mintlovesbooks's review
informative
medium-paced
2.0
This book follows the story of the now-defunct cybercrime forum DarkMarket.
Based on the description my local library provided, I thought this book would be more like American Kingpin by Nick Bilton - an exploration of the people behind a criminal enterprise and the impacts of the site itself on average people. In other words, I was expecting a book that was more focused on DarkMarket and the case itself, and this book did not meet my expectations.
Glenny writes a fair amount about global cybersecurity practises in this book. I found this to be somewhat tangent to what I thought the focus of the book was: the DarkMarket investigation. For example, an interlude is dedicated to discussing Estonia's cybersecurity practises. I'm still not sure how this is relevant to DarkMarket.
On top of that, Glenny also has a more dry writing style, which made this book even more difficult to read for me.
As to be expected with the subject matter of this book, there is a lot of technical lingo being used. I get the feeling that it's already less technical than similar books and Glenny did a decent job of explaining the concepts. But, the trouble with too much detail is that it can make the book difficult to follow, particularly for the lay reader.
I acknowledge that as a true crime fan who knows nothing about cybersecurity, I'm probably not the right reader for this book. However, if you're more interested and knowledgeable about the technical aspects of cybersecurity, you might want to consider giving this one a read.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
https://mintlovesbooks.wordpress.com
Based on the description my local library provided, I thought this book would be more like American Kingpin by Nick Bilton - an exploration of the people behind a criminal enterprise and the impacts of the site itself on average people. In other words, I was expecting a book that was more focused on DarkMarket and the case itself, and this book did not meet my expectations.
Glenny writes a fair amount about global cybersecurity practises in this book. I found this to be somewhat tangent to what I thought the focus of the book was: the DarkMarket investigation. For example, an interlude is dedicated to discussing Estonia's cybersecurity practises. I'm still not sure how this is relevant to DarkMarket.
On top of that, Glenny also has a more dry writing style, which made this book even more difficult to read for me.
As to be expected with the subject matter of this book, there is a lot of technical lingo being used. I get the feeling that it's already less technical than similar books and Glenny did a decent job of explaining the concepts. But, the trouble with too much detail is that it can make the book difficult to follow, particularly for the lay reader.
I acknowledge that as a true crime fan who knows nothing about cybersecurity, I'm probably not the right reader for this book. However, if you're more interested and knowledgeable about the technical aspects of cybersecurity, you might want to consider giving this one a read.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
https://mintlovesbooks.wordpress.com
auspea's review
3.0
Good backgrounder on cyber crime. Written in 2011 but is informative on the subject of "Hacking" that is being thrown around these days.
andrewrobins's review
2.0
Nothing like as interesting as I thought it would be. I'd expected (maybe I should have read the cover blurb closer) a more detailed story of modern hacking groups (it has a person wearing an Anonymous mask on the cover, so perhaps not the stupidest of assumptions), but it is actually about a group of characters who shared credit card details / sold card skimming machines on a site a few years ago.
It quickly gets dull, though, and I struggled to care enough to see it through to the end.
It quickly gets dull, though, and I struggled to care enough to see it through to the end.
halfmanhalfbook's review
4.0
Written like a thriller. More scary though as it is true! Well worth a read if you are interested in internet stories and crime.
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