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\author{David Golombek}
\title{RTM}
\date{\today}
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Writing a story about a computer hacker is a daunting task, especially
a story aimed at both the mass public and the technical community.
The jargon, acronyms, and technical details used by computer
scientists require careful explanation to the uninitiated, yet the
authors must tell a story at the same time to prevent their book from
turning into a dictionary.  Hafner and Markoff achieve this goal quite
impressively in their book \underline{Cyberpunk}, and particularly in
the section entitled ``RTM'', about Robert Morris's Internet Worm.
The authors achieve this goal by introducing a strong element of
suspense, an interesting central character, and a healthy mixture of
computerese and layman-speak.

The authors create a strong element of suspense throughout the ``RTM''
section of their book by emphasizing the unknown nature of the worm
and the difficulties computer scientists had in designing
countermeasures.  By starting out the story with short clips
describing the efforts at U.C. Berkeley to combat the worm, the
authors give the worm an air of mystery and intrigue, a threat to the
entire Internet.  The speed at which the worm spread and overwhelmed
the computers it found is heavily emphasized, including the following
passage.

\begin{quote}
Within minutes of each other, computers all over the nation felt the
presence of the rogue program. ... Almost immediately after
penetrating MIT, the program struck Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory and a computer at the University of Maryland.  Then it
struck Stanford, Princeton, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in
New Mexico.  
\end{quote}

The story resumes this quick pace near it's end, as the authors
describe the race to figure out who created the worm and the ensuing
trials.  Rather than merely recount the events of the trial, they
unfold the proceedings, leaving Morris's fate in doubt till the very
end.  By creating a very likeable character of Robert (see the next
section), the authors draw the reader into the story, forcing them to
keep reading to discover what happens to the hero.  While not a new
technique, it was well done in this book, considering how close to the
facts the book stayed.  This quick pace is highly appropriate for the
book, because the Worm itself spread and was killed in a matter of
days.  


Perhaps it was Robert Morris's interesting background that made him
into the exceptional individual he was, or perhaps Hafner and Markoff
were simply lucky that a person with such an interesting history was
the center of the Internet Worm case.  Perhaps a single-minded
computer nerd (such as the ones the authors claim MIT produces)
wouldn't have written a worm such as the one Morris did; perhaps the
story just wouldn't have been written if a less intersting man was
it's central character.  Whatever the reason, the authors do an
excellent job of making an interesting main character out of Robert
Morris.  Their portrayal of his childhood and his personality create a
strong feeeling of sympathy in most readers, myself included, and his
many technical accomplishments stir feelings of admiration.  The authors
remain largely neutral about the morality of Robert's actions, leaving
the reader to make up his own mind, although they heavily stress how
accidental the damage caused by the worm was.

The author's exploration of the environmental factors behind Robert
Morris's development is well done, and makes an interesting study into
the development of highly intelligent children.  They create an
intimate enough picture of the Morris household that one cannot help
but feel sorry all involved due to their loss of privacy, regardless
of the other events of the story.  More importantly though, the depth
to which the examine Morris's background creates a strong bond for
many readers, particularly those interested in computers.  The deep
love and excitement about computers that Morris feels is well
portrayed, and others who share this feeling are linked to him.  Thus,
the reader's attention is kept firmly locked on the story, as they
await the outcome of the worm attack and subsequent trial.


The computer industry creates new acronyms and jargon at a prodigious
rate, enough to make \underline{The New Computer Hacker's Dictionary}
a full 300 pages long.  It is impossible to discuss the technical
details of the Internet Worm without using the natural language of
computer scientists, which is heavily mixed with these strange words,
and so Hafner and Markoff must explain words and concepts constantly
as they try to explain what actually happened during the Internet Worm
attack.  The authors don't hesitate to include fairly explicit
descriptions of the actual worm, such as the following quote.

\begin{quote}
Exploiting a hole in the small UNIX {\it finger} program, the virus
was able to crash {\it finger} by sending it more characters than it
could handle.  Once it had overflowed the storage space, the invader
was able to start a small program that called backacross the network
and brought the entire body of the virus into the target computer.
\end{quote}

A wide variety of quotes such as this one are spread throughout the
story, providing enough technical details to explain to a
knowledgeable computer scientist what exactly was going on, while
still being readable for the layman, if not particularly
enlightening.  Even the computer-culture references throughout the
book are well done, accurately portraying the styles of Berkeley, Bell
Labs, and the NSA.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the events
surrounding the Internet Worm are quite accurately portrayed, as
verified against several other sources.  To craft the truth into an
interesting story takes both an extrodinary event and skilled writers,
both of which are present for this book.

Hafner and Markoff do a remarkable job of telling both and interesting
and accurate story.  By combining a strong element of suspense, an
interesting central character, and a healthy mixture of computerese
and layman-speak, they make a truly enjoyable story.  Their portrayal
of Robert makes him out to be sincere and kind, although fairly
naive.  They avoid making any strong judegements on Morris, although
their kind treatment of his character lends itself towards strong
sympathy towards his plight.  Although I haven't had a chance to meet
Robert, the descriptions of him I've read from other sources match
those of \underline{Cyberpunk}.  I greatly enjoyed the story presented
by Hafner and Markoff, and found their factual presentation to be
accurate.  

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