Joseph Menn

“The more powerful machines become, the sharper human ethics have to be.” Joseph Menn frames the discussion very well and his book, “Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World”, is a good overview of the members of the online group Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) and many of their activities, I felt like it was all a bit wide ranging and disjointed. I didn’t really see a through line for the story, it felt like a collection of stories about discrete incidents and actions. That being said it is written in a clear style that manages to communicate information about the hacking while being readable. I did often get confused about the multitude of characters and sometimes the timelines were hard to follow, but I enjoyed the stories being told. This is important information to think about. “If the combination of mindless, profit-seeking algorithms, dedicated geopolitical adversaries, and corrupt US opportunists over the past few years has taught us anything, it is that serious applied thinking is a form of critical infrastructure.” There are some fun reveals, especially about the identity of one of CDCs members that happens near the end of the book, but overall I liked this book but didn’t love it.… (meer)

A good introduction (and really the definitive account) of the cDc, one of the more self-referential and entertaining hacker groups of the 90s (technically 1984-now, but seemed at peak in the late 90s). Interesting for a variety of reasons, particularly how accomplished some of their members are -- heads of security, research, etc. for both large enterprises and security companies, DARPA, and a Congressman (and later Senatorial and Presidential candidate). As someone who was never in cDc but was around during a lot of these events (and know many of the members directly), this seems like a very true-to-life book about a weirder-than-life topic.… (meer)

Ironically not very honest about the group's activities, with its own agenda. Showing how a group started by a bunch of teenagers who were basically asshats, transformed into idealistic 20 somethings who want to change the world, 30 somethings who want to get paid and then eventually just joinef the government and big corporations to oppress the next bunch of asshats. The cycle of life: complete. Throw in a bunch of character assassinations and a political bias (have a guess which side) and you're probably better off reading ae.… (meer)