I found this in an antique mall in Chattanooga for $4. Published in 2012, this is an easy read written in the creative nonfiction style I've seen in similar books (every time, I have to stifle the internal "there's no way [author] knows that"). Now, Ms. Olson did have access to one of the central figures of LulzSec so there is likely more than a bit of truth in here. Things have changed in the last decade, but not so much... it wouldn't surprise her to know that in 2016, 4chan (and the loose collective Anonymous) was highly active, culminating in November with "We actually elected a meme as president."

Nothing really to take away, though I did wonder at "SQL, commonly mispronounced as 'seque'l". It's been pronounced that for the decades I've been around it. And, when she was recounting a few of the notorious exploits of DigitalGangsters she said "another hacker got photos of Hannah Montana". Odd that she ref'd a character and not the actress. ( )

The age of innocence. ( )

Very compelling account of the Anonymous and Lulzsec hacking groups, giving them a human face beyond the media hyperbole. The author has done incredible research and beyond a couple of minor errors (silly things like saying the PS2 was the latest Sony machine etc) its well written and extremely readable. If you're interested in the groups, modern internet culture and hacking in general it's a must read. ( )

The book itself was good, but the narration on the Audible version was distracting due to the narrator's incorrect and inconsistent pronunciation of various words (e.g. Linux). ( )

I won this book from the GoodReads first-reads program.

[a:Parmy Olson|5770119|Parmy Olson|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-251a730d696018971ef4a443cdeaae05.jpg] did a good job of summing up the social aspect of the Anonymous community. While this book may not satisfy the desire for technical explorations of the internet and what goes into subverting it, for us non-technical folk I believe this book did a very fine job. The prose was quick and easy to read, the details intricate and interesting. All in all this played out rather not unlike a playful action film that in its second third began rushing towards the inevitable conclusion... ( )