered themselves more of a hacker.

Very interesting and unique
This book has some very interesting and unique puzzles; I've never actually seen a puzzle book with this kind of focus or attitude before.The puzzles contained within aren't "find the secret number" or "rearrange these some special way" type things; they're hard-core hacker puzzles, bending your mind and testing your knowledge.

The examples given are often interesting, involving fake or real programs.The Cryptanalysis section starts with the fictitious Cool Crypto program; while the Net section brings up tools like tcpdump.One of the puzzles even involves cracking a password hidden in a Web page; but that page is encrypted using the real-world "HTML Protector" product which you first have to reverse engineer to get to the source code for the page.Some of the puzzles are also purely theoretical, and can be carried out by anyone with a good understanding of basic discrete math.

Not only was I extremely pleased with some of the puzzles I could solve; but also with the solutions section of the book.Even though sometimes its solutions were over-presumptuous and limited to the exact scenario in the book, it did provide some "oh damn I hadn't thought of that" moments.It also provided valuable knowledge; some of the puzzles I just didn't know, so I looked in the solution section to see how it worked and learned something interesting.

This book only seemed to display two major faults.First, sometimes the puzzles are too hard or just require knowledge you may not possess; for example, the Windows puzzles require an understanding of trivial and not typically important components of legacy DOS systems, or of the NTFS file system.Second, sometimes the solutions are too simple and limited; such as with some of the Cryptography puzzles where the answers make assumptions specific to the encrypted text, as opposed to showing a deeper method for analyzing the ciphertext to recover the key.

All in all, anyone with a strong background in computer science and an interest in puzzles will likely find this book both challenging and fun.The puzzles put your computer science skills to the test, mathematically and analytically; they are a fresh change from crossword puzzles and simple cryptograms.

Not what I expected
This probably should be called Puzzles for Crackers, not hackers.

Many if not most of the puzzles deal with insecure code and uncovering weak encryption.Several of the puzzles deal with assembly language or modifying raw binaries.

That's fine if you want that.But, I was looking more for higher level programming tips, challenges, and puzzles, more like what is in the book Programming Pearls.

disparate tidbits
The book gathers together a disparate and funky collection of programming tidbits and trivia. Only some of these are actually coding problems. For example, in one section it asks if you recognise certain trademarks or marketing diagrams that were used in the recent past.

The reverse engineering chapter might be an eye opener of what can be deduced from an executable, by using a good tool like SoftIce.

For many programmers, there should be something new in this book. ... Read more

Book Description
Why, despite continued efforts to increase understanding and expand opportunities, do black and white Americans still lead separate lives, continually marked by tension and hostility? In his much-lauded classic, newly updated to reflect the changing realities of race in our nation, Andrew Hacker explains the origins and meaning of racism and clarifies the conflicting theories of equality and inferiority. He paints a stark picture of racial inequality in America -- focusing on family life, education, income, and employment -- and explores the current controversies over politics, crime, and the causes of the gap between the races. Illuminating and oftentimes startling, Two Nations demonstrates how race has defined America's history and will continue to shape its future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Great book for it's honesty and and intellectual acumen
Having read this book in 1992 and recently purchased it for my collection, this a great read with various chapters based on history, politcal,and social mores of African- Americans(in the black corner)and our archenemies White Americans (in the white corner). got to hype up the race war angle some of you white conservativeswho are doing it in your reviews about this book. If you have a politcal agenda you will either like or hate Hacker's book based on your politcal afilliation, If you are a Liberal, you may like the senstive and fair airing he gives towards the history of why we became two nations.If you are a conservative or Neo- Nazi type like the white racist from georgia that African- Americans have no morals,or you will hate that he's giving Black folks a pass on their moral problems.

Well as a Black Nationalist whobelieves that intergration is bad social policy but amajority Black commonwealth on American soil may be benefical, I think that historical factors presented in Hacker's book wouldprevent both sides from ever seeing each other in any rational sense as Americans because

1. Whites see each other asintellectually, morally superior to African - Americans (even the lowest white trash person) and will never consider them equal in the eyes of U.S. law or in their hearts

2. African - Americans (especailly males) will never forgive or forget whatthe majority White population did to their families, culture, livelihoods and community structures especailly after Slavery.

Hacker has crafted an excellent book through great research and in many ways he is on pointthroughout the book,when he statesthe the majority white population will make Hispanics and Asians "honoray whites" demonizing Black Males for politcal and social advantage against charges of racism by blacks. And many of your reviewers are right about some blacks hating whites, I think 387 years of continual defacto racism would create some blacks who wouldhurt their fellow blacks (in a self- destructive way)whites and other citizens (some blacks hate whites like the Arabs hate Jews).I consider that like the scene in the movie "Independence Day", when "President" Bill Pullman asked the Alien,

Pullman -can there be peace between our worlds

Alien - NOOOOOOOOO NO PEACE !!!!

