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DarkMarket by Misha Glenny
The Blurb On The Back:
Who’s got your money?
We share our personal details, our thoughts and movements with a faceless screen, with no real idea what lies behind it.
Who’s got your identity?
DarkMarket exposes the shocking truth about what lurks behind our computers: an underground crime network that invades our privacy and threatens our security on a daily basis.
Who’s got your life?
Glenny tracks down the key players – including the criminals, national and international security experts, the police, crack addicts, the Saudi Royal Family, and most importantly, the victims – to reveal the true scale of this new global threat.
Misha Glenny’s book is a fascinating explanation of the events that led to the take-down of the infamous DarkMarket site, where hackers and criminals met to sell illegally skimmed credit card information and associated paraphernalia. It’s a complicated story that crosses countries including Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Sri Lanka and the UK and involved a wide cast of characters in both the hacking community and in law enforcement. Because of the wide cast, the story does bounce around a lot between players and I sometimes found it difficult to keep straight who was who – especially because so many of the references are to on-line pseudonyms.
This is a book pitched at those who are unfamiliar with this world (like me) and so there’s plenty of explanation on how hackers and skimmers operate. I appreciated that but those more experienced in the subject may find it too basic. There’s also a certain amount of conjecture on the motivation of the main players, with Glenny having to put together likely psychologies from the information available.
There are a number of parts of the book that are terrifying – from the ease with which people can get your personal information, to the general cluelessness of ordinary people to using the internet and the total lack of coordination and understanding of the subject matter on the part of law enforcement. In fact the blunders made by law enforcement officers are some of the most jaw dropping moments in the book (including German police allowing a teenage hacker to access his computer before being taken away).
All in all, it’s a really interesting read that kept me engrossed from beginning to end but the nature of the subject matter means that this isn’t a definitive account and (of necessity) there are a lot of unknowns that can’t be known. However if you’ve got a passing interest in underground technology culture and cyber crime, I think it’s worth checking out.
The Verdict:
Misha Glenny’s book is a fascinating explanation of the events that led to the take-down of the infamous DarkMarket site, where hackers and criminals met to sell illegally skimmed credit card information and associated paraphernalia. It’s a really interesting read that kept me engrossed from beginning to end but the nature of the subject matter means that this isn’t a definitive account and (of necessity) there are a lot of unknowns that can’t be known. However if you’ve got a passing interest in underground technology culture and cyber crime, I think it’s worth checking out.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.
We share our personal details, our thoughts and movements with a faceless screen, with no real idea what lies behind it.
DarkMarket exposes the shocking truth about what lurks behind our computers: an underground crime network that invades our privacy and threatens our security on a daily basis.
Glenny tracks down the key players – including the criminals, national and international security experts, the police, crack addicts, the Saudi Royal Family, and most importantly, the victims – to reveal the true scale of this new global threat.
Misha Glenny’s book is a fascinating explanation of the events that led to the take-down of the infamous DarkMarket site, where hackers and criminals met to sell illegally skimmed credit card information and associated paraphernalia. It’s a complicated story that crosses countries including Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, the US, Sri Lanka and the UK and involved a wide cast of characters in both the hacking community and in law enforcement. Because of the wide cast, the story does bounce around a lot between players and I sometimes found it difficult to keep straight who was who – especially because so many of the references are to on-line pseudonyms.
This is a book pitched at those who are unfamiliar with this world (like me) and so there’s plenty of explanation on how hackers and skimmers operate. I appreciated that but those more experienced in the subject may find it too basic. There’s also a certain amount of conjecture on the motivation of the main players, with Glenny having to put together likely psychologies from the information available.
There are a number of parts of the book that are terrifying – from the ease with which people can get your personal information, to the general cluelessness of ordinary people to using the internet and the total lack of coordination and understanding of the subject matter on the part of law enforcement. In fact the blunders made by law enforcement officers are some of the most jaw dropping moments in the book (including German police allowing a teenage hacker to access his computer before being taken away).
All in all, it’s a really interesting read that kept me engrossed from beginning to end but the nature of the subject matter means that this isn’t a definitive account and (of necessity) there are a lot of unknowns that can’t be known. However if you’ve got a passing interest in underground technology culture and cyber crime, I think it’s worth checking out.
The Verdict:
Misha Glenny’s book is a fascinating explanation of the events that led to the take-down of the infamous DarkMarket site, where hackers and criminals met to sell illegally skimmed credit card information and associated paraphernalia. It’s a really interesting read that kept me engrossed from beginning to end but the nature of the subject matter means that this isn’t a definitive account and (of necessity) there are a lot of unknowns that can’t be known. However if you’ve got a passing interest in underground technology culture and cyber crime, I think it’s worth checking out.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.