BOOK REVIEW: Cult of the Dead Cow – How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World
By Joseph Menn
Reviewed by Christopher Messina
Joseph Menn has good timing. The topic of cybersecurity has attained a degree of cultural currency that is still waxing. His book is part historical context for a broad, often misunderstood and heterogeneous group of people labeled “hackers,” and part rumination on the history of ideas underlying our society’s engagement with the networked reality that came to fruition in the space of a generation.
The book touches on some very interesting history, but his coverage of his topic falls short in a few ways. Starting with the book’s title, Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), which is a hacking organization that came about in the 1980’s, yet nowhere in the book does Menn explain how he defines a “supergroup” of hackers, or how that might differ from just a plain “group” of hackers, nor how this supergroup could “save the world,” and the author fails to define the threat the group will save us from. One could infer this “threat” is the multi-headed hydra of all of the ills that cyber can deliver – from fake news to hacked infrastructure leading to power outages and societal chaos.
The text is a little like a really-long holiday card from a distant relative, with long lists of unfamiliar names and events which, while potentially exciting for the participants at the time, are not really part of the overall society’s consciousness. That’s not a criticism, more a product of trying to convey a very complex story with no straight line to be drawn in a single entity. To be fair, I am not sure one could introduce such a litany of characters spanning a couple of decades in a way that doesn’t read like an index.
What I did find very interesting about the long list of characters introduced throughout the book is that I only recognized a handful of the names. I am not a hacker but have spent considerable time in Silicon Valley and have worked on a number of cybersecurity-related initiatives, so Menn’s book tells me that the universe of tech stars in cyber is enormous. I know multiple talented cybersecurity professionals – luminaries in their own corner of the industry – and not one of them appears in his book.
Menn’s greater lasting impact will perhaps be in the history of ideas. He peppers the text with references to the dynamic between irresponsible tech companies who managed to slough off all responsibility for their insecure products and the hacker community who held – and hold – them to account. While there are multiple references throughout the book to the shifting lines of what constitutes legal v. illegal behavior on the Internet, his more important contribution has been to provide points and counterpoints from multiple participants in these active debates.
Predating many of today’s supposedly “new” debates about freedom of speech are the early members of cDc who “considered what it was doing to be performance art” when its members said as many outrageous things as possible to get on TV, including the telling of some delightful stories of techies trolling the straight press with ridiculous stories about nonexistent hacking entities which the mainstream media bought hook, line and sinker. I for one, am happy to draw a straight line from the group’s “Merry Prankster-esque” attitude to anyone who gets a million likes on Twitter for the most outrageous thing to say, do or be.
Menn gives good coverage to complex issues which continue to bedevil the tech world, including the relationship between nations and surveillance companies. He’s produced a chatty book full of stories most people will not have heard before and gives his readers an opinion piece on the inherent value of critical thinking.
Cult of the Dead Cow earns a solid three out of four trench coats.
Christopher Messina is an investor and entrepreneur with deep experience in the global capital markets, cybersecurity, commodities and technology. He is Co-Founder and CEO of CrowdFill, a next-generation asset trading fintech firm, is on the Board of North American Nickel and is an Advisor to Digital Gamma, the world’s first cryptocurrency prime brokerage.
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