Pullman - What do you want from us?

AlienI want you to DIE !!!!!

Let the hate mail begin !!!! at least I was "candid" in our so- called dicussion on race.

Two Nations: Black and White, Seperate, Hostile, Unequal
This book points out, that even in the 21st Century; the separation of black and white, with hostility and un-equality still exists.
The United States is still seen as two separate nations, with the two races living different worlds. The dimensions of race and how it still controls the lives and divisions of our society is still present.
His book has 12 chapters, but I am focusing on chapter 7 which is the "equity in employment, qualifications and quotas". It is unfortunate to say, that this is still a sensitive race-related issue, without a proper balance; even so affirmative action is involved. The statistics which are used in his book are indeed fact. Hacker tried to be fair, however struggled to accomplish this goal of equal employment.
Hacker argues that as recent as the year 2000, areas of employment were still closed to African Americans; he used the census to document the representation, which was only 11.3%. On another note was the income gap among the African American population vs. the white families which earned more. He argues that the African American woman finds jobs easier then her male counterpart, however these jobs are considered "black jobs"; this would include services such as housekeeping.
Affirmative Action brought about some change for the workforce, but mainly for the females, white or black, which left out the African American male. Hacker points out that the possibility of why the African American male struggles with obtaining an average position could be because the white man is threatened by the African American male, or feels uncomfortable in a business that has an abundance of African American males working and therefore only employs a minimal number. It is pointed out in his book that the people in power use the race as a means of domination and discrimination.He also points out that it is America which made being a member of the black race so difficult. It is noted that the inequality of pay difference gives the African American population a lesser start in life.
If race plays the role in how people fare financially, why is it then that the with American tells the African Americans that there is plenty of work, when what black Americans want is no more and no less than what with Americans wants; a chance for steady employment at a decent pay.....to be black in America is to k now that you remain last in line for so basic requisites as the means of supporting yourself and your family.The discrimination exists, as well as the un-equality which is faced in every level of society.Overall, the problem to the African American is not how to deal with this knowledge, but how to make the society as a whole aware of these inequalities.
The book states also that the white American s believe is, that there are no issue at hand in respects to this continuous problem.
Hacker does not offer any solutions to this problem our society faces. He points out the truth, that African Americans and whites live in different worlds. The discrimination the African American race is facing, shows that common sense can tell us that racism is far from ending; therefore we all must begin to work towards a solution.

product not yet received
I am very disappointed because I have not yet received my book and I don't know who I am suppose to get in touch with to get my book, I need some help.

What If the Shoe Fits?
First, I would say that this book is refreshingly dispassionate and un-overheated, both qualities that have been sorely lacking in recent discussions of race. Also, there is plenty of truth in it--some explicitly stated, some not quite so obvious. But truth is a two-edged sword, and Mr. Hacker doesn't come clean about all of it. I think he truly believed he was presenting an objective discussion, and he actually came pretty close, but for a few caveats.

The book does a good job of showing the daily trials black people face, and includes a clever exercise that can jolt you into awareness of just how much you do value your white skin. It also talks straight about how much racism runs deep underground or happens behind the façade of political correctness, and about both sides of the slavery issue. But it runs into trouble in a few ways. First, the author theorizes that other minorities such as Asians and Jews, become "honorary whites" by virtue of their achievements. He thinks the dichotomy is white/nonwhite, but I think it's just the opposite: black/nonblack. Nobody thinks Asians or Arabs are white, but because they're not black, they get more openings and more respect than black people do.

Then there is the statistical data. In every chapter, Hacker gives plenty of it, but then explains or excuses away what the numbers say. And some of his arguments are pretty specious. He says that blacks do less well in school because the oppressive presence of whites makes them feel so hopeless they just give up before they start. Well, that's on a par with my saying that I never did well in math because the fact that there were Asian kids in my class made me feel so insecure I didn't even try. If I'd tried that excuse at home, my parents would've laughed in my face and then told me to quit blaming everybody else, get off my hind end, and either hit the books or go to my teacher for extra help. Hacker never connects the dots, but the data say that blacks have sex earlier and less responsibly; do poorly in school and are more likely to drop out; and commit a disproportionate amount of crime, usually on each other.

