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9781541706118

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""Cult of the Dead Cow is an exhilarating and essential look into a part of the hacker underground that has shaped the modern world in profound ways. Readers will be amazed by this crew of eccentric, impassioned geniuses who have so often served as the Internet's conscience while lurking unknown in the shadows. The depth of Joe Menn's reporting is as astonishing as his storytelling - no one could have captured this tale better.""--Ashlee Vance, author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future ""Cult of the Dead Cow reveals a story few know about the origins of white hat hacking and the heroes it celebrates. Despite the title, hacking isn't dead yet!""--Vint Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet ""A beautifully researched, engrossingly told story about how CDC and its members and offshoot groups invented much of what has become normal in the modern practice of tech and security...Menn zeroes in on a perfect spot between the personalities and the tools, and in so doing, answers some important questions about how we arrived at the place we're at today, where information security is at the heart of questions of national security, human rights, free speech, and the survival of our democracies and our species itself.""--Cory Doctorow, author of LittleBrother and Homeland ""A must-read for anyone who cares about how we broke the internet...and how we just might save it.""--Dustin Volz, Wall StreetJournal security reporter ""An invaluable resource. The tale of this small but influential group is a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the internet age.""--New York Times Book Review ""Long before there was a multi-billion dollar cyber industry, there were some ethical hackers who showed us that the Silicon Valley emperors had no clothes. They looked like misfits, but they showed us how insecure the Internet was and how to make it better. Joe Menn makes this previously untold story entertaining and relevant to today's cyber threats.""--Richard A. Clarke, first White House ""Cyber Czar"" ""The author narrates a fast-paced story about how a little-known movement that could trace its roots to the psychedelic rock of the 1960s-one visionary was the son of the Jefferson Airplane's drummer, while another was a lyricist for the Grateful Dead-would eventually serve as security advisory for the Pentagon, the cybernetics industry, and geopolitical forces around the globe... A quick tale of black hats and white hats, with a lot of gray area in between.""--Kirkus Reviews ""This dramatic story of how the Internet's first hackers learned to handle their outsized abilities can help us grapple to control the power of today's technology titans.""--Bruce Schneier, Harvard fellow and lecturer and author of Click Here to Kill Somebody

Author Information

Joseph Menn is an investigative reporter on cybersecurity and disinformation at The Washington Post, where he was a co-finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He previously wrote for Reuters, Financial Times, and Los Angeles Times. His other books include Fatal System Error and All the Rave. He lives in San Francisco, California.

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