Kingpin：How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground

作者: Kevin Poulsen

出版社: Random House US

出版时间: 2011-12

版次: 1

ISBN: 9780307588685

定价: 216.00

装帧: 精装

开本: 16开

纸张: 胶版纸

页数: 266页

分类: 外文古旧书>英文书>历史

1人买过

　　Former hacker Kevin Poulsen has, over the past decade, built areputation as one of the top investigative reporters on thecybercrime beat. In Kingpin, he pours his unmatched access andexpertise into book form for the first time, delivering a grippingcat-and-mouse narrative—and an unprecedented view into thetwenty-first century’s signature form of organized crime.

  The word spread through the hacking underground like someunstoppable new virus: Someone—some brilliant, audacious crook—hadjust staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network thatsiphoned billions of dollars from the US economy.

  The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimedat tracking down this new kingpin; other agencies around the worlddeployed dozens of moles and double agents. Together, the cybercopslured numerous unsuspecting hackers into their clutches. . . . Yetat every turn, their main quarry displayed an uncanny ability tosniff out their snitches and see through their plots.

  The culprit they sought was the most unlikely of criminals: abrilliant programmer with a hippie ethic and a supervillain’sdouble identity. As prominent “white-hat” hacker Max “Vision”Butler, he was a celebrity throughout the programming world, evenserving as a consultant to the FBI. But as the black-hat “Iceman,”he found in the world of data theft an irresistible opportunity totest his outsized abilities. He infiltrated thousands of computersaround the country, sucking down millions of credit card numbers atwill. He effortlessly hacked his fellow hackers, stealing theirill-gotten gains from under their noses. Together with asmooth-talking con artist, he ran a massive real-world crimering.

  And for years, he did it all with seeming impunity, even ascountless rivals ran afoul of police.

  Yet as he watched the fraudsters around him squabble, their ranksriddled with infiltrators, their methods inefficient, he began tosee in their dysfunction the ultimate challenge: He would stage hiscoup and fix what was broken, run things as they should be run—evenif it meant painting a bull’s-eye on his forehead.

  Through the story of this criminal’s remarkable rise, and of lawenforcement’s quest to track him down, Kingpin lays bare theworkings of a silent crime wave still affecting millions ofAmericans. In these pages, we are ushered into vast online-fraudsupermarkets stocked with credit card numbers, counterfeit checks,hacked bank accounts, dead drops, and fake passports. We learn theworkings of the numerous hacks—browser exploits, phishing attacks,Trojan horses, and much more—these fraudsters use to ply theirtrade, and trace the complex routes by which they turn stolen datainto millions of dollars. And thanks to Poulsen’s remarkable accessto both cops and criminals, we step inside the quiet, desperatearms race that law enforcement continues to fight with thesescammers today.

  Ultimately, Kingpin is a journey into an underworld of startlingscope and power, one in which ordinary American teenagers work handin hand with murderous Russian mobsters and where a simple Wi-Ficonnection can unleash a torrent of gold worth million 　　KEVIN POULSEN is a senior editor at Wired.com and acontributor to Wired magazine. He oversees cybercrime, privacy, andpolitical coverage for Wired.com and edits the award-winning ThreatLevel blog (wired.com/threatlevel), which he founded in 2005.
内容简介:
　　Former hacker Kevin Poulsen has, over the past decade, built areputation as one of the top investigative reporters on thecybercrime beat. In Kingpin, he pours his unmatched access andexpertise into book form for the first time, delivering a grippingcat-and-mouse narrative—and an unprecedented view into thetwenty-first century’s signature form of organized crime.

  The word spread through the hacking underground like someunstoppable new virus: Someone—some brilliant, audacious crook—hadjust staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network thatsiphoned billions of dollars from the US economy.

  The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimedat tracking down this new kingpin; other agencies around the worlddeployed dozens of moles and double agents. Together, the cybercopslured numerous unsuspecting hackers into their clutches. . . . Yetat every turn, their main quarry displayed an uncanny ability tosniff out their snitches and see through their plots.

  The culprit they sought was the most unlikely of criminals: abrilliant programmer with a hippie ethic and a supervillain’sdouble identity. As prominent “white-hat” hacker Max “Vision”Butler, he was a celebrity throughout the programming world, evenserving as a consultant to the FBI. But as the black-hat “Iceman,”he found in the world of data theft an irresistible opportunity totest his outsized abilities. He infiltrated thousands of computersaround the country, sucking down millions of credit card numbers atwill. He effortlessly hacked his fellow hackers, stealing theirill-gotten gains from under their noses. Together with asmooth-talking con artist, he ran a massive real-world crimering.

  And for years, he did it all with seeming impunity, even ascountless rivals ran afoul of police.

  Yet as he watched the fraudsters around him squabble, their ranksriddled with infiltrators, their methods inefficient, he began tosee in their dysfunction the ultimate challenge: He would stage hiscoup and fix what was broken, run things as they should be run—evenif it meant painting a bull’s-eye on his forehead.

  Through the story of this criminal’s remarkable rise, and of lawenforcement’s quest to track him down, Kingpin lays bare theworkings of a silent crime wave still affecting millions ofAmericans. In these pages, we are ushered into vast online-fraudsupermarkets stocked with credit card numbers, counterfeit checks,hacked bank accounts, dead drops, and fake passports. We learn theworkings of the numerous hacks—browser exploits, phishing attacks,Trojan horses, and much more—these fraudsters use to ply theirtrade, and trace the complex routes by which they turn stolen datainto millions of dollars. And thanks to Poulsen’s remarkable accessto both cops and criminals, we step inside the quiet, desperatearms race that law enforcement continues to fight with thesescammers today.

  Ultimately, Kingpin is a journey into an underworld of startlingscope and power, one in which ordinary American teenagers work handin hand with murderous Russian mobsters and where a simple Wi-Ficonnection can unleash a torrent of gold worth million
作者简介:
　　KEVIN POULSEN is a senior editor at Wired.com and acontributor to Wired magazine. He oversees cybercrime, privacy, andpolitical coverage for Wired.com and edits the award-winning ThreatLevel blog (wired.com/threatlevel), which he founded in 2005.