Hacker offers the usual explanation for all this: It's white people's fault. I'm willing to grant that it's probably not a lot of fun to be black, and that blacks have suffered some unbelievable injustices that still sting and probably leave a psychological residue. But Hacker leaves unsaid the problem that blacks keep digging their own graves in a lot of ways. He seems to think white guilt is some kind of solution to the problem; but if he were to publish a second edition (the book was published in 1992), he would have to address the growing feeling among whites that they're just not buying it anymore. Nobody's saying pretend all those terrible things never happened--but nobody's holding a gun to your head telling you to start having babies in your teens, drop out of school, start dealing drugs, and commit crimes on your fellow citizens either. At some point you have to take some personal responsibility.

So if anybody wants to foam at the mouth and call me a neo-Nazi, go ahead...I'm just saying what most people would say if they were honest with themselves and each other.

Thisbook was sometimes interesting but
the plethora of percentages and numbers weigh it down. The views of the author were one sided and sometimes a little biased agaisnt the majority. This is a small quibble and does not really take away from the main message the author is trying to convey. This book is, however, quite an eye opener especially for those who believe that in this country all men are created equal. This book proves that it simply isn't so. ... Read more

Book Description
Although Cynthia Ann Parker never recounted her experiences as a captive of the Comanches (1836-60), her story is probably the most familiar of all the pioneer women captured by Indians in the Southwest. Margaret Hacker's five years of research have produced a balanced and dependable account of this tragic story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and the Legend
I suggest reading this book before reading "Ride the Wind". It serves as a chronicalled historical foundation before reading the novel "Ride the Wind" that will definitely prepare you for an unimaginable journey into the world of the American Indian of 150 years ago.

Straight-forward, focused, no frills or detours
This is a compact history ... but it does just what you want - gives what history is known of Cynthia Ann Parker. This is an excellent resource if you are wanting to know about Cynthia Ann Parker from the settler's perspective - the people she left behind, the family she had come from, and the search for her that continued throughout her 'captivity'.The author seems to steer clear of any area of conjecture, such as why Cynthia Ann got shuttled between family members after her return or what may have happened to her pension, and sticks only to documentable history.She also avoided sidetracking into the history of Cynthia Ann's famous son or the other people in her life except for as far as they pertain to Cynthia Ann's life.Focus is very tight, very informative.

The West's Most Famous Indian Captive
On May 19th, 1836 nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker, a member of a group of religious families occupying Fort Parker in Texas, witnessed the massacre of friends and relatives by combined bands of Caddos, Kiowas and Comanche warriors. Abducted by the Comanches, Cynthia was raised for the next 25 years as a tribal member and became "fully" Comanche, giving birth to Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief and one of the most influential intermediaries of his time, a representative of both the Native American and White cultures.Abducted a second time as an adult by a well-meaning Texas Ranger, Cynthia Ann was forced to return to White society, but mourned deeply for her Comanche family, ultimately starving herself to death out of grief.

Much lore and legend has grown around the story of Cynthia Ann Parker over the years, and it has often been difficult to separate the myth from the reality of her dramatic story.However, Margaret Schmidt Hacker has done just that.Over a period of five years, Ms. Hacker painstakingly researched the archives in Texas, Oklahoma, California and Washington, D.C. and objectively weighed all the accounts of Cynthia Ann's life. The result of her efforts is what is considered the most authoritative book on the subject.Although scholarly, it is at the same time, a gripping drama of the Texas prairies, and very readable by anyone with an interest in the Old West. Highly recommended reading.

Examining the Myth
Countless folk tales and sagas have focused on the story of Miss Parker, a captive of the Comanches for more than 15 years. Many of them deal only with her years as the mother of the famous Quanah Parker. Author MargaretSchmidt Hacker devoted five years to researching the life of the CynthiaAnn to reveal the history behind the myth. This is the tragic story of theabduction of a nine year old girl who returned reluctantly to white societywhen she was 24. A fascinating portrait of her life among the Comanches onthe Texas frontier. ... Read more

Book Description
Over the past decade, conservative Christian public law firms have been some of the most active and aggressive litigators in the nation. Their efforts have impacted important policy areas including religion in the Public Square, school prayer, gay rights, 'family values' and abortion policy. But the Fundamentalist Christian/Evangelical social movement is not monolithic. In this probing and judicious work, Hacker explores and clarifies the influence of ideology on the goals and behavior of three leading conservative Christian law firms and how they differ in agendas and approach. He provides rich interview narratives that shed light on interest group behavior and how it is influenced by internal group characteristics. ... Read more

Book Description
Analyze your company’s vulnerability to hacks with expert guidance from Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker’s Handbook. Discover advanced security tools and techniques such as fuzzing, reverse engineering, and binary scanning. Test systems using both passive and active vulnerability analysis. Learn to benefit from your role as a gray hat. Review ethical and legal issues and case studies. This unique resource provides leading-edge technical information being utilized by the top network engineers, security auditors, programmers, and vulnerability assessors. Plus, the book offers in-depth coverage of ethical disclosure and provides a practical course of action for those who find themselves in a "disclosure decision" position. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

thisbook is a waste of good paper
I have been condicting ethical hacking for 3 years and this book was such a let down,it falls well short in providing and good detailed content. Basically its the kind of stuff you learn on day 1 and shows no evidence of experience from an author who can hack into systems.My advise is save your money as this book covers nothing you wouldnt find on Google in 5 minutes. You know it is so bad I think I will write my own book.

