Table Of ContentK AT I E
HAFNER
A N D
JOHN
MARKOFF
SIMON & SCHUSTER a newyork t london
CYZSZPUM
rwi<fc€A,
A TORONTO ▼ SYDNEY A TOKYO ▼ SINGAPORE A
SIMON & SCHUSTER
Simon & Schuster Building
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020
Copyright © 1991 by Katherine Hafner
and John Markoff
All rights reserved
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered
trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Designed by Caroline Cunningham
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hafner, Katie.
Cyberpunk: outlaws and hackers on the computer frontier/Katie Hafner and John
Markoff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Computer security. 2. Computer crimes. I. Markoff, John. II. Title
QA76.9.A25H34 1991
364.1'68—dc20 9M1598
CIP
ISBN 0-671-68322-5
TO OUR PARENTS
CONTENTS
a I N T R O D U C T I O N 9
t PART ONE: KevU*: 1U PmA-SuU fMw 13
a PART TWO: Pt^c mU Pnjut e<j«*ty*, 139
▼ PA R T T H R E E : K 1 H 2 5 1
a E P I L O G U E 3 4 2
▼ N O T E S O N S O U R C E S 3 4 7
a A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S 3 5 3
▼ I N D E X 3 5 5
I'h^roM^tio'h.
W
'e set out to investigate a computer underground that is the
real-life version of cyberpunk, science fiction that blends high technol
ogy with outlaw culture. In cyberpunk novels high-tech rebels live in a
dystopian future, a world dominated by technology and beset by urban
decay and overpopulation. It's a world defined by infinitely powerful
computers and vast computer networks that create alternative universes
filled with electronic demons. Interlopers travel through these computer-
generated landscapes. Some of them make their living buying, selling
and stealing information, the currency of a computerized future. The
television character Max Headroom, who lived in a network of mass
media, popping up in computers and television sets everywhere, was
considered pure cyberpunk. So was the 1982 movie Blade Runner, which
portrays a slick, dark and dangerous world in which technology has
triumphed and life is grim.
The inspiration for this book came when we began to see a change in
the way computers were being used. We found harbingers of cyberpunk,
young people for whom computers and computer networks are an obses
sion, and who have carried their obsession beyond what computer profes
sionals consider ethical and lawmakers consider acceptable. They were
called hackers. As the public viewed them, these computer hackers
10 A l<hfocM*t}U>i*
posed a sinister, if also somewhat vague, threat. This is our attempt to
explain who they are and what drives them.
This book tells three stories. Kevin Mitnick fit the public's perception
of an archetypal "dark-side" computer hacker. He was thought to be able
to manipulate credit ratings, tap telephones and take complete control
of distant computers. He saw himself as a brilliant computer renegade,
and he proved to be a formidable adversary for one of the world's leading
computer makers. In the end he was trapped by his own arrogance and
compulsion.
The computer culture of the 1980s was as global as the youth culture
of the 1960s. A young West Berliner who called himself Pengo discov
ered computers in his early teens. Because his parents had no under
standing of the electronic world he had entered, no one knew that he
was doing anything wrong when he spent hours at a time in front of a
computer screen. To play out his outlaw fantasies, Pengo joined a group
that sold the fruits of its wanderings through international computer
networks to the Soviets. Eventually Pengo and his gang were torn apart
in a series of betrayals.
Kevin and Pengo represent something close to the cyberpunk idea of
the computer "cowboy" who lives outside the law. Robert Tappan Morris
was different. The young Cornell University graduate student became
notorious when he wrote a program that brought down a nationwide
computer network. The son of a leading computer security researcher,
he grew up as the ultimate insider, a member of an insular and elite
community of computer scientists. Shy and thoughtful, Robert was
hardly a rebel. By releasing a program that crippled several thousand
computers in a matter of hours, he permanently altered the course of his
life and confirmed everyone's worst fears about what hackers could do.
The event marked a turning point: the private world of computer net
works was suddenly of concern to the general public.
More than stories about computers or technology, this book is about
the social consequences of computer networks and the communities that
have grown up around them. As the world's computer networks became
more closely linked in the 1980s, it was suddenly possible for anyone to
travel the electronic corridors that were once the preserve of a small
group of researchers. All three young men were seduced by the thrill of
exploring these international computer networks, but they all went too
far. Each drew national attention and contributed to a growing sense of
public unease about the risks that arise from society's increasing depen
dence on computer networks.
