Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:46:38 +1000 (AEST)
From: John Midgley <jmidgley@cyberjunkie.com>
To: feedback@underground-book.net
Subject: A review.

I've cut a lot of what I wanted to say out of this review because
it isnt relevant, but I've left one or two things which I needed
to say.

It should be said that I read the book from at least three different
perspectives, and none as an expert.  Firstly, as someone who was
a part of the Melbourne BBS scene after '89.  I appeared two months
after Bowen pulled the plug on Pacific Island and Zen.

I was surprised by the way the book captured the spirit of this
period.  Both the above board component (pun intended), and the
underground.  The sharing of ideas, the sense of exploring the new
technology in a secure environment where everybody was there for
the fun of it, and the "meets" or social gatherings where tens or
hundreds of people would turn out.

It also surprises me that it had the effect it did on me even though
I saw a very small part of it (according to the book, there was
much more).  I have always strongly suspected that I would never
experience that community feeling again in my lifetime and I am
sorry I missed most of it.

Secondly, I write from the perspective of someone who worked as a
junior Unix (and other systems) system administrator during the
periods covered in the book.  For a large organization in one of
the companies that was broken into in fact.  There is strong evidence
that the organization itself was was broken into.

The company and people within it had little reguard or respect for
me, and so I took great delight years after the fact in seeing the
effect that the discovery had on my managers.  The mere suggestion
that someone from outside could actualy bypass all their very
expensive and carefuly (read badly) laid security without them
knowing!

Of course a less than careful explorer could have an extremely bad
effect on the company and its customers, but I notice that this
company (and others) are constantly searching for experienced,
competent professionals in many technical fields.

Thirdly, I have been following the school of "noble" hackers (for
want of a better phrase in this context) that despise the use of
the word "hacker" in any criminal context.  These hackers are "truly
wizardly programmers" and extremely capable in other respects.
Generaly these peoples skills are in demand since they are amongst
industries best, even at an early stage in their careers.

From this perspective it is clear that some of the individuals in
this book were in the early stages of "noble hacker" existance.
ie, they were programming obsessivly, being more interested in the
challenge rather than any other gains, and being anti-authoritarian
(although much more so than the hacker profile would suggest).  It
is refered to as "Larval Stage" and is considered to be necessary
to being a good hacker.  There are many more similarities, even in
the ways they lead their lives after the story ends.

It astounds me that society (and these organizations) beat these
valuble resources that come naturaly out of people when it's so
difficult, time consuming and failure prone to try to put them into
people in the first place.  And not nearly as effective.

I have my views on what should be done about this and I'm sure you
have yours, but enough rambling.  In short, the book is a great
real life thriller, contains enough technical information to impress
anyone who can appreciate it, and reiterates some important questions
about our legal system and how we educate our children.

References: The Jargon File.


John Midgley
jmidgley@cyberjunkie.com