My advise google, wireshark, nmap and netcat the content you get it 5 minutes will be as good as this book.

Another revolutionary book from a revolutionary author!
Now Listen...


I know some of you look at these books as if it's a world of training people to be hackers. Now, maybe these books might create a few bad seeds, but they usually create a lot of good ones..

This book is astounding, I bought this book because I love researching all about hacking, security, and protection. My major is computer science and I am hoping to be a professional white hat security professional, a hacker that is hired to show the flaws in sites.

Now,when people see these books and say...this is madness!! books about hacking?!

I think these books are great.They help you protect yourself, your computer, your company, your website, your server.

This book shows a lot what hackers use...and the more you know about it, the better you can protect yourself.If you think that this trains bad hackers, well we cant change how some people use information.What I can tell you is that a lot of people will be better off with the information in this book for the companies and servers.

This author is excellent!
Great book!

A good guide for the beginner ethical hacker.
There is alot of good knowledge to be learned in this book, but it is very cutthroat and dry. There are almost no "real world" examples of what they talk about, and alot of it talks about using programs that were created for linux.. Otherwise it is a good book, but I have read better.

i love GHH
i have read tonnes of books on this subject.starting from secrets of a super hacker by knightmare(published way back in 94, trust me dat was a great read n even 2day i find myself glued to da back as the first time i read it.now coming back 2 gray hat hacking.this is wat i would like 2 call the hacking reference book for the next generation.every one concerned about security should consider picking up this book.u might as well save some money n picking up more knowledge than any of the hacking exposed books in the market.no this book is not for button clicking script kiddies who play around wid trojans n claim to be hackers or web defacers(lamers).if u belong to da breed of script kiddies pick up this disgustin book by ankit fadia (oh by the way ive reviewed it).i wouuld liek to congradulate the authors for the outstanding work put into this book.howeever it would be great to see expanded materials on various topics and a little more detail in tool description.its not bad but it could still be better.so as i said before get dis book u wont regret it.so kiddies grow up keep those hacking exposed n ankit fadias books apart throw em in da firplace burn em do anythin .but go get dis one
laterzzzzzz

Covers more than the typical hacking book
"Gray Hat Hacking - The Ethical Hacker's Handbook" is not your normal hacking book.This book should not be lumped in with the "Hacking Exposed" series nor the likes of "Counter Hack".What differentiates Gray Hat Hacking (GHH) from other books is the amount of code the book offers.This book is not for script kiddies, but instead shows how to advance to the next level of hacking (and, more importantly, prevention) by devoting over 100 pages to developing programming skills for both Linux and Window exploits.I had not encountered a book that dedicated this much space to scripting.

The authors take a delicate balance at discussing tools that are well documented in other publications (ettercap, xploit2 & p0f), and mentioning some lesser known tools (sharefuzz, RATS and valgrind).While I believe there is no doubt that the authors know their material, I do agree with other reviewers in wishing GHH was simply expanded.I also like that GHH offers many referrences.Page for page, this book probably received more highlights than any other hacking book I own.

I give this book 4 pings out of 5:
!!!.! ... Read more

Book Description
Uncovering the development of the hacking toolset under Linux, this book teaches programmers the methodology behind hacker programming techniques so that they can think like an attacker when developing a defense. Analyses and cutting-edge programming are provided of aspects of each hacking item and its source code—including ping and traceroute utilities, viruses, worms, Trojans, backdoors, exploits (locals and remotes), scanners (CGI and port), smurf and fraggle attacks, and brute-force attacks. In addition to information on how to exploit buffer overflow errors in the stack, heap and BSS, and how to exploit format-string errors and other less common errors, this guide includes the source code of all the described utilities on the accompanying CD-ROM.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book... Learn C or you will be LOST!
I cracked the book to start reading and you are immediately shoved into programming an xping program. I had to stop and learn the parts of C that I am not as familier with. If you are looking for a great book to get you started on writing sec tools, then this is it! ... Read more

Book Description
One of the most gripping yet improbable stories spawned by the computer revolution, Hacker Crocker is a classic American-dream success story set on the razor edge of high technology. Ejovi Nuwere takes the reader on the roller-coaster ride of his extraordinary life, from the bullet-riddled, drugged-out streets of one of America's most notorious ghettos to a virtual world where identities shift and paranoia rules, where black-hat hackers and white-hat sleuths confront each other by day and switch roles at night in the ongoing war to control America's most sensitive computer systems. It is a story of an African American boy coming of age in the new millennium, a story that vibrates with the themes of American life, those we know and those we are just beginning to glimpse.

