Tangled Web

Richard Power is well known in the computer security business. As editorial director of the Computer Security Institute (CSI) based in San Francisco, he maintains a high media profile and has advised both Fortune 1000 companies in the US and government agencies throughout the world. His real-world experience of the issues and events that contribute to cyber-crime are second to none, and as a journalist he has the necessary skills to dig into the facts and present them in a readable format to the general public and IT digerati alike.

Tangled Web has a descriptive subtitle of 'Tales of Digital Crime from the Shadows of Cyberspace' - descriptive because Power draws on his in-depth interviews with investigators, prosecutors, security experts and cyber-criminals themselves, to reveal details of cases that have remained unpublished until now. Descriptive also, because sometimes you get the feeling that Power is faintly dramatising events for effect. The statistics are well chosen to strike fear into the network manager and CEO, and occasionally you think you really need to be contacting CSI and asking for its professional advice in securing your organisation. However, the narrative drama tool is used to good effect as it makes for a very readable book, far more so than most that delve into this territory at this level of knowledge.

High-profile cases abound. More than a dozen are covered in great depth, including that of Vladimir Levin, the Russian hacker who stole $10 million from Citibank, leading to his eventual capture by the FBI. Then there's the less well-known PhoneMasters case which saw a gang of accomplished hackers garnering information from several major phone companies and then offering it for sale to anyone who wanted it - $75 (£52) for a personal credit report, $100 (£69) for FBI records, and $500 (£345) if you wanted the address or private number of an A-list celebrity.

This book is a compendium of true cyber-crime stories from our recent technological past - a history lesson in how insecure most networks really are. Although you'll have to wait for the second edition to get the inside skinny of the most recent attacks, to his credit, Power manages to remain up to date. There's coverage of David Smith's launch of the Melissa virus, and an interesting perspective on the Love Bug case, reflecting the enormity of this particular event that struck worldwide.

Author: Davey Winder