Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet
By:
Joseph Menn
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List Price: $25.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Description:
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.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Release Date: 2010-01-26
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Recommend for IT pros - * I recommend this book for any IT professional who wants to understand why firewalls/load balancers/encryption technology are needed to defend off attacks. The book makes information security exciting by explaining how cybercriminals are tracked down, caught, and eventually tried in court.
* The book mentions cybercrime syndicates such as shadowcrew, carderplanet, and the Russian Business Network (RBN). All the aforementioned cybercrime syndicates are accessible only through direct contact with someone deep within the criminal organization since the underground forums have collapsed.
* The two main characters in the book are Andy Crocker and Barret Lyon. Andy Crocker "did the most that an individual in government could do to punish some of the worst of the cyber mafia." (Menn, 226). He set new standards of cooperation between the west and Russia for investigations and prosecutions. This was needed especially by hackers like "King Arthur" who were protected by local politicians and police. King Arthur and various other leaders in cybercrime evaded being caught by bribing government officials.
* Barret Lyon gained his experience by protecting an online gambling company, which opened up the doors to various other online gaming companies such as "[...]." He became familiar with the criminal underworld that owned these offshore companies. Eventually, he decided to work with the FBI to bring down these criminals.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Pretty good overview of organized crime hooks into cyberspace - I really enjoyed this book, despite the fact that it's not technical at all. It basically threads together several disparate stories that barely overlap. I think this was the most confusing part of the book - I expected the book to be about the man introduced in chapter 1 as a central character. He remains throughout the book, but after the first few chapters and story development, the book takes a sharp unexpected turn into different territory. As it turns out, it all makes sense in the end, and there's a good reason for the author to frame the story like this.
All in all, well done.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Excellent overview of Net Threat - Was looking for a great vacation read that would provide some education. Fatal System Error fit the bill. Enjoyed the characters shared and the overview of the good fight they were waging. Hopefully, threats within are taken seriously by current / future U.S. Administrations.
Customer Review: 3 out of 5
To much mafia talk. - I was really hooked on this book til half way through, then it just wouldn't stop talking about the mafia. I mean about the entire history of some mafia characters and it went way off topic. I mean it is interesting but I wanted to read about cyber crime and not criminal justice in general. It is a good book that I would recommend to those interested in criminal justice though, with some interesting information on the people involved in cyber crime.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
A great book, ready made for a great movie! - Barrett Lyon and Andy Crocker connected through the cyber criminals, hacker
asking $40000 for one year of peace, Ron Sacco founder of BetCris and Gambino
family connection, Ivan Maksakov bad guy in Russia, Yishai Habari porn to poker
scams, Ruth Parasol lawyer to PartyPoker billionaire, Party Gaming IPO 8.5 billion,
Prolexic, e-gold, botnet, zombie, FBI, Scotland Yard, Igor Yakovlev good Russian,
BetCris, DDOS distributed denial of service, ID theft, corrupted Russian police,
Russian Business Network, Igor Klopov credit card theft, Kimberly Zenz security
analyst, China hackers downloading 10 terabyte data from US Dept Defense, major banks, etc.
The list goes on and on. Sometimes the writing tend to repeat, and unorganized.
But overall, you can see the documentation of facts and stories is first class.
It is a perfect book for movies. Who should be the casting characters? That is the question.
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