Reuters cyber security reporter Joseph Menn (Fatal System Error) paints a mostly positive picture of one of the world's greatest hacking groups in Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World. The book doesn't argue that the Cult of the Dead Cow, a secretive and decades-old hacking group with influential members, will save the world. Instead, Menn suggests the bright minds and talented people the group consistently attracts have the capacity to help the cause of human rights in the digital era.
He carefully traces the origins of the group back to the pre-Internet age, when bored and often disaffected teenagers messed around with dial-up bulletin boards, sharing farcical, sometimes subversive material. Later chapters reveal how each founding member of the Cult of the Dead Cow became part of the "hacktivism" movement once the Internet took off in the 1990s. Hackers in the group began targeting mainstream software, finding and alerting companies to vulnerabilities. Their interests eventually branched out into human rights, as many found themselves on the frontlines of cyber war between repressive regimes and democratic activists. Members of the Cult of the Dead Cow went from being on the wrong side of the law to working for intelligence agencies, private security firms and some of the biggest companies in tech, like Facebook.
Menn writes crisply, with the appetite of an investigative journalist. Some of his digressions on technical aspects of hacking can be jargon-heavy, and the list of characters seems to grow exponentially, but for the most part, Menn delivers one riveting tidbit after another, weaving a tapestry of political intrigue. The book never lacks relevance. Some of the most fascinating passages delve into China's Great Firewall, WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden and the Russian hacking activities during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. At his best, Menn shows how hackers are a deeply connected and often misunderstood community who have done extraordinary things for the betterment of humankind. His book tackles tough ethical questions of security, privacy and freedom of expression.
Well researched and smartly written, Cult of the Dead Cow will certainly appeal to technologists and computer enthusiasts but also to the layperson interested in a new and fraught era of cyber geopolitics. --Scott Neuffer, writer, poet, editor of trampset
Shelf Talker: This account of one of the world's greatest hacking groups reveals the new frontiers of cyber security and geopolitics.