For the first time in the 90s, The Hacker's Handbook looks at the whole phenomenon of computer hacking, from its beginning in the computer networks of the early 80s, through the basic tools that hacker's use today.
A fun curiosity from Y2K about the hacker scene "in the age of the Web"! This was a time when hacker culture was poised between the land-line-phone-system "phreakers" and greybeard Unix gurus of legend, and the explosion of increasingly insane Internet of Insecure Things and cryptocurrency bubbles/future-of-all-commerce in this $CURRENT_YEAR.
Weirdly, the actual security advice is much the same.
I liked the anecdotes a lot. The technical stuff (except for the phreaking parts, which were amusing and probably irrelevant to my life... probably?) was more dry or outdated (good luck with even half the URLs, but maybe the Wayback Machine will save you?) - if you have a particular interest in hacker culture and history, it's a fine little slice of it, but better material can probably be found on the Web. (Neal Stephenson's "In the Beginning... Was the Command Line" comes to mind.)
For the general audience, 2 stars. One for the anecdotes, and one for the security advice.
Signed with the pseudonym "Dr.K" in a feeble attempt to advance the author as a legitimate hacker, does not add to the value of the book. ALL hacking books have the REAL authors on the cover, as most of them are real IT professionals.
The book touches upon some history, some good introductions, and some theories. But even at the time that it was published, the techniques were either already outdated, not explained in depth, or just not possible.
If you want to get into hacking (penetration testing) I would recommend you start with "Hacking Exposed" series.
It may be a good introduction to anyone who does not know what TCP, HTTP, IP, CGI... etc are but you will not learn much. This books is far from being "A Complete Hacker's Handbook".
I read this some time ago. While this was written some time before I read it, it should be rather antiquish by now. However, the basic principles are there in the pages of this book. There have been technological advances that dwarf much of what is here, but these basics get you going.