Originally published 1985 | ||
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Similar Android Hacker's Handbook, Hacking for Dummies, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, Gray Hat Hacking The Ethic, The Browser Hacker's | ||
The Hacker's Handbook is a non-fiction book from the 1980s effectively explaining how computer systems of the period were hacked. It contains candid and personal comments from the book's British author, Hugo Cornwall, a pseudonym of Peter Sommer who is now a Research Fellow in Information Systems Security at the London School of Economics and frequently appears in the United Kingdom courts as an expert on digital evidence and computer forensics as well as media pundit and author on information security topics.
One popular aspect of the book is the salacious printouts of actual hacking attempts (although confidential details, such as passwords, are blacked out).
The first edition, which is the version most easily available for download, was published in 1985 and the last of four editions (edited by Steve Gold) appeared in 1989. In 1990, the UK Parliament passed the Computer Misuse Act. Publication of additional editions would likely have been considered an incitement to commit an offence under that Act.