
Cult of the Dead Cow
How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Davis
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By:
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Joseph Menn
About this listen
The shocking untold story of the elite secret society of hackers fighting to protect our privacy, our freedom - even democracy itself...
Cult of the Dead Cow is the tale of the oldest, most respected, and most famous American hacking group of all time. Though until now it has remained mostly anonymous, its members invented the concept of hacktivism, released the top tool for testing password security, and created what was for years the best technique for controlling computers from afar, forcing giant companies to work harder to protect customers. They contributed to the development of Tor, the most important privacy tool on the net, and helped build cyberweapons that advanced US security without injuring anyone.
With its origins in the earliest days of the Internet, the cDc is full of oddball characters - activists, artists, even future politicians. Many of these hackers have become top executives and advisors walking the corridors of power in Washington and Silicon Valley. The most famous is former Texas Congressman and current presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, whose time in the cDc set him up to found a tech business, launch an alternative publication in El Paso, and make long-shot bets on unconventional campaigns.
Today, the group and its followers are battling electoral misinformation, making personal data safer, and battling to keep technology a force for good instead of for surveillance and oppression. Cult of the Dead Cow shows how governments, corporations, and criminals came to hold immense power over individuals and how we can fight back against them.
©2019 Joseph Menn (P)2019 PublicAffairsListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Long before there was a multi-billion dollar cyber industry, there were some ethical hackers who showed us that the Silicon Valley emperors had no clothes. They looked like misfits, but they showed us how insecure the Internet was and how to make it better. Joe Menn makes this previously untold story entertaining and relevant to today's cyber threats." (Richard A. Clarke, first White House "Cyber Czar")
"Cult of the Dead Cow reveals a story few know about the origins of white hat hacking and the heroes it celebrates. Despite the title, hacking isn't dead yet!" (Vint Cerf, co-inventor of the internet)
"Cult of the Dead Cow is an exhilarating and essential look into a part of the hacker underground that has shaped the modern world in profound ways. Readers will be amazed by this crew of eccentric, impassioned geniuses who have so often served as the Internet's conscience while lurking unknown in the shadows. The depth of Joe Menn's reporting is as astonishing as his storytelling - no one could have captured this tale better." (Ashlee Vance, author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future)
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Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud's Pegasus: How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy is the story of the one of the most sophisticated and invasive surveillance weapons ever created, used by governments around the world.
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Incredible!
- By Silvershopper on 01-18-23
By: Laurent Richard, and others
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Dark Territory
- The Secret History of Cyber War
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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As cyber attacks dominate front-page news, as hackers join the list of global threats, and as top generals warn of a coming cyber war, few books are more timely and enlightening than Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Slate columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan.
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Best narrator - Malcolm Hillgartner
- By Greg Davis on 07-20-16
By: Fred Kaplan
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The Cuckoo's Egg
- Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
- By: Cliff Stoll
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Before the internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive US citizen recognized its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he began a highly personal quest to expose a hidden network of spies that threatened national security. But would the authorities back him up? Cliff Stoll's dramatic firsthand account is "a computer-age detective story, instantly fascinating [and] astonishingly gripping" - Smithsonian.
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A story that stands the test of time
- By Todd on 08-11-20
By: Cliff Stoll
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The Fifth Domain
- Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats
- By: Richard A. Clarke, Robert K. Knake
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Clarke and Knake take us inside quantum-computing labs racing to develop cyber superweapons; bring us into the boardrooms of the many firms that have been hacked and the few that have not; and walk us through the corridors of the US intelligence community with officials working to defend America's elections from foreign malice. With a focus on solutions over scaremongering, they make a compelling case for "cyber resilience" - building systems that can resist most attacks, raising the costs on cyber criminals and the autocrats who often lurk behind them, and avoiding...overreaction.
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The Author Lacks Critical Thinking
- By Thomas Rose on 08-08-20
By: Richard A. Clarke, and others
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We Are Anonymous
- Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency
- By: Parmy Olson
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In late 2010, thousands of hacktivists joined a mass digital assault by Anonymous on the websites of VISA, MasterCard, and PayPal to protest their treatment of WikiLeaks. Splinter groups then infiltrated the networks of totalitarian governments in Libya and Tunisia, and an elite team of six people calling themselves LulzSec attacked the FBI, CIA, and Sony. They were flippant and taunting, grabbed headlines, and amassed more than a quarter of a million Twitter followers.
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Interesting book, AWFUL narration
- By Jen on 11-11-14
By: Parmy Olson
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Sandworm
- A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers
- By: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2014, the world witnessed the start of a mysterious series of cyberattacks. Targeting American utility companies, NATO, and electric grids in Eastern Europe, the strikes grew ever more brazen. They culminated in the summer of 2017, when the malware known as NotPetya was unleashed, penetrating, disrupting, and paralyzing some of the world's largest businesses—from drug manufacturers to software developers to shipping companies. At the attack's epicenter in Ukraine, ATMs froze. The railway and postal systems shut down. Hospitals went dark.
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Thru the eyes of the Sandworm's hunters and prey
- By ndru1 on 11-12-19
By: Andy Greenberg
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The Art of Deception
- Controlling the Human Element of Security
- By: Kevin Mitnick
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The world's most infamous hacker offers an insider's view of the low-tech threats to high-tech security. Kevin Mitnick's exploits as a cyber-desperado and fugitive form one of the most exhaustive FBI manhunts in history and have spawned dozens of articles, books, films, and documentaries. Since his release from federal prison, in 1998, Mitnick has turned his life around and established himself as one of the most sought-after computer security experts worldwide.
