The Best of 2600 – A Hacker Odyssey

On tonight’s Off the Hook The Best of 2600 – A Hacker Odyssey was announced, wow! It will be out just in time for HOPE.

The Best of 2600 will be a collection of the really cool milestone events and technology changes that have occurred for the last 24 years from the hacker’s perspective.

Examples:

• From 2600’s autumn 1999 issue is the detailed description (replete w/diagrams of how it was done) of the very first U.S. Post Office hacking incident.
• Another is entitled “An Illusion of Security” that debunks the security of Simplex locks, long an impenetrable hardware security mechanism (those keyless locks with numbered buttons you press for pass code opening) which sent the company reeling and its stock plummeting.
• And from the 2004 National Republican Convention (excerpt here) are the writings of Goldstein himself, describing the riots and his arrest (with many others), their treatment and what it was like to be in the “Tombs”.
• Hackers invariably find the one hole in an otherwise perfect system or will spend inordinate amounts of time to get around a barrier previously thought to be impenetrable. But the one thing hackers do more than anything else is share information with those who are interested. This book is a gateway into this mysterious yet familiar world of endless technology and security experimenting.

Related:
MAKE will be at HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth, July 18-20). We will be doing talks, having a mini-Maker Faire and I think this going to be one of the biggest tech-hardware-hacking conferences of the decade.