- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Viking Canada; First Edition edition (Sep 30 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670067482
- ISBN-13: 978-0670067480
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 458 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#92,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Security
- #20 in Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Biographies
- #39 in Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Hacking
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
In early 2000, the websites of CNN, Yahoo, E*Trade, Dell, Amazon, and eBay ground to a halt for several hours, causing panic everywhere from the White House to suburbia and around the world. After 2 months and hundreds of hours of wiretapping, the FBI and RCMP staged a late-night raid to apprehend the most wanted man in cyberspace—a 15-year-old kid, Mafiaboy. 8 years later, Mafiaboy, a.k.a.Michael Calce, has ignored requests from every major media outlet in North America and has not told a word of his story—until now. Using his experience as a cautionary tale, Calce takes the reader through the history of hacking and how it has helped make the internet the new frontier for crime in the 21st century.
About the Author
Craig Silverman is a journalist and the founder of RegretTheError.com, a Web site compiling media errors that receives tens of thousands of visitors every month. He is a columnist for the Globe and Mail and for Hour, a Montreal weekly, and his writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Montreal Gazette, and Editor & Publisher.
Michael Calce gained noteriety as the hacker Mafiaboy. He now uses his knowledge to help people and businesses protect themselves online.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A quick look at hacker culture,
By
This review is from: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken (Hardcover)
For those of you with memories that go far back enough, back in February 2000, several large scale Denial of Service (DoS) attacks went out to sites such as Amazon, CNN, and E*Trade.The attacks were large enough that they crippled the aforementioned sites and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of lost productivity and revenue. After a joint investigation by the FBI and RCMP, the culprit was identified by his on-line username: Mafiaboy.This book details how the then 15 year old went about creating his DoS attacks and why he did it. The book also provides a brief glimpse in to hacker culture and the oneupmanship that takes place in this community. Yes, mafiaboy (real name Michael Calce) does his share of bragging and at times it does seem to be a bit much. But then again if you crashed some of the larger sites on the internet, wouldn't you be bragging as well? In short I liked this book. It was well written and I found it to be very interesting to read. If you're in to hacker culture and are interested in those internet attacks low-those years ago, then give this book a read.
5 of 11 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Worth The Read,
By
This review is from: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken (Hardcover)
Mafiaboy - How I Cracked The Internet & Why It's Still Broke reads more like a "what I did last summer" essay combined with a school research project than a true authoritative look at the problems inherent with security and the internet. I found Mr. Calce's tale to be built more on ego and teenage swagger than on remorse. Granted, he did learn some good coding skills in his early career, but I find it hard to believe that an otherwise seemingly well-behaved kid had no foresight into the wrongness of his activities. At times I did wonder who he was trying to convince - himself, his family, or readers - that his foray into piracy, hacking and bot herding was nothing more than an innocent quest for knowledge gone wrong.While I understand the lure of power and being able to do something no one else (or very few) can do, Mr. Calce broke the law, and he deserved all he got. Although he cautions others against following in his footsteps as the end result is not worth the brief intoxication of power, my respect falls on the side of the RCMP and FBI agents who put an end to Mafiaboy's thoughtless attacks. I do not feel that his inclusion of very basic internet security information in any way redeems the millions of dollars in damage and lost time he caused. I freely admit to harbouring ill-feelings towards script-kiddies and bot herders - feelings developed through firsthand experiences as our own network fell victim to botnet DDoS attacks. That said, I tried to not let that experience influence my opinion of this book, and I think that for the most part I succeeded. I was able to read this book more from an educated point of view in regards to internet and network security rather than as a neophyte. However, try as I might, I found very few redeeming qualities in Mafiaboy. He alone did not crack the internet as the title seems to imply - there were many before him and many more after him who saw the internet as their personal crime-filled playing field. I don't understand why Mr. Calce felt that a full-blown book was required in order to "clear the air" other than to draw further attention to what he did and perhaps earn himself a little notoriety and fame within a new generation of young internet criminals. Despite his words to the contrary, I view Michael Calce's book as nothing more than a way to make money from his crimes. Perhaps this is why there is yet another version of his book being published in 2009 - but the new title is "Mafiaboy - A Portrait of the Hacker As A Young Man" - perhaps others took exception to the boastful claim in his title - or perhaps there was another reason, but either way, it's a new title I won't be picking up - reading this story once was more than enough for me.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Worth The Read,
