the hunt for the new crime lords who are bringing down the Internet
287 pages
English language
Published Nov. 10, 2010 by PublicAffairs.
From the Publisher: In this disquieting cyber thriller, Joseph Menn takes readers into the murky hacker underground, traveling the globe from San Francisco to Costa Rica and London to Russia. His guides are California surfer and computer whiz Barrett Lyon and a fearless British high-tech agent. Through these heroes, Menn shows the evolution of cyber-crime from small-time thieving to sophisticated, organized gangs, who began by attacking corporate websites but increasingly steal financial data from consumers and defense secrets from governments. Using unprecedented access to Mob businesses and Russian officials, the book reveals how top criminals earned protection from the Russian government. Fatal System Error penetrates both the Russian cyber-mob and La Cosa Nostra as the two fight over the Internet's massive spoils. The cloak-and-dagger adventure shows why cyber-crime is much worse than you thought-and why the Internet might not survive.
Interesting read about the power of the distributed attacks and identity theft. A little slow in the middle.
Positively chilling to realize how rampant crime is on the Internet, perpetrated by both criminals and foreign governments. Startling also to realize how big a target we Americans are--again, both for criminals and for foreign governments. Reading this will help you understand how treacherous the Internet is, and help you imagine how many people are gunning for your credit card numbers, your money, and your identity.
This book also portrayed how easily criminals get away with what they're doing, simply because law enforcement in their countries is inept, lackadaisical, or (more often) complicit. The playground ain't level.
This book was long on personal details and short on technical details, which left me wanting. I read so many Russian names that I started to append "-ovich" to my children's names, but didn't gain any better understanding into how these miscreants perpetrate their attacks or, more importantly, how to defend against them. …
Positively chilling to realize how rampant crime is on the Internet, perpetrated by both criminals and foreign governments. Startling also to realize how big a target we Americans are--again, both for criminals and for foreign governments. Reading this will help you understand how treacherous the Internet is, and help you imagine how many people are gunning for your credit card numbers, your money, and your identity.
This book also portrayed how easily criminals get away with what they're doing, simply because law enforcement in their countries is inept, lackadaisical, or (more often) complicit. The playground ain't level.
This book was long on personal details and short on technical details, which left me wanting. I read so many Russian names that I started to append "-ovich" to my children's names, but didn't gain any better understanding into how these miscreants perpetrate their attacks or, more importantly, how to defend against them. I guess that wasn't the point of this book, but I wish it were.
