"The AT&T long-distance networks crashes and millions of calls go unanswered. A computer hacker reprograms a switching station and calls to a Florida probation office are shunted to a New York phone-sex hotline. An illegal computer bulletin board publishes a pilfered BellSouth document on the 911 emergency system, which made it available to anyone who dials up". The above incidents are described in Bruce Sterling's book "The Hacker Crackdown, Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier, copyrighted in 1992. Bruce Sterling authored this book which seeks to explain the "people of cyberspace".

Bruce Sterling digs into the bizarre world of electronic communications. The world of electronic communication or cyberspace has no physical location, because it exists only in the network. Cyberspace is not normal space; it is the space on your computers. Mr. Sterling writes about electronic communication in the early 90's between computers and telephone lines. The space that Mr. Sterling speaks of is about 130 years old. The current cyberspace is where a telephone conversation occurs. You may think you are conversing into a phone line, the device in your hand agai

Our society is becoming more dependent on electronic technology, which means more electronic crimes. The culprits don't want the service, or the knowledge, it's the thrill of the power. They steal and it gratifies their vanities, but most criminal minds think alike. Mr. Sterling's book portrayed every aspect of the criminal sabotage that is so prevalent and what the government plans to do about it. Yes, there still exist problem in fighting computer crimes. Our law enforcement community must continue to wage war against them until it become not near so glamorous. All computer users must do their part as well and help not spread virus or be snowed by phone phreaks.

The book is hard cover with 313 pages not including the index or the glossary. Bruce Sterling has written several books, he co-authored "The Difference Engine" with William Gibson. Mr. Sterling researched thoroughly about this topic, outlaws, cops, bureaucrats, rebels, geniuses and grifters, people in cyberspace, a fascinating new frontier. This book hit the target and is a good tool for beginners to understand how hackers operate and what the law community is doing to stop them.

Mr. Sterling gave the reader the fact surrounding the AT&T long distance telephone switching system crash on January 15, 1990. Roughly 60,000 customers lost service for approximately nine hours and 70 million calls went uncompleted! What happen to the contingency plan? The crashes in the early 90's occurred with no physical reasoning. There was no apparent damage, but the problem spread and spread. There was station after station across the United States that collapsed like dominoes, until half of AT&T network went amuck and the other half was put to the test. The AT&T software engineers knew what caused the crashed in the system, yes; the crash was a grave corporate embarrassment. It was a bug in AT&T own software code, not the thing that a board members wanted to hear with competition being as fierce as it was. It was easier to believe that some evil person or hacker had done it, a virus, a Trojan horse or a software bomb placed in the network. In July 91, BellSouth had a similar crash in their computer software which disrupted th

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Approximate Word count = 1498
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)