Like other neighborhood kids in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Ejovi Nuwere grew up among thugs and drug dealers. When he was eleven, he helped form a gang; when he was twelve, oppressed by the violence around him, he attempted suicide. In his large, extended family, one uncle was a career criminal, one a graduate student with his own computer. By the time Ejovi was fourteen, he was spending as much time on the computer as his uncle in college was. Within a year he was well on his way to a hacking career that would lead him to one of the most audacious and potentially dangerous computer break-ins of all time, secret until now.

Along the way, Ejovi found time to become a kickboxing champion and an aspiring actor. Before he finished high school he was combining these pursuits with his hidden life in the hacker underground and an increasingly prominent career as a computer security consultant. At the age of twenty-two he was a top security specialist for one of the world's largest financial houses when his life was forever altered in the cataclysm of September 11, 2001.

Hacker Cracker is at once the most candid revelation to date of the dark secrets of cyberspace and the simple, unaffected story of an inner-city child's triumph over shattering odds to achieve unparalleled success. This riveting autobiography is a Horatio Alger tale for our times: a thrilling, frightening, and ultimately uplifting story of survival and accomplishment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

The modern day mentor
Hacker Cracker is a technological thriller for all us geeks, hackers, and security students/professionals in the world. Ejovi details his rise from a dangerous neighborhood where drugs, murder, and gangs ran rampent tothe discovery of a whole new world where it didn`t matter what color you were, only how smart you were. At times I felt as though I was reading parts of my past, the beauty of the baud, discovering warez chatrooms on AOL, and doing things to explore and find more out about this world of cyberspace. Definitly a great read for anyone who has seen the underside of the computer world.

Not too bad
The beginning of the book is a bit boring. If you love reading biography of "a person", it's probably a good time killer. If you are looking for something exciting underground, keep looking, this book is not suitable.

Fun to remember but no substance
Hacker Cracker. Just the name caught my eye and so I bought it thinking it would be a similar to Masters of Deception or Mitnick story, but it wasn't. The entire book is just Mr. Nuwere recounting his exploits from America Online to large corporations, throwing in a good bit about the mean streets of New York, and rounding out (literally) with some non-relevant martial arts. After reading it I was really let down. I was looking for something a little more definitive about computer security, the evolution of it from the time he was a kid to now, etc. Sad to say Masters of Deception was a better book than this but nothing will ever come close to the writing talent, intrigue, and plain storytelling than Cliff Stoll's book the Cuckoo's Egg. Maybe in twenty years if Mr. Nuwere wrote another book and explained what he's learned after spending some time OUT of the mean streets then perhaps it'd be a better book. Right now it's just a feel good made for TV movie.

Why bother?
Insipid. When I saw this book I was interested by it seeing that Ejovi Nuwere was from Brooklyn where I grew up. Sounded like a good story...I'll read it I said.
Well, I was very disappointed. The book might as well be titled "My pride in leaving the inner-city and becoming a proto-yuppie". The writing of the book is at the level of Sports Illustrated for Kids and the depth of the book rises to a level little higher than Britney Spears pop music. Yes, he was from the 'hood but there is no emotion in his writing, no grit. The characters in his life seem plastic and secondary...certainly they are not, but Ejovi relegated them to this role so he could tell his American Dream how to become a content yuppie story. Let's hear more about the thoughts of his mother, his uncle, his brother, his neighborhood. Or perhaps this is too much to ask of him... Did he even know what was going on in the world or was he too plugged into his own egotistical cyber world that he did not live in the real world? As he said, he had a choice...to turn outward and be bad or turn inward and be essentially a reclusive person. What a choice...just imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X said that. Well, Ejovi turned inward and this self-centerdness is evident in this book.
If you want to learn about life in the inner-city pick up Sanyika Shakur's autobiography "Monster" or a Tupac Shakur CD, but please don't bother with this soulless, puerile book.

