| Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet |  | Author: Joseph Menn
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $9.94
as of 9/10/2010 07:48 CDT details
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Seller: psbooks__
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 30,497
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1586487485
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.168
EAN: 9781586487485
Publication Date: January 26, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
A real public service August 21, 2010
MT57 (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book paints a very scary world of US criminals operating not very honest online gaming businesses from Costa Rica, and Russian criminals engaged in child porn, extortion and identity theft. They happen to collide with each other when the Russians try to extort the gaming businesses by denial of service attacks, and the US online gaming / criminal figures hire a former hacker / internet security maven to protect them. The episode opens his eyes to the use of the Internet for crime and he seeks to engage law enforcement to stop the criminals but the US agencies are - big surprise - barely interested. A lone figure in the UK grasps the significance and the two of them fly to Russia to engage the law enforcement authorities there (as if) to stop the Russian criminals. They experience little success and considerable personal risk in doing so. Along the way, one learns much of what is known about the degree of penetration of computer viruses, trojans, bots and so on. One is left in a state of extreme distrust of one's computer and very grateful to the author for publicizing this very serious problem.
Nice intro to security August 8, 2010
And how it is in real life. for many not to much new but still an exiting book to read.
Recommend for IT pros July 25, 2010
Scott A Otocki
* 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.
 Pretty good overview of organized crime hooks into cyberspace July 24, 2010
Pippin Ain't Easy (TN)
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.
Excellent overview of Net Threat June 27, 2010
Chas P (Houston, Texas)
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
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