// Comparison
Hacking the Xbox vs La science du secret: Which Should You Read?
Two cybersecurity books on History, compared honestly: who each is for, what each does best, and which to read first.
Andrew "bunnie" Huang on the original Xbox: hardware modding as the entry path into reverse engineering, plus a frank account of the legal fight that followed.
A lucid popular-science history of cryptography by Jacques Stern, one of France's most eminent cryptographers — from classical ciphers to public-key and the science of secrecy.
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Key takeaways
- Hardware security failures are usually system-level, not chip-level; bunnie's framing of how layers compose into vulnerabilities is the canonical lesson.
- The DMCA's chilling effect on legitimate research is real and the book documents it from the inside; the legal chapters are required reading for anyone publishing hardware research.
- Reverse engineering is as much social and legal work as it is technical work; the book teaches both.
- Popular cryptography history written by a top-tier cryptographer (Stern, ENS), so the science is impeccable.
- Traces the arc from classical ciphers to public-key — the conceptual leaps, not the code.
- A French equivalent of The Code Book with a researcher's eye; dated on modern primitives but timeless on fundamentals.
How they compare
Hacking the Xbox and La science du secret are both rated 4/5 in our catalog. Pick by topic preference and reading style rather than by rating.
Both books target intermediate-level readers, so the choice is about topic, not difficulty.
Hacking the Xbox and La science du secret both cover History, so reading them in sequence reinforces the same material from different angles.