Table Of Contentcr i m e do t c om
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C R IMEDO TCOM
FROM VIRUSES
TO VOTE R IGGING,
HOW H ACK ING
WENT GLOBAL
GEOFF WHITE
reaktion Books
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For my wife, my mum and my dad
– may he rest in peace.
Published by
Reaktion Books Ltd
Unit 32, Waterside
44–48 Wharf Road
London n1 7ux, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2020
Copyright © Geoff White 2020
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publishers
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isBn 978 1 78914 285 3
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CONTENTS
author’s note 6
INTRODUCTION 7
one MEET THE HACKERS 11
two FALL OF THE BERLIN FIREWALL 33
three OCEAN’S 11 DOT COM 66
four DIGITAL EXTORTION 97
five YOUR DATA FOR SALE 128
six BEYOND THE DARK WEB 154
seven THE INTERNET HATE MACHINE 187
eight LIGHTS OUT 220
nine WEAPONIZING DATA 247
ten HACK THE VOTE 272
EPILOGUE 306
references 313
further reading 333
acknowledgements 335
index 337
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Author’s Note
All quotes in this book that are not referenced are taken from
interviews conducted by the author, either face-to-face or online.
I am indebted to the many people who have spared their time to
help me.
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INTRODUCTION
here is a reason cybercrime has surged up the news agenda.
T
It’s not just because of society’s growing dependence on
vulnerable technology. And it’s not just because journal-
ists, politicians and powerful institutions are increasingly targeted
by hackers. Cybercrime has boomed thanks to a little-noticed
confluence of the world’s most powerful hacker groups. In the
years since the turn of the millennium, a cross-pollination of
tools and tactics between these shadowy operators has shaped
the technological threat we see today, elevating cybercrime to an
omnipresent hazard. As our society has moved online, they have
begun striking at the critical services on which we all rely: our
hospitals, power stations, news media and political processes.
There are three forces driving this new wave of attacks:
organized cybercrime gangs, ‘hacktivist’ movements and nation-
state hackers.
Organized crime has been present from almost the earli est
days of computer hacking and has now become firmly entrenched,
as its members have realized how much safer it is to rob people
and institutions virtually, rather than in person. Their tactics
run on a high-volume, low-margin model: if they can steal £5
from a million people the victims might not even notice, but the
hackers are still £5 million richer. This has spawned a sophis-
ticated industry that runs its lucrative criminal enterprises like
Silicon Valley start-ups. But as the gangs’ indiscriminate attack
tools have leaked out, the losses have been far more than simply
financial.
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CRIMEDOTCOM 8
Hacktivist groups may have started out as digital protest
movements, but their tactics were quickly adopted by cybercrim-
inals and are now being heavily exploited by others with more
cynical and sinister motives. Their ability to create publicity and
co-opt journalism to their cause has had ruinous effects on their
victims, who’ve seen their corporate reputations trashed, and in
some cases their companies destroyed entirely.
Perhaps most worrying of all, nation states are increasingly
getting in on the act, adding hacking teams to the arsenal of
weapons available to their military and intelligence establish-
ments. These are not illicit, backroom operations, but rather
highly skilled, professional and well-funded outfits. In the past,
their work was often stealthy and tightly focused on selected
targets. But as you’ll see in this book, that is not how it’s
remained.
In recent decades these three groups have emerged and grown
in influence as humanity has become increasingly connected and
reliant on technology. Now, the worlds they inhabit are starting
to merge. Organized crime has adopted the powerful techniques
of nation-state hackers. Hacktivists have descended into attacks
indistinguishable from those of organized crime. Nation states
have harnessed the public shaming tactics of the hacktivists and
the devastating, often indiscriminate tools of the online crooks.
The term ‘cybercrime’ might once have been associated mainly
with credit card fraud and online bank theft. But thanks to the
bleed-across between these three different groups, it’s increas-
ingly difficult to draw clear lines of separation. As this book shows,
cybercrime is no longer just about money – what’s being hacked
is, in some cases, the very fabric of society.
This book goes inside the murky world of these disparate
hacker movements, exploring the fascinating and sometimes little-
known stories of how their crimes are carried out and how they
came to collide with each other. It starts with the hippie hackers
of the 1970s and traces the path all the way through to the present
day – and to our possible futures.
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iNtrOduCtiON 9
To be clear: it is a male-dominated world. Right now you will
find few women, not only among the criminal hacker community
but in the legitimate cybersecurity industry. There is evidence that
the gender balance is changing, but only gradually.
Writing a book on cybercrime that is simultaneously compre-
hensive, compelling and concise presents challenges. Hacking
attacks that others might consider pivotal have been left out
entirely; timelines have been collapsed to speed the story along;
and perhaps most heinous of all, much technical detail has been
omitted in order to keep this book accessible.
If you are a techie, please bear in mind that this book is aimed
at a general audience. Hopefully you will forgive its deficiencies,
in the knowledge that less tech-savvy readers might gain from it
an insight into and respect for the world you understand so well.
For the non-technical reader: if (as I hope) this fires your enthu-
siasm for the endlessly fascinating and increasingly important
world of cybersecurity, there is a short Further Reading list to be
found at the end of the book.
As will become apparent, the cybercrime threat is now so large
and so pervasive that our governments, employers and the tech
companies themselves stand little chance of protecting us from
every attack. If we’re not careful, as technology takes a greater
place in the running of our world it is the criminal hackers – those
who understand, control and manipulate technology – who will
dictate its future. It’s up to us to defend ourselves, and knowledge
is the first step.
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