Literature that enlightens

Who, if not Marc Goodman, who works for the FBI, knows more about the dark machinations of the cyber world? In his 600-page tome, the author sweetly serves up his stories from the real world of bits and bytes. Depending on their interests, readers can zap through 18 chapters of this cyber enlightenment book, from "Big Data - Big Risk" to "Die Verbrecher GmbH" to "Deep in the Digital Underground". Some of the stories seem like stories from a futuristic crime novel. But they are not, even though Goodman is the founder of the Future Crimes Institute. The former police officer names his sources, and what he tells has a lot of substance. The former undercover investigator shows that hackers, criminals and other dark figures are moving with the times, indeed they are more than just a nose ahead of it - and often also of the investigating authorities. They plunder accounts and seize sensitive infrastructure assets. They penetrate surveillance systems that were thought to be secure and manipulate them. The expert for Internet security knows what the trapdoors of www technology are - the reader often finds it like scales falling from his eyes.

But it doesn't just talk about cyber criminals, it also highlights the everyday data collection frenzy of Google & Co.

Has 21st century society not yet grasped where the networked journey is headed? In many areas, the Internet of Things is a blessing for a peace-loving society. But the more networked, the more vulnerable the system. The "elite criminals" who control the technology are getting dangerously involved in the global data monopoly, along with terrorist organizations, intelligence services, governments and the economy. What's more, everything that is forbidden is available on the "dark web" of the globally active cyber criminals. It's high time society found out about it, too - Goodman explains it very clearly.   (rs)

"Global Hack," by Marc Goodman, 600 pages, Hanser Verlag, ISBN 978-3-446-44463-8, ePUB format: ISBN 978-3-446-44464-5.