Alan Jacobs


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More than just an engrossing yarn, Mr. Glenny’s book takes an anthropological approach to the DarkMarket community, elucidating its conflicting motivations, ruthless tactics and anarchist philosophy. Even though many cyber criminals have day jobs, they spend inordinate amounts of time online, mostly in a futile attempt to impress their peers and join the ranks of the digital übermenschen. Many choose cybercrime for the same reasons that disaffected youngsters choose more pedestrian forms of crime; tales of desperation, rejection and poverty loom large in this book. Faced with an unpalatable choice between a life of violent crime or seemingly victimless cybercrime, 13-year-olds in Ukraine choose the latter. This is Mr. Glenny’s most perceptive insight: Regardless of how much money governments and corporations spend on upgrading computer security, the war on cybercrime cannot be won without mastering the psychology of its practitioners.