An incredible non-fiction exploring the digital tech world and the web, Crime Dot Com by Geoff White is a book I’ll pick up time and time again and be shouting about for everyone to read.
The plot:
On 4 May 2000, an email that read ‘kindly check the attached loveletter’ was sent from the Philippines. Attached was a virus, the Love Bug, and within days it had paralysed banks, broadcasters and businesses across the globe. The outbreak presaged a new era of online mayhem: the age of Crime Dot Com had begun.
Investigative journalist Geoff White charts the astonishing development of hacking, from its conception in America’s hippy tech community in the 1970s, through its childhood among the ruins of the Eastern Bloc, to its coming of age as the most pervasive threat to our digital world.
This book should be your go-to crime on the web book
Like most people, I live and breathe the internet – I use it both professionally and personally. I also have quite a lot of interest in bitcoin and tech (when I can understand it), so when Crime Dot Com sold digital tech, crime and all wrapped up in a book? SOLD.
The main selling point for me here was the author – Geoff White is an investigative journalist, working with many of the large news agencies to undercover the tech world and their developments. I’ve read multiple articles by him, especially during the TalkTalk fiasco in 2015 (more information in the book) and knew that the information in Crime Dot Com wouldn’t be wishy-washy or read-between-the-lines.
In Crime Dot Com, White focuses on the defining situations and growth within the tech world, down to most recently, Trump’s presidential campaign and Cambridge Analytica. There’s a lot of focus on hacking, and how individuals and large companies have suffered, including how hackers caused a whole power outage. There’s fantastic examples from all you could think about, down to bitcoin and the dark web, and it’s a fascinating read.
There isn’t any scaremongering for standard users (although I’d hate to be a techie for a business now), however there are the warnings which many of us have had drilled into us since day numero: don’t open any dodgy-looking emails and change your passwords frequently.
I particularly liked how many financials were included, so you didn’t just get “company x was hacked”, you got more information about the costs to recover, and on the darker side, how much these hackers would’ve earned from some of their “work”.
This book should be your go-to crime on the web book. Particularly because of how much research and time has gone into it – this isn’t your standard “I’ve had an idea and ran with it”, this is years of industry knowledge and reporting by the author, as well as reaching out to hackers, governments, individuals and companies for comments – the analysis is great and often what you’re thinking but with a more valid response behind it.
It’s pulled together in a logical way, especially as some chapters reference others. You’re often told when a subject might be referenced later and it’s not patronising, which can be rare in this type of read!
This is one of those books I’m going to go back to again and again (especially when I’m trying to win an argument), and I’m going to be advocating for it a lot, as it feels like a necessary read. A 5-star non-fiction which deserves a place on your bookshelf.
P.S I know this is a book recommendation website, but I’d highly recommend Geoff White’s “The Dark Web” podcast also.
Crime Dot Com, Geoff White, RRP £18.99 (hardback); Book Depository
Pages: 334
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Genre: Non-Fiction