Nice try but doesn't come through
It attempts to be great but really nothing interesting. Mostly about his growing up in the bronx and if he does talk about computers then you have to know computer to know what he's talking about. I t tries to be good but fails because it's to much of a survey of his life in stead of a telling of it. skim over it if you can find it in your library but don't bother paying to read it because you'll surely be disappointed. ... Read more

Book Description

During the 1992 presidential campaign, health care reform became a hot issue, paving the way for one of the most important yet ill-fated social policy initiatives in American history: Bill Clinton's 1993 proposal for comprehensive coverage under "managed competition." Here Jacob Hacker not only investigates for the first time how managed competition became the president's reform framework, but also illuminates how issues and policies emerge. He follows Clinton's policy ideas from their initial formulation by policy experts through their endorsement by medical industry leaders and politicians to their inclusion--in a new and unexpected form--in the proposal itself. Throughout he explores key questions: Why did health reform become a national issue in the 1990s? Why did Clinton choose managed competition over more familiar options during the 1992 presidential campaign? What effect did this have on the fate of his proposal?

Drawing on records of the President's task force, interviews with a wide range of key policy players, and many other sources, Hacker locates his analysis within the context of current political theories on agenda setting. He concludes that Clinton chose managed competition partly because advocates inside and outside the campaign convinced him that it represented a unique middle road to health care reform. This conviction, Hacker maintains, blinded the president and his allies to the political risks of the approach and hindered the development of an effective strategy for enacting it.

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent, and not just about the Clinton Health Plan
This is a terrific and very well-written history of the Clinton health plan debacle.It includes a good precis' of major features of American health policy over a decade or more leading to the Clinton election.One of the key features - and the author is quite explicit - the Clinton plan is used as a case study of how American healthcare politics and the American political agenda in general work.Therefore, it is not just "history" of 1993 - it remains highly insightful and relevant for all of us watching healthcare debates and agendas in 2006, 2007, 2008. If you've read this book, you'll have a lot of "aha" moments that would have escaped you otherwise.And having a perspective so rich through the 1990's gives you a frame of reference for a lot of articles and authors and issues writing right now - most of them lived through the past decade's issues and the decade before. Hacker's most recent book is "The Great Risk Shift" which has gotten good reviews.But "Road to Nowhere" should be better-known and more widely read than it is.The only weakness for me is that he tries to build to a careful analysis of diverse political reasons why the proposal failed - my own non-historian hunch is that a sudden 500-page mysterious bill labeled as developed in secret by "hillary clinton" upending the status quo, was enough to sink it without a dozen subtle collateral reasons....

Brilliant Work
What Noam Chomsky is to politics, Jacob Hacker is to American Health Reform in the 1990s.In a concise and readable fashion, Hacker explains why universal health reforms started to spring up - almost form nowhere - to achieve major attention in the early 90s, only to recede into the periphery of political issues today.

Surprise, surprise, it has little to do with principles and everything to do with being a potential winning election issue. Hacker details in depth how Jim Carville and co. used the health issue to give Democratic Senate hopeful Harris Wofford a come-from-behind win, only to gravitate to then Governor Clinton's Presidential bid the following year with a similar strategy.The critical role of the New York Times editorial board in "agenda setting" the issue of "managed competition" (while simultaneously squelching more liberal options like a single payer system), is outlined in detail.What's most striking is Clinton's almost naive belief that, if he proffered a sufficiently "centrist" bill, Republicans would have to negotiate with him.The book clearly details the various actors and how they affected not only Clinton's thinking, but the range of "practical" health reform options.

If you read one book on US health policy, make it this one. ... Read more

Book Description
This unique report gives a perfect overview, what hackers are able to, how they act and how to protect a system. It's easy to read (not heavy to read like all other books around hacking) and fascinating.

More than 200,000 peoples in all over the world (USA and Germany) already read this report. Now they act more carefully in the internet. PLUS: The book contains a login and password to an online readers area with tools, articles and a special hacking and security search engine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Got my items :)
i read these bad reviews but still risked ordering from their site the hackers black book+CD
am happy to say i got it today (in 2 weeks,live in canada)
:) now to test the stuff i have gotten... maybe tommorow lol :)

Outdated, shallow, not worth 1% of its price...
Outdated

I finished reading this book in two hours time. My first thought after finishing it was "is this the book I spent $12.21 + shipping?":

