Underground (Dreyfus book)

Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier is a 1997 book by Suelette Dreyfus, researched by Julian Assange. It describes the exploits of a group of Australian, American, and British black hat hackers during the late 1980s and early 1990s, among them Assange himself.

Underground
Cover of the German edition of Underground
AuthorSuelette Dreyfus
SubjectHackers, Computer security
PublisherReed Books Australia
Publication date
1997
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePaperback
Pages475
ISBN1-86330-595-5
OCLC37877053
364.1680922
LC ClassHV6773.3.A8
Websitehttp://underground-book.net/

The book also mentions other hackers who had contacts with the protagonists, among them Erik Bloodaxe of the Legion of Doom and Corrupt of the Masters of Deception.

The first chapter of Underground relates the diffusion and reactions of the computer security community to the WANK worm that attacked DEC VMS computers over the DECnet in 1989 and was purportedly coded by a Melbourne hacker.

As of 2010, the book has sold 10,000 copies.[3] The author made the electronic edition of the book freely available in 2001, when it was announced on Slashdot, the server housing the book crashed due to the demand for the book.[4] It reached 400,000 downloads within two years.[3]

The 2002 documentary In the Realm of the Hackers, directed by Kevin Anderson and centered on Phoenix and Electron, was inspired by this book.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Khatchadourian, Raffi (June 7, 2010). "No Secrets". The New Yorker.
  2. ^ Underground, Chapter 8 (naming the three members of the IS group)
  3. ^ a b Lagan, Bernard (10 April 2010). "International man of mystery". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  4. ^ "A Recipe Straight From the Heart". Wired. 13 February 2001.
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