By T. Quiring - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken (Hardcover)
Mafiaboy - How I Cracked The Internet & Why It's Still Broke reads more like a "what I did last summer" essay combined with a school research project than a true authoritative look at the problems inherent with security and the internet. I found Mr. Calce's tale to be built more on ego and teenage swagger than on remorse. Granted, he did learn some good coding skills in his early career, but I find it hard to believe that an otherwise seemingly well-behaved kid had no foresight into the wrongness of his activities. At times I did wonder who he was trying to convince - himself, his family, or readers - that his foray into piracy, hacking and bot herding was nothing more than an innocent quest for knowledge gone wrong.While I understand the lure of power and being able to do something no one else (or very few) can do, Mr. Calce broke the law, and he deserved all he got. Although he cautions others against following in his footsteps as the end result is not worth the brief intoxication of power, my respect falls on the side of the RCMP and FBI agents who put an end to Mafiaboy's thoughtless attacks. I do not feel that his inclusion of very basic internet security information in any way redeems the millions of dollars in damage and lost time he caused. I freely admit to harbouring ill-feelings towards script-kiddies and bot herders - feelings developed through firsthand experiences as our own network fell victim to botnet DDoS attacks. That said, I tried to not let that experience influence my opinion of this book, and I think that for the most part I succeeded. I was able to read this book more from an educated point of view in regards to internet and network security rather than as a neophyte. However, try as I might, I found very few redeeming qualities in Mafiaboy. He alone did not crack the internet as the title seems to imply - there were many before him and many more after him who saw the internet as their personal crime-filled playing field. I don't understand why Mr. Calce felt that a full-blown book was required in order to "clear the air" other than to draw further attention to what he did and perhaps earn himself a little notoriety and fame within a new generation of young internet criminals. Despite his words to the contrary, I view Michael Calce's book as nothing more than a way to make money from his crimes. Perhaps this is why there is yet another version of his book being published in 2009 - but the new title is "Mafiaboy - A Portrait of the Hacker As A Young Man" - perhaps others took exception to the boastful claim in his title - or perhaps there was another reason, but either way, it's a new title I won't be picking up - reading this story once was more than enough for me. 13 of 18 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible book,
By C. Wareham "the bass thing" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken (Hardcover)
"Mafiaboy" was what computer professionals typically call a "script kiddie" - someone who gets their kicks from running programs written by others, in an attempt to block other peoples websites, or gain access to their machines. They are the computer equivalent of vandals, with little or no understanding of how the programs they run actually work and Mafiaboy fits this profile precisely, as his own book proves. This is a turgid account of how he ran a few programs he downloaded off of the internet, took down a couple of websites, and then got arrested. The fact that he now makes a living as a "security consultant" is laughable - I doubt he does much more than reiterate common sense statements such as "don't run software of unknown provenance" or "don't click on links in dodgy looking emails", as on the strength of this book he knows very little about computer security from a programmers perspective.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A boring read,
By Fly_Guy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken (Hardcover)
This was an absolutely boring, horrible read. It repeats the same stuff over and over, and that's because there isn't anything to make a story out of here. Spoiled rich kid gets computer, spoiled rich kid learns he can get away with stuff online and so becomes a skiddie and in an effort to prove he's not a loser (which failed btw) he takes down a few websites.This book isn't interesting - he really didn't do anything to marvel over. He did the equivalent of defacing some websites but in a more grand way. You want an interesting read? Check out Kingpin, Ghost in the Wires, or The Watchman - those were/are some talented fellas. Max Vision might be the greatest hacker of all time, albeit careless and stupid in some areas. This is a definite skip for anyone - i'm thankful for free epub downloads and the ability to skip pages ahead at a time or i'd really be upset. |
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