1. The book's edition is 2003. This was when Windoze XP was available in the market. The information presented in the book is about Win98. Even the screenshots are from Internet Explorer 4. There are even references to Win95 and NT.
2. The book presents how to use the so-called "hacking programs". If you can speak English (at least you are reading these lines), I think a button on a program interface labeled "Start Server" gives you enough information about what that particular button will do. This means, you will not have to read something like 30 pages out of 139.
3. The book gives you the source code of "I love you" virus and explains briefly the functions and subs on the code. Again, if you can speak English, you can perfectly understand a call in the function saying regcreate (create an entry in the registry) listadriv (list a drive) etc. There is no need to speak about what to source code does. This information covers about 10 pages. So, together with item 2, you do not need 40 pages out of 139.
4. "I love you" virus (a.k.a. LoveLetter) was in effect in the year 2000. Then there was Melissa and other virii & trojans around upto 2003. The book mentions none of them.
5. The book only gives the explanation of the LoveLetter virus. This is a macro virus. What about other types of viruses? There is no single line about "Terminate but Stay Resident (TSR)". How can you speak about virii without mentioning TSR? This is the only explanation why people do not see the virii present in their computers when they check the running processes.
6. The book is totally about Windoze Operating System. There are some references to Unix/Linux like "Don't utilize Win on your server, consider Unix/Linux". Can N*X systems be referred like that? Apache, holding the majority of the web servers, are referred to as "Apache is one of the best you can get"! Sorry, but there is something wrong here.
7. The book's name is "Important Hacking and Security Informations for Every Internet User". Let me tell you the information contained in this book about the title: If you are webmaster, put password-protected files in .htaccess. If you are a user, do not download files from unknown/untrusted sources, use a firewall, do not trust people you met on the internet. I hope I am not violating any rights of the author/publisher by summarizing the book in two sentences.

I am not a cracker. I am just a person you would consider as a "computer guy". Even for a person like me, this book is "superlight". If you are reading some computer magazines like Chip or PCWorld or the like, then do not bother yourself buying this book. You are probably knowing more than everything written in the book.

I can't believe myself that I bought this book!

Not usefull at all
I thought it was gonna be an interesting book with some hints regarding hacking. Unfortunately it contains only links to web pages for cracking programs! Don't bother buying this book.

The Hackers Black Book and Company Gain Ground
Before purchase of this book, I too had read the negative reviews with no fulfillment, never got the book, its a scam kind of feedback. Yes this book is for beginners and was never advertised as anything more from what I can tell? As an individual who represents the Hacker Community from the usual base of ignorance,this is a non-objective first timers look at Hacker methodology, not a cut and dry way to hack?(good or bad)
Take it for what it is... a way for the curious to understand more of this often misunderstood world. Got the book timely, support was significant...enough said?
Blaze

Hacker's Black Book
After reading the previous comments I got concern about my order. I received the english version from Ingo Haesse within 4 days. Apparently USA is not Europe...
The book is a good introduction tothe Hacker's wolr. Covers most of therelated topics but keeps the main messages at an educational level. Consequently, easy to understand and motivates to get going. "Steal this computer 3" will be the next book to read.

Ingo, danke schoen!

White Hat ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Life-Changing, Sexy, Alive...
A pregnant pause between word three and four of one of these sonnets changed my life.Hacker writes an accessible, witty, beautiful, tender, sexy masterpiece (a novel, really) which has become, since its pub date, afolk rite-of-passage for many readers (even non-poetry lovers), apole-raising standard for other poets, and the source for many phrasesworth remembering: from "age is not the muddle of the matter" tothe rhyming of "fit of pique" with "geste heroique."This is a page-turning classic -- erudite, lyrical, and peopled by womenone would want to know.A smart person's tour de force!

Beginning to end of a love affair in sonnet form?!!
One of my favorite books of poetry ever.No matter the gender of my lover, this is the book I read when things are going great...and when they fall apart.Sexy, deep, and gorgeous language.I'm always grateful she'saround.

Stepping carefully through old relations
Marilyn Hacker through her poetry describes her life with her lover, both in New York and Paris.She, being older, talks about insecurities and the torture of being away from the one you love.From the first meeting to the phone call goodbye, Marilyn describes the appropriate lust over another person.This poetry is amazing. ... Read more

Book Description
You ever open your locker and find that some joker has left something really weird inside?

Seventh-grader Dorso Clayman opens his locker door to find a dead body.

Thirty seconds later it disappears.

It’s not the first bizarre thing that has appeared in his locker and then vanished.

Something’s going on.

Somebody has decided to make Dorso and his buddy Frank the target of some strange techno-practical jokes. The ultimate gamesters have hacked into the time line, and things from the past are appearing in the present. Soon, the jokes aren’t funny anymore—they’re dangerous. Dorso and Frank have got to beat the time hackers at their own game by breaking the code, before they get lost in the past themselves.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Nice young-adult sci-fi short story
I think my perception may be biased in favor of this book because I both read and write young-adult sci-fi. And looking at how thin this book is, I went into it expecting a short story, not a novel. And I got just what I was looking for -- a fun, quick read paced for young teens. I enjoyed it. At the same time, I understand other reviews of this book that wanted the depth of a full-length novel. Frankly, I agree I would have enjoyed having more meat on the bones of this book and that it would have been even better. But that's not what it is. It's a short story written for middle grades. And a fun one.

excellent book
Very exciting and imaginative book. Excellent for young readers. Only wish it were longer-didn't want it to end.

