DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You

The book kept me reading as if it were a Henning Mankell detective novel rather than a non-fiction book. He provides much information about a subject I knew virtually nothing about. I can't say how current the information still would be considered, but given my level of understanding about the online world, the dark net behind the internet, laws in the Ukraine for cyber thievery, sale of incredible products that aid cybercrime, this book would always seem revealing. This is the second book I've red by this author, and both were informative and highly readable.

DarkMarket totally captured me! I found the tales of those deep into the underworld of cyber crime fascinating and frightening. Glenny manages to make what could be a dry subject a page turner and not least, comprehensible (most cyber stuff flies over my head). I tried to read Worm but was completely lost, even bored. Look, if you want to understand what we are up against in this new age of cyber reality, such as identity theft and obsession - then read this book. It explains it all in a dramatic (even fun) way. Enough to get me really thinking about this strange new world we are just beginning to enter. Great book. Glenny hit it out of the park for me.

Darkmarket was a bit difficult to follow, however, it was a step-up for me.My mistake was also thinking that this book was about the future of cyber warfare between nations and corporations.

The book arrived exactly when I needed it. It was in tip-top shape. Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase.

Book in great conditon.

'DarkMarket' begins as an interesting report on cybercrime, using the story of a pastor's account being compromised in England by Nigerian chemical engineer employed locally to get started. Unfortunately, the book quickly degenerates into mostly unrelated threads located all around the world, making it difficult to maintain interest.The book's value is limited to simply summarizing the difficulty of tracking, apprehending, and incarcerating those involved - problems begin with the fact that criminal acts are often perpetrated from an IP address in one country against an individual/corporation in a second, in which the proceeds may be cashed out in a third. The actions taking place may not even be considered a crime in all three nations, the authorities not on the best of terms with each other (eg. U.S. problems caused by hackers in Russia are not a priority for Russia's KGB, but woe to the Russian hacker who attacks Russian individuals or enterprises). Anonymity makes the physical location of a computer difficult to identify, as well as the individual operating it. Encryption is widely available for free, most notably PGP, further complicating law enforcement, though reportedly government entities use Echelon to break these codes. (On the other hand, simple corruption of local languages - usually Russian, make it almost impossible for American agents to infiltrate Russian networks.) Glenny also mentions that German police officers are legally required to ID themselves as belonging to law enforcement if tracking a suspect over the Internet. Similarly, there are legal limitations in the U.S. and elsewhere on the use of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) oversight programs that monitor downloading and software installation.Continuing, 'Safemail' is an encrypted email system that cannot be cracked without getting an Israeli Court to subpoena the information (owned and operated in Tel Aviv), victims often reside outside the investigating officer's jurisdiction, often resulting in pressure to instead work on more local cases.DarkMarket had sections for pirated software, fraudulent documents, viruses, card skimmers, and stolen card information. Also important was its escrow system to enforce trust among the thieves using it, its 'invite' system that limited those who could offer wares on it, and the use of site administrators to patrol for cops and rats. (Those administrators sometimes used their authority to push competitors out, for their own benefit.) Still another law enforcement problem - U.S. agencies sometimes didn't communicate with each other, leading to Keystone Cops situations of one agency investigating the investigators of another.Most of the material covers the activities of DarkMarket's founder (Renukanth Subramaniam, in London) and FBI agent Keith Mularski's infiltration of it using the alias Master Spylntr; ultimately more than 60 arrests worldwide followed. It had 2,500 users at its peak. Max Vision (Iceman) also was a notorious hacker who ran an underground forum called Carders Market and ended up sentenced to 13 years in jail after stealing nearly 2 million credit card numbers and generating about $86 million in fraudulent charges.Kevin Poulsen's 'Kingpin' provide much more focused and useful information on the cybercrime underground.

This is a fascinating account of part of the war on cyber crime. We all know there are hackers, but in DarkMarket veteran journalist Misha Glenny describes how their activities have become a market commodity, with websites where hackers and gangsters can buy and sell everything from virus code to access to botnets and credit card readers. The book is the story of a sting operation by the FBI and its international counterparts, and how it almost came unraveled by a story in "Wired".

The book starts out in an interesting manner, but then quickly deteriorates into a confusing, often twisting description of different players and their contribution to mis-organized cyber crime. Or maybe not - I don't know, I got lost a couple of times as to who was who and what they were doing. The author does make a pitch at the end that it seems a shame to have such talent go to waste and rot (in the case of one un-tried suspect, literally) in custody. Well, can't that be said of any number of apprehended criminals... such a shame, you know?It's a confusing, new area of crime and I still haven't learned all that much after reading this book. Is there any progress in developing international agreements in pursuing these guys? Are jurisdictions and legal boundaries being refined? Who's doing what? What are the Russians doing to help out? I think I have more questions that when I started.

Misha Glenny is an author who manages the feat of writing factual books that have the same gripping quality as a good novel. However I found this one was less riveting than "McMafia" possibly because I knew more about the topic or perhaps because the author was wisely taking less risks with his personal safety when writing this. It was, in turns, entertaining, worrying and satisfying to have one's own suspicions confirmed by reputable sources about what is going on in the wotld of cyber-crime. The glimpses into the weird world of the people behind this is another case of reality being far stranger than fiction. This is definitely worth reading even if you do have a geeky streak and will be profoundly useful to those who don't.

I have to say that I was disappointed that this book "DarkMarket - Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You" is the same as "DarkMarket - how hackers became the new mafia". The cover photo has changed, the ISBN has changed but the narrative is the same. So if you already own a copy of one version, don't make the same mistake as me and order the other one.That said the book is informative and entertaining. I would have it to have been a bit more "techie" and preferably with information on how to minimise the risk of being hacked. In that respect, Glenny's only advice is to cover the keyboard as you enter your PIN; hardly insightful.

This is a scary story, of what can happen when credit card details and other personal details are stolen. They are put for sale to the highest bidder and can be bought by anyone. The story goes from The Ukraine, US, Germany, Turkey and everywhere in between. how the dark market was infiltrated by cops, hackers turned informants and ultimately was broken up. Well researched and written.

This book is a fascinating insight into card theft,although it is fiction there must have been a lot of research gone into the issue.

This book is a great read. It gives a great insight into the world of cyberspace and it's misuse by criminals.