Suelette Dreyfus - Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier

Dr Suelette Dreyfus is an award-winning writer and journalist. In addition to writing the first major book about computer hacking in Australia, Underground, she was the Associate Producer of a documentary about hackers. Her articles have appeared in magazines and newspapers such as The Independent (London), The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian. She began work on Underground while completing her PhD. She is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, where she runs several major research projects in information systems.

Julian Assange is an internet activist, journalist and publisher. Born and raised in Australia, Julian is the founder, spokesperson, and editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website that started in 2006. In 2010, WikiLeaks began to publish hundreds of thousands of classified details about American involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which created a media storm. At the end of 2010, the site published a series of classified US diplomatic cables, now known as Cablegate.

An astonishing book. Bernard Lagan, The Age

This is not just another book about the Internet; its an entirely original focus on the bizarre lives and crimes of an extraordinary group of teenage hackers... Gripping, eminently readable... Dreyfus has uncovered one of this countrys best kept secrets and in doing so has created a highly intense and enjoyable read. Rolling Stone

In this riveting, real-life yarn, Dreyfus develops a meticulously researched psychological and social profile of hackers... [She] makes the esoteric world of the hacker accessible to the average reader. Australian Bookseller & Publisher

Historians often bemoan the loss of written records of day-to-day life, a process that started in earnest when the telephone began ousting mail in mainstream communications. Computers have led to an even greater fall in permanent written records in the last 20 years. Which is just one reason why Suelette Dreyfus Underground is such a valuable work. Dreyfus is not (as the publicity for the book might lead us to believe) blowing the whistle on todays computer hackers, with all the Big Brother/pornscape fear-mongering that might entail. Instead, shes documenting the recent history of computer culture... the things they [the hackers] occasionally discover, and the over-reaction of those around them, are genuinely fascinating. Dreyfus does not attempt any sleights of hand with jargon... The true stories of Underground are simply compelling. David Nichols, The Big Issue

So mysterious are computer hackers, so deeply anonymous and sinister, that they almost seem more legend than reality. So it comes as some sort of relief to have them flushed out into the open by Suelette Dreyfus in Underground, the first Australian book to document the activities and psychopathology of hackers... Dreyfus has researched her subject comprehensively and transformed archival data and interviews into a hard-to-put-down narrative... Underground is a landmark book in its disclosures about this dark underbelly of the information technology revolution. It raises questions about society and family values, education, corporate security, police procedures and the ability of the legal system to deal with this new form of crime. And it is a riveting read. Samela Harris, Adelaide Advertiser

I couldnt put Underground down during a long flight last week... [the authors] frank and unabashed account of an eclectic mix of home-grown hackers and their overseas counterparts makes compelling reading for those of us who want more than just salacious and hyped snippets... Underground is backed up by detailed technical research... She puts flesh on the bones of many of these teenage rebels, who have made a counter-culture protest against the telcos, Big Brother, the Feds, the military and other authoritarian figures... The dark side of their lives is revealed in all its... ruthlessness... surrounded in many instances by surprisingly mundane... brick veneer homes. Trudie MacIntosh, The Australian

Im grateful to Ms Dreyfus for introducing me to a number of first-rate subversives. And my joy knew no bounds when I discovered that some of the best of the electronic anarchists were Australian. At a time when the countrys going down the gurgler, it was good to feel a rush of national pride. Phillip Adams, Late Night Live, Radio National

Underground is an adventure book for the brain... Cowboys... roamed unpatrolled electronic frontiers. Some made it into the systems of powerful organisations, [where] the hackers would leave their mark akin to flashing a virtual brown-eye [and]... cause chaos to the powers that be. Underground takes us inside these gods of a new technology... Its an action story. Sarah Macdonald, Triple J Radio

This digital edition first published in 2011 by
Canongate Books, 14 High Street
Edinburgh, EH1 1TE

First published by Reed Books Australia in 1997

Copyright 1997, 2001, 2011 Suelette Dreyfus
Copyright 2001, 2011 Researchers Introduction Julian Assange

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
on request from the British Library

eISBN: 978 0 85786 260 0

www.canongate.tv

There are many people who were interviewed for this work, and many others who helped in providing documents so vital for fact checking. Often this help involved spending a considerable amount of time explaining complex technical or legal matters. I want to express my gratitude to all these people, some of whom prefer to remain anonymous, for their willingness to dig through the files in search of yet one more report and their patience in answering yet one more question.

I want to thank the members of the computer underground, past and present, who were interviewed for this book. Most gave me extraordinary access to their lives, for which I am very grateful.

I also want to thank Julian Assange for his tireless research efforts. His superb technical expertise and first-rate research is evidence by the immense number of details which are included in this book.

Three exceptional women Fiona Inglis, Deb Callaghan and Jennifer Byrne believed in my vision for this book and helped me to bring it to fruition. Carl Harrison-Fords excellent editing job streamlined a large and difficult manuscript despite the tight deadline. Thank you also to Judy Brookes.

A very special thank you goes to Patrick Mangan, Nikki Christer, Larissa Edwards and the Random House Australia team for putting together this new edition with such care and attention to detail despite the ticking clock. I am also very grateful to the following people and organisations for their help (in no particular order): John McMahon, Ron Tencati, Kevin Oberman, Ray Kaplan, the New York Daily News library staff, the New York Post library staff, Bow Street Magistrates Court staff, Southwark Court staff, the US Secret Service, the Black Mountain Police, Michael Rosenberg, Michael Rosen, Melbourne Magistrates Court staff, D.L. Sellers & Co. staff, Victorian County Court staff, Paul Galbally, Mark Dorset, Suburbia.net, Freeside Communications, Greg Hooper, H&S Support Services, Peter Andrews, Kevin Thompson, Andrew Weaver, Mukhtar Hussain, Helen Meredith, Ivan Himmelhoch, Michael Hall, Donn Ferris, Victorian State Library staff, News Limited library staff (Sydney), Allan Young, Ed DeHart, Annabel Blay, Annette Seeber, Arthur Arkin, Doug Barnes, Jeremy Porter, James McNabb, Carolyn Ford, ATA, Domini Banfield, Alistair Kelman, Ann-Maree Moodie, Jane Hutchinson, Catherine Murphy, Norma Hawkins, N. Llewelyn, Christine Assange, Russell Brand, Matthew Bishop, Matthew Cox, Michele Ziehlky, Andrew James, Brendan McGrath, News Limited, Pearson Williams Solicitors, Tami Friedman, the Free Software Foundation (GNU Project), the US Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability, Project Gutenberg, Claire, Lance and Michael, Till Tolkemitt, Lutz Kroth, Klaus Gabbert, Heike Rosbach, Andreas Simon dos Santos, Michael Kellner, Bernhard Schmid, Steffen Jacobs, Frances Uckerman and Bertel Schmitt.