Had to force myself to read this
I am an elementary teacher and have a tendancy to read more childrens books than adult books. This book was only 87 pages long but took me just as long to read as some 300-400 page books I picked up over the summer. I actually had to force myself to finish reading it. While I think that the story idea itself was interesting, the characters were not very well developed and the events seemed to jump from one to another rather too quickly. Definitely the worst book I read this summer...I will not be taking back to school in the fall and recommending it to my students.

Mediocre story is not the worst of its problems
Gary Paulsen has churned out an unoriginal tale peopled with cardboard characters in his novel Time Hackers.Which is unfortunate from this skilled and award-winning author, but not uncommon in this category of fiction.However, if that were the only problem, I'd give this book 2, possibly 3 stars, as a quick, harmless bit of fluff for kids.

Unfortunately, while this book is fluff, it isn't harmless.I'm no prude or fundamentalist.In fact, I consider myself to be a classical liberal, and I've spent 42 years reading both widely and deeply within the realm of English language literature, including my studies in grad school.Not that this fact means anything, other than I'm not some small-minded provincial, who doesn't understand that literature (at its best) is a look at the human condition.

And yet, it means something that I would even need to make such a dislaimer for what I'm about to say, and therein, perhaps, lies part of the problem.

I make a habit of reading the books my kids read.It doesn't take much time or effort (even one of the Harry Potter tomes is only a matter of a few hours) and it keeps me in touch, opening the door to many hours of enjoyable conversation with my children about an artform that is dear to my heart.Thus, when my daughter brought this book home, I picked it up and breezed through it.

After which I decided my daughter didn't need to be--in fact shouldn't be--subjected to a story in which the driving force behind one of the two main characters is his desire to see the famous women of history naked.Had this been something in passing, a quick gag, that would have been one thing.But this subplot literally comes up every few pages; it is, in fact, the very substance of the character in question.

I am well aware that the YA (or teen) category of fiction has long since mainstreamed sex as an explorable topic--but do we really want to sexualize elementary school students?Besides, this isn't even a positive sexual message.The character doesn't see these women as anything other than objects, their places in history notwithstanding.

Perhaps Paulsen thinks this character merely refelcts reality.And to some degree he's probably correct.But is this really the place for that sort of reflection?Does it matter that my daughter (and many other people's daughters) might in some small way come to think of themselves as mere sex objects?Sexuality is wonderful, but it should not be the way girls--or boys, for that matter--judge their self worth.

Indeed, I've nothing whatsoever against human sexuality.(Once again, it seems strange that I should even feel the need to make such a disclaimer, lest my commentary be dismissed offhand--is that truly where we are as a society?)But there is a time and a place for everything.And what is essentially a chapter book aimed at elementary school kids is not the place for misogyny played for laughs.

That's one dad's opinion, anyway.

Time travel at its best!
This is a great, fast-paced story for those who like sci/fi time travel adventures! Dorso is a "regular" kid who lives in the future (the story never says exactly what date it is). He has afriend, Frank, who's the comic relief in the book. Someone is playing a prank on them - they keep getting transported (it only lasts for about 60 seconds) back in time. They see glimpses of Beethoven, Custer, wooly mammoths, Gettysburg, etc. - these are the best parts of the story. The dialogue between the boys gets a little repetitive and boring at times - it seems like they keep saying the same things at times. But overall, if you like computers, technology, adventure, mystery, and suspense - you'll like this book! ... Read more

Book Description
The sexy, elegant design of the Apple PowerBook combined with the Unix-like OS X operating system based on FreeBSD, have once again made OS X the Apple of every hackers eye. In this unique and engaging book covering the brand new OS X 10.4 Tiger, the worlds foremost true hackers unleash the power of OS X for everything form cutting edge research and development to just plain old fun.

OS X 10.4 Tiger is a major upgrade for Mac OS X for running Apples Macintosh computers and laptops. This book is not a reference to every feature and menu item for OS X. Rather, it teaches hackers of all types from software developers to security professionals to hobbyists, how to use the most powerful (and often obscure) features of OS X for wireless networking, WarDriving, software development, penetration testing, scripting administrative tasks, and much more.

* Analyst reports indicate that OS X sales will double in 2005. OS X Tiger is currently the #1 selling software product on Amazon and the 12-inch PowerBook is the #1 selling laptop

* Only book on the market directly appealing to groundswell of hackers migrating to OS X

* Each chapter written by hacker most commonly associated with that topic, such as Chris Hurley (Roamer) organizer of the World Wide War Drive ... Read more

Book Description

The Have-Nots is the winner of the 2006 German Book Prize for best novel and was praised by the jury for having confronted our age's most pressing issues: "Her protagonists are in their thirties, they know it all but know nothing of themselves. . . . Their questions are our questions."