Hacker Cracker

Berglund Authority Level 3

by Jeffrey Barlow <barlowj@pacificu.edu>
Editor, Interface

Nuwere, Ejovi and David Chanoff. Hacker Cracker.
William Morrow, 2002.

One of the interesting impacts of the Internet is its differential effect on disparate socio-economic groups. At Interface, we pay a great deal of attention to such factors as the Digital Divide [1]; but we also continually discuss the globalization of the Internet. We are aware that there are two contrary processes at work: the Internet is both tied to socio-economic standing, and simultaneously sometimes cuts across them in a dramatic fashion.

The work reviewed here, Nuwere and Chanoff's Hacker Cracker is a remarkably interesting as well as very useful chronicle of the Internet in its latter or leveling function. Chanoff is a familiar name to those who read widely. He has written thirteen books on topics ranging from health to foreign policy. He also frequently appears in periodical publications.

The primary author here, however, the protagonist who tells his own story in a first-person voice, is Ejovi Nuwere. Born into a broken home in "Bed Stuy", the toughest of the Brooklyn neighborhoods, Mr. Nuwere joined local gangs, flirted with Communism in school, became a serious student of martial arts, then met the artifact that would transform his life: the computer.

Mr. Nuwere began working with computers in school just as the generational transformation from juvenile "fone freaks" to "script kiddies" was occurring in the early 1990's. Bored, adventurous, or downright criminal youth were beginning to see the possibilities presented by computing. Nuwere barely avoided very serious trouble with correspondingly long jail terms, and, at the time of writing, was working for a security firm as a "white hat" hacker: one who continually tests security systems in order to strengthen them.

Mr. Nuwere's odyssey is a fascinating and informative one. Following his trail, we learn about the early stages of hacking, and the history of computing among such noted hacker groups as the "Digital Yakuza," [2] the "Legion of Doom", "w00w00," and the "2600 Group" (pp. 175-191).

And throughout we learn about the motives and the skills of hackers; we sit with Nuwere as he hacks his way into Internet providers, "phishes" for credit card numbers (and learns to duplicate cards and order merchandise with them) and accesses government sites with, supposedly, the highest levels of security. After reading Nuwere, only the most unreflective reader would not occasionally wonder who is shadowing their computer activities as they keyboard at home or at work.

Hacker Cracker raises some troubling issues. We earlier reviewed another hacker's work, Kevin D. Mitnick and William L. Simon's The Art of Deception. [3] In that review we took a very critical look at Mitnick's "social engineering." Here we are continually inclined to forgive Nuwere what were, after all, broadly similar crimes. We have had to ask ourselves if this more laissez faire attitude grew out of some PC attitude toward a Black, formerly poor hacker vis-à-vis a White one.

We do not believe that this is the case. Nuwere shows us how his undoubted crimes grew out of a particular social context and how he learned from them, eventually putting his skills to the services of the good guys. Throughout the book, Nuwere shows nothing so much as a desire to be accepted in a race-free environment. [4] He is also very concerned about being able to exercise control over his life and his environment. [5] To us, Mitnick seemed rather a boastful criminal who probably regretted being caught much more than he regretted the crimes he committed.

Another recurring theme in Nuwere's personal journey is the desire to somehow, sometime, become a hero---part of his search for acceptance, we assume. As the book closes he recounts his personal experiences at ground zero at the Twin Towers on 9/11. While he personally witnesses the events, his heroism is a pleasingly symmetrical one as he takes charge of restoring security to ravaged computer systems necessary for essential work in resolving the tragedy.

This book has a great deal to offer. Nuwere was not only present at the beginning in a sense, but also played in some very serious arenas. Many chapters have significant blacked-out text, an editorial conceit, but also one that makes it clear that this is a man who has had a great deal of interesting experience. He also writes in a strong voice. If we sometimes wonder how he can possibly tie together his interest in martial arts, his family's troubled life (his mother dies from AIDS), and his computing experiences, at the last we feel that he has done so and would not have had him leave anything out. We can all learn from Hacker Cracker, both as Americans and as members of the international, cross-class, multi-ethnic group of lovers of computing and of the Internet.

Notes:

[1] See especially the columns of Mark Szmansky using the search feature.

[2] For a contemporary site hacked by the Digital Yakuza see:
http://www.kotelna.sk/keso/Old/nasa/after.html
Accessed 3/23/04.

[3] See review at:
http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2003/05/mitnick.php
Accessed 3/23/04

[4] See pp 114-116;

[5] See pp 112, 119, 171, 214.