Considering the alarmist climate, it’s refreshing to come across two recent books that put the hacker threat into perspective. One, B_The Hacker Crackdown_b (328 pages. Bantam. $23), says that the government’s campaigns against hackers go too far. The other, B_Privacy for Sale_b (224 pages. Simon & Schuster. $22), points out a far broader and deeper threat in the computer age: that our most personal information, from finances to medical records, is readily available. Taken together, they make a powerful statement that there is a real threat-and it’s not the kids. “If a teenage hacker gets my credit report, what can he do with it?” says Michael Godwin, counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which grapples with computer-related issues. “He’s not in a position to deny me credit. The people who can do me the most damage are the people who can get my credit report legally or quasi legally”-prospective employers, creditors, landlords and more.
“The Hacker Crackdown” is the first nonfiction book by Bruce Sterling, a respected author in science fictions grungy “cyberpunk” style. (In cyberpunk, the future is anything but bright: high-tech low-lifes treat data as just another controlled substance to be peddled for pay.) Sterling entered the world of the hackers and of the police who have tried to shut them down and tells their stories with a mixture of insightful reporting and a freewheeling, novelistic prose style. As he discusses the massive state and federal resources brought to bear on the admittedly obnoxious hackers, the reader is drawn to an unavoidable conclusion: the government is using a Patriot missile to kill gnats.
“Privacy for Sale,” by journalist Jeffrey Rothfeder, shows just how easy it is to get personal information. He digs up the phone number and address of Bob Dylan’s reclusive ex-wife on the popular CompuServe on-line network, and goes through “information brokers” to find Dan Rather’s American Express bills–taking the reader along every step. The disturbing examples show that if the rich and powerful don’t have privacy, nobody does. When brokers who break the law get caught, Rothfeder says, they generally get light sentences and are back to their computers again. Rothfeder’s prescription for change-protecting ourselves and toughening lax privacy laws-makes a lot more sense than sending the cops out after a bunch of cyberpunks.
