Fergie's Tech Blog

'Mafiaboy' Writes Book About Shutting Down The Internet

Via The National Post (Canwest).

The country's most notorious hacker, Mafiaboy, has written a tell-all book about his Internet attack of 2000 when he paralyzed the Web sites of CNN, Yahoo, eBay and other businesses for several hours.

The book, Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken, is expected to hit bookshelves next week. In it, the infamous hacker, now 23, explains that he was not a computer whiz kid but quickly gained knowledge of computers and got to know other young hackers.

"I felt a strange kinship with these nameless, faceless programmers and online rebels," he writes in an excerpt made available by the publisher. "To me, they were the coolest kids in cyberspace. I wanted to hang with them. I wanted to be a hacker."

The book, co-written with Montreal journalist Craig Silverman, is billed as "a cautionary tale." After a manhunt, the RCMP and FBI apprehended the then-15-year-old student. He pleaded guilty to more than 50 charges.

posted by Fergie @ 10/02/2008 11:44:00 PM