Overview

The most extensive account yet of the lives of cybercriminals and the vast international industry they have created, deeply sourced and based on field research in the world's technology-crime hotspots. Cybercrime seems invisible. Attacks arrive out of nowhere, their origins hidden by layers of sophisticated technology. Only the victims are clear. But every crime has its perpetrator-specific individuals or groups sitting somewhere behind keyboards and screens. Jonathan Lusthaus lifts the veil on the world of these cybercriminals in the most extensive account yet of the lives they lead, and the vast international industry they have created. We are long past the age of the lone adolescent hacker tapping away in his parents' basement. Cybercrime now operates like a business. Its goods and services may be illicit, but it is highly organized, complex, driven by profit, and globally interconnected. Having traveled to cybercrime hotspots around the world to meet with hundreds of law enforcement agents, security gurus, hackers, and criminals, Lusthaus takes us inside this murky underworld and reveals how this business works. He explains the strategies criminals use to build a thriving industry in a low-trust environment characterized by a precarious combination of anonymity and teamwork. Crime takes hold where there is more technical talent than legitimate opportunity, and where authorities turn a blind eye-perhaps for a price. In the fight against cybercrime, understanding what drives people into this industry is as important as advanced security. Based on seven years of fieldwork from Eastern Europe to West Africa, Industry of Anonymity is a compelling and revealing study of a rational business model which, however much we might wish otherwise, has become a defining feature of the modern world.

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9780674979413

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Reviews

With convincing and compelling arguments, impressive empirical work, balanced explanations, and effective writing, Industry of Anonymity is a remarkable contribution to the literature on cybercrime. Criminology and sociology audiences have been waiting for this kind of book.--Beno t Dupont, University of Montreal Industry of Anonymity is an accessible and important work on the organization of cybercrime. No other study provides the depth, breath, and rigor on this difficult-to-reach community.--David Skarbek, Brown University

With convincing and compelling arguments, impressive empirical work, balanced explanations, and effective writing, Industry of Anonymity is a remarkable contribution to the literature on cybercrime. Criminology and sociology audiences have been waiting for this kind of book.--Beno�t Dupont, University of Montreal Industry of Anonymity is an accessible and important work on the organization of cybercrime. No other study provides the depth, breath, and rigor on this difficult-to-reach community.--David Skarbek, Brown University

Author Information

Jonathan Lusthaus is Director of the Human Cybercriminal Project in the Department of Sociology and Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

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