Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet

by Joseph Menn

Book Overview

In 2004, a California computer whiz named Barrett Lyon uncovered the identity of a hacker running major assaults on business websites. Without fully grasping the repercussions, he set on an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586487485
• ISBN13: 9781586487485
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 3.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The modern battlefield

Will definitely read again. The criminal world has gone cyber and this book does a great job showing that

Excellent

Eye-opening book on the botnet-based criminal activity that takes place on the Internet. Great read for anyone interested in computer security. The book is not overly technical and can be understood by someone with a general background in computing. It is very well written and almost reads like a great novel - taking you behind the scenes of some of the shady and criminal enterprises involved in Internet-based crime. Highly recommended.

Fascinating, disturbing report on online crime

The Internet has become the ultimate mob hangout, a dangerous venue where U.S. Mafiosi, vicious Russian gang members and illegal hackers from many nations, especially from Eastern Europe, ply their dirty deeds. Cybersecurity reporter Joseph Menn examines cybercrime, exposing the bad guys while telling exciting stories about two intrepid investigators - Barrett Lyon, a U.S.-based "white hat" security hacker, and Andy Crocker, a British cybersecurity agent - who have successfully waged war against cybercriminals. Menn's book is both fascinating and disturbing, with its discussion of "zombie armies" of computers, and its exotically named online desperadoes, like CumbaJohnny. getAbstract recommends this gripping saga to those who want to protect themselves from cybercrime. This outstanding book's only deficiency is, ironically, its remarkable, overwhelming abundance of complex detail. If you think you need a cast list, tech manual and dictionary of arcane online terms, never mind; just hang on for a scary, revealing ride.

Be Afraid

Joseph Menn has cracked open the inside workings of cyber crime bosses with his book Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet . I packed the book with me this past week as I retired to a rustic cabin in Northern Michigan. Menn's book made for enthralling reading by light of a butane camp lantern. In addition to telling the story of Barrett Lyon, entrepreneur and cyber crime fighter who founded Prolexic, BitGravity and 3Crowd, Menn follows through to recount the dark world of Russian crime figures as explored by Andy Crocker, on assignment from the UK National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU). Andy finally convicts three DDoS extortionists in Russian who are serving sentences of eight years hard labor. I met Barrett in 2004 when he was still immersed in getting Prolexic off the ground. I was at Gartner and looking for something new to get involved in. Barrett's network defenses against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks was the most exciting thing I had encountered. Barrett thought I was joking when I asked him if I could send him my resume. I was completely serious until I met his business partner Mickey Flynn in a hotel bar in Chicago. Mickey ran BetCRIS, one of the key sports book making and online gaming organizations in Costa Rica. For once in my career my spidey sense served me well. Mickey seemed like a great guy but it was the first time I had ever met anyone accompanied by two big body guards wearing sports coats and obviously packing. As Barrett's adventure unfolded I saw bits and pieces of it but I had no idea just how deeply entrenched Barrett had become in the workings of an international crime ring, one that had its own problems with cyber criminals in Russia. Thanks to Joseph Menn I now know the story. At his wedding in San Francisco Barrett seemed as light hearted and happy as any groom should. It is hard to believe upon reading Menn's account that the night before Barrett had excused himself from the rehearsal dinner to secretly pass off a key fob with a digital audio recorder that he had used to capture a day's worth of conversation with one of the Prolexic partners to an FBI agent waiting around the corner in a dark sedan. To research his book Menn traveled to Russia with Barrett and the other hero of his book, Andy Crocker. The picture he paints of a corrupt justice and law enforcement system in Russia is chilling. Andy spent three years in Russia tracking down the ring of extortionists that Barrett had uncovered. Andy and Barrett did not even speak directly to each other until the night after Andy obtained convictions against three of the bad guys. Not since Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage has there been a book that delves as deeply into the workings of criminal hackers. This book will be widely read by law enforcement, policy makers, and IT security professionals. Like Stoll's book I predict

Excellent; Easy Read, Informative

From a non-geek, I heard Menn's interview on NPR, got the book at the library the next day. It was on limited lend because of high demand. I thought it might be full of technical jargon but was surprised how interesting and compelling it was. To those cheapskates who complain about price, get a life. And a library card.

More People Need To Know Stories Like These

When Mikko Hyponnen (of F-Secure fame) posted about this book on Twitter, I immediately pre-ordered the book. I got it two days later. (I was only one-day advanced on the pre-order, it seems.) I wasn't quite sure what to expect exactly, only I knew it had to do with cyber-security, so I was intrigued. What I got was a fascinating book with two main stories told from the perspectives of the good guys. The first was a story of how a young dyslexic man struggled against the odds to become one of the best people around at defeating Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attacks. His story, which spans at least two continents and his unwitting participation with some of the internet's shadier characters, is a fascinating one. That story comprises part one of the book, and ties into part two quite neatly. Part two is the story of a British detective and his exploits in foreign countries (particularly Russia) in his efforts to find and eventually catch several of the same cyber-criminals from part one. While it has the tempo of a fictional "cyber-thriller", this book is non-fiction and is based on the very thorough work of Joseph Menn, a reporter for the Financial Times (previously of the LA Times). The overall theme is that of the war that is taking place using the world's computers and networks as a battleground. Despite the chronicled successes outlined in these two stories, it's a war that's very quickly being lost. I've been working in the cyber-security industry for a while now, so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with some of the more sinister aspects of what happens on the internet. However, I think for the "layman" or someone who doesn't work with technology and/or cyber-security, this book will be a really good look into a world that you don't ordinarily see, replete with real heroes, real villains, and real consequences to real people. Most people will understand some of the consequences from the flood of spam that they're used to getting; for the unlucky few, identity theft will bring the stories even closer to home. Even if you're fortunate enough to have never experienced any of those consequences yourself, you may have recently heard of the attacks on Google and several other companies. The war taking place in cyberspace is all too real, and while I would hope that most people never have to be involved, the opposite is likely the case. It is escalating, and there need to be more stories like the ones in this book if we ever hope to win.