For two years a computer break-in artist known only as "Phantom Dialer" seized control of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of computer networks around the world. Frightened network administrators watched helplessly as the intruder methodically slipped into universities, corporations, banks, and military facilities, including top-secret weapons-research sites. Working up to twenty hours a day, Phantom Dialer obsessively broke into one network after another - and no-one knew who he was or what he was after. Was he a spy? Was he laying the groundwork for a single massive theft? As the number of victims mounted, Phantom Dialer became the subject of the first major investigation of the FBI's new computer-crime squad and one of the biggest manhunts in the history of electronic crime. Though it reads like a thriller, AT LARGE is more than just a spellbinding account of one of the stranger episodes of the electronic 1990s. It is also a sharply observed group portrait of the new wired world and an expose of the technical flaws at its very core.
Author Biography
Charles C. Mann is the author of 1491, which won the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Keck award for the best book of the year. A correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, Science, and Wired, he has covered the intersection of science, technology, and commerce for many newspapers and magazines here and abroad, including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, and more. In addition to 1491, he was the co-author of four other non-fiction books. He is now working on a companion volume to 1491. His website is www.charlesmann.org. David H. Freedman is a contributing editor for Inc. Magazine, and has written on science, business, and technology for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Science, Wired, and many other publications. His newest book, Wrong, about why experts keep failing us, came out in June, 2010. His last book (coauthored) was A Perfect Mess, about the useful role of disorder in daily life, business, and science. He is also the author of books about the US Marines, computer crime, and artificial intelligence. Freedman's blog, "Making Sense of Medicine," takes a close, critical look at medical findings making current headlines with an eye to separating out the frequent hype. He lives near Boston.
