Latest Reading - Cult of the Dead Cow
No, it's not really a cult, just an OG hacking group. Okay, maybe a cult (but not really, I swear).
What’s this about a dead cow?
First off, Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) is an early hacking group from an era when personal computers was a wholly new concept, when “the internet” was a place you went to rather than something you can no longer escape and smothers you in your daily life.
Still, they wanted to be taken seriously. And the name Pan-Galactic Entropy didn’t sound menacing enough to be cool. It was too Hitchhiker’s Guide nerdy. They kicked around possible new names for their effort to tie together their small community of bulletin boards and writing and decided that something with the word cult would be sinister and mysterious enough. Cult of what? Some words were too silly, like strawberry. But a little silly would be good. “We wanted it to be weird,” Brandon said. “Just trying to thumb our nose at the establishment.” This was a place with a clubhouse feel, the liberal arts section of the hacker underground. Kevin thought of a creepy hangout nearby, an abandoned slaughterhouse, the unpleasant hind part of the most iconic Texas industry. In that moment, he hit upon the name: the Cult of the Dead Cow.
Menn, Joseph. Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World (pp. 12-13). PublicAffairs. Kindle Edition.
What the hell is it about?
You know, I forget what lead me to snag a copy of the book on Kindle; perhaps while following the author on Twitter they mentioned it or maybe it was recommended based on some algorithm based on my past purchases.
cDc talks about the history of a hacktivist group (and several related groups that spun off of cDc) and how it’s members came together along with what they’ve accomplished, both good and bad. From throwing out CDs with hacking software at conferences to the masses, to making up wild stories for reporters to spin public policy, to helping monks stop getting state-sponsored spyware on their computers (and the journey that lead to the discovery). Even Beto makes an appearance in the group.
This book talks about the forefathers of hacking and computer security. Names you often see either attributed on the news, someone talking to a correspondent live on-air or that person with the interesting avatar who gets constantly retweeted or boosted on Mastodon. It talks about how a group of people, sometimes teenagers, got into computers and hacking as well as their backgrounds and upbringing that lead them down their separate paths, even sometimes into the spotlight.
Previously I’ve run across names on Twitter of people who I’d see repeatedly retweeted or quoted and knew they were someone to be known but never really figured out how they rose to popularity. Reading through cDc opened up my eyes to who these people were and how they came to be such popular figures, as well as the tremendous work some have done in the past. It was almost embarrassing the number names I recognized, but had no clue of their past contributions.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to better understand the hacking scene and a bit of it’s origin. Hell, it should be required reading when downloading some tools often found on Kali.
More on the book
I only recently discovered the author was a part of the “Talks at Google”, where it talks more about the book, how it came to be and even a little bit about himself.
Doesn’t hurt to ask
Eons ago (or at least what feels like it) I read a book from an entrepreneur that I picked up at a school book fair. In the book, the author recounted their years growing up and different ways they made money creatively through the years. While I’ve forgotten almost everything about the book (except that it mentioned making money on Beanie Babies, if that gives you any idea how old it is) there was one story that talked about how they received an upgrade for a room by writing the CEO at the time and getting an upgrade later when they checked into the hotel.
I gotta note that I hate the idea of going through life like one of those people who always says “it doesn’t hurt to ask” and then ask for an upgrade on every single minor thin that crosses their mind, but sometimes when there’s something you would really like to take a shot at, it really doesn’t hurt to ask. (This is coming from someone who hates asking for help, asking a question or anything else you can think of. I’m the type to die choking in a restaurant than ask for help and somehow be noticed.)
I also like having signed copies of physical books, even if I read the book on my Kindle. Sure, I want to avoid Tsundoku but I really like having something physical, something that can’t be deleted from my life via some magical cloud that I have no control over. I’ve been lucky to snag autographed copies of books, Project Hail Mary from Andy Weir and even a special edition of Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey.
One day on Mastodon I reached out to Joseph (the author) asking if there were signed copies anywhere. He stated there weren’t, but maybe we could work something out and to reach out to his work email.
After plucking up the courage to reach out, I sent Joseph an email asking for an autographed copy, offering to reimburse him the cost and stating I wasn’t a crazy person trying to get his address. Luckily for me I do know a reporter at The Post courtesy of my partner, who could verify that I wasn’t (that) crazy. After a little bit of back and forth, I was able to get one of the last hardcovers, ever!
It’s one of my most prized possessions. A book that I really enjoyed about hacking but that’s also extremely informative, from the author and journalist (a job that I really revere, especially nowadays).
Behold!
Another great hacking book
One of my favorite books I’ve read, related to hacking, is The Cuckoo’s Egg. It talks about an astronomer turned sysadmin turned cyber detective after finding out some spare computer cycles on an old unix machine. I cannot recommend this book enough, it’s not only a great tech book but also a pretty good investigative thriller.
