Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier

The spirit of cyberpunk only flickers in these three more-or-less able pieces of journalism about headline hacker cases that shook the computer industry. The authors' straightforward style serves the topic well, and portraits of the hackers' personalities are tantalizingly good. But the programming jargon invoked suggests little of the ``outlaw'' mentality that converts programming talent into hacking. The only case that really earns the title is ``Pengo and the Project Equalizer,'' the story of a West Berlin punk turned hacker, which contains enough exotic characters to cast a miniseries. Hafner is a computer reporter for the New York Times ; Markoff is a former Business Week reporter. (July)