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Good security device delivered by old misogynist
- By James S. on 02-01-21
By: Kevin Mitnick
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Kingpin
- How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground
- By: Kevin Poulsen
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: Someone - some brilliant, audacious crook - had just staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimed at tracking down this new kingpin. Other agencies around the world deployed dozens of moles and double agents.
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This should be a movie
- By Hijenks on 05-19-15
By: Kevin Poulsen
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Permanent Record
- By: Edward Snowden
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.
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Great (if incomplete) account
- By Ryan L on 09-22-19
By: Edward Snowden
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The Art of Attack
- Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals
- By: Maxie Reynolds
- Narrated by: Stephanie Dillard
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals, Maxie Reynolds untangles the threads of a useful, sometimes dangerous, mentality. The book shows ethical hackers, social engineers, and pentesters what an attacker mindset is and how to and how to use it to their advantage.
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A Chess game to win
- By Anonymous User on 10-19-22
By: Maxie Reynolds
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Hacking the Hacker
- Learn From the Experts Who Take Down Hackers
- By: Roger A. Grimes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Hacking the Hacker takes you inside the world of cybersecurity to show you what goes on behind the scenes, and introduces you to the men and women on the front lines of this technological arms race. Twenty-six of the world's top white hat hackers, security researchers, writers, and leaders describe what they do and why, with each profile preceded by a no-experience-necessary explanation of the relevant technology.
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Please stop reading the urls
- By Jonathan on 11-16-19
By: Roger A. Grimes
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Where Wizards Stay Up Late
- The Origins of the Internet
- By: Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon
- Narrated by: Mark Douglas Nelson
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone. In the 1960s, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices.
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Absolutely fascinating and we'll researched
- By Elsa Braun on 10-01-16
By: Katie Hafner, and others
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The Hacker and the State
- Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics
- By: Ben Buchanan
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Packed with insider information based on interviews, declassified files, and forensic analysis of company reports, The Hacker and the State sets aside fantasies of cyber-annihilation to explore the real geopolitical competition of the digital age. Tracing the conflict of wills and interests among modern nations, Ben Buchanan reveals little-known details of how China, Russia, North Korea, Britain, and the United States hack one another in a relentless struggle for dominance.
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A good overview of hacking influence on government
- By Eric Jackson on 08-05-20
By: Ben Buchanan
What listeners say about Cult of the Dead Cow
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- John Tangney
- 03-20-20
Somewhat scattered, marred by a poor reading
Jonathan Davis doesn't seem to read more than a few words ahead, so that each of his sentences is merely an assemblage of unrelated phrases. Indeed, listening with headphones, it's easy to hear how he has re-recorded individual phrases and edited them into a sentence. This robotic reading style means that the listener has to capture all the words, re-parse them into a more sensible prosody, and then replay the whole thing in one's head in order to figure out what was just said. It's like having Siri read the New York Times: The phonemes are all there but it takes significant effort to understand what one is hearing. Neither Siri nor Jonathan Davis understand a word of what they're reading.
Menn's writing style is to jump around all over the map. That's OK, but it takes an actor with some talent to bring out Menn's voice. Davis fails.
The first few chapters were an absolute blast for me, because I know or have met almost every one of the people mentioned (except Beto O'Rourke). I loved the world of BBSes back in the day, though I was never a hacker or a phreak.
As the book's timeline progressed, names came up that I wasn't that familiar with. (In a few cases, that's a good thing — plausible deniability ;-)) But as the book wore on, the dry chronicling of the antics of the CDC's members became quite boring. These are just geeks, no more or less interesting than the hundreds of other geeks I know.
Does it get better towards the end? I'm about an hour and a half from the end, and I am not sure if I really want to work that hard. And now that I no longer commute (covid isolation) the thought of listening to Davis butcher sentence structure is not appealing.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Paul
- 06-11-20
Nostalgic entertainment
Blast from the past and awesome stories. great insight on the history of the internet, the stories you don't hear.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Natch
- 12-28-20
A great bit of historical context.
This book is a must read for anyone curious about the birth of CDC and hacker politics.
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- Ahdumb
- 07-25-19
If you ran a bbs, or ever visited one...
....Then this book is for you. Even if you didn’t, it’s a wonderful book that you will get some history lessons from....
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8 people found this helpful
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- netusera
- 07-12-19
Connected the dots
Get Woke
lol jk
Technology is the future
leaders in the industry came from or were inspired by CDC.
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- Joshua Keenan
- 12-11-19
dang
It's too bad Beto dropped, would have been nice to see a Hacker In Chief.
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- Michael Argo
- 06-02-21
0om oo ooo oooo oooo ooo oo oM moo moo moo moo moo
0om oo ooo oooo oooo ooo oo oM moo moo moo moo moo 0om oo ooo oooo oooo ooo oo oM moo moo moo moo moo o ooo oooo ooooo ooooooo oooooooo
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- Stuart
- 06-28-19
Intense and Enlightening
I loved it, though I dont agree with the authors political stance that is clearly presented. Though to his credit, evidence to the contrary of his claims didnt arise until after the book was written. I lean right, but am very interested in learning more about psychedelic warlord the man.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Erin
- 08-28-19
Great modern history lesson
Contains a lot of very interesting information. Slightly dry in the middle. Would definitely recommend.
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- Sergio Ivan Castrejon
- 12-07-20
That's fairly good content but feels political
It was a fairly good book and some information that was good but towards the end it almost felt like a campaign ad for Beto. I know they mentioned it just because of the fact that he was a member of the dead cow, that almost felt a bit politicized.
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