Cybercrime was once as arcane as quantum physics or cryptocurrency volatility. But now, it is becoming a common theme in many works. We’re continuously under assault, whether organized criminals are phishing to steal vital information for sale on the dark web or regular people are being persuaded to follow a link to collect a reward or confirm a payment. Pension fraud, identity theft, strangers tracking our children on TikTok: everywhere we look, someone is attempting to use the technologies we rely on against us.
Let us dive into the world of cyber security by knowing the top 10 books on cybercrime:
- The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
Written by: Kevin Mitnick
- It is a universal truth in information security that the human is the weakest player in a computer network.
- Kevin Mitnick wrote the book on extracting such vulnerability, whether it’s through phishing emails or a phone call “from the bank” claiming to be dialling about fraudulent activity.
- He’s written several books on hacking, including the intriguing memoir Ghost in the Wires, but my favourite is this excellent guide to social engineering. Think you can’t be duped into divulging vital information? Read this and reconsider.
- People Like Her
Written by: Ellery Lloyd
- Social media spying has become commonplace in psychological thrillers over the last decade. Still, few have done it as successfully as Ellery Lloyd, the pen name of married literary duo Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos.
- People Like Her portrays famous InstaMum Emmy and her washed-up author husband, who despises their sudden popularity. Toss in a cyber stalker, some witty writing, and a frenetic race to the end, and you’ve got yourself an excellent digital thriller.
- Countdown to Day Zero: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon
Written by: Kim Zetter
- With so many cyber thieves attempting to cheat us off with text messages to pay for more postage, it’s easy to overlook that technologies are also being used to do harmful deeds nationally.
- The centrifuges of Iran’s uranium enrichment complex were frequently breaking in 2010. What’s the reason? Stuxnet, a new virus developed by the United States and Israel, enabled them to spiral too quickly and crash.
- This compelling story of government sabotage explains machine code in simple language that every reader can understand.
Cory’s little brother to the Doctors
- Doktorov is well-known for his digital advocacy, as editor of the prominent publication Boing Boing, and his article fiction.
- The Little Brother trilogy, and the streetwise 17-year-old Marcus, who, with his crew, establishes a secret “cell network” to guard against a futuristic surveillance state, are at the centre of this canon.
- Except for one, they have all been released. How can they demonstrate that their friend is still in captivity while the country slips into totalitarian martial law?
- Digital Fortress
Written by: Dan Brown
- It’s a battle against the clock to rescue the National Security Agency caught in the grasp of a strange evil code, starring badass cryptographer Susan Fletcher – at a period when most female characters were either afraid or melancholy or both.
- Zoo City
Written by: Lauren Beukes
- What better way to round up the top ten cybercrimes than with Lauren Beukes’s provocative South African genre novel?
- It follows Zinzi, a clairvoyant who has lost items, and a 419 fraudster (imagine emails from alleged princes) who is lured into a high-profile murder case in an alternative Johannesburg wherein familiar animals are connected to offenders to brand them.
- Imposter Syndrome
Written by: Katie Wang
- If you, like me, enjoyed Dave Eggers’ The Circle and thought, “Fantastic book, but where is the story?” then impostor syndrome is really for you.
- The ensuing plot climaxes when Alice, a keyboard drone for the huge software corporation Tangerine, observes odd activity on the business’s servers.
- Few new novels seem as fresh and contemporary as this one, which is part espionage mystery, half spy thriller, and part Silicon Valley satire concerning the status of minority women in the development community.
- The Blue Nowhere
Written by: Jeffery Deaver
- Deaver, a crime fiction pioneer, talked about hackers and Internet fraudsters before many people had a computer.
- It was set around 1999 and had dial-up connections and floppy discs. It pairs two hackers against a relentless, blood-soaked cat and mouse pursuit, one a wicked lunatic who baits his victims to their deaths, the other freed from prison to help the investigation.
- It’s out of date, yet it was way forward of its time, and very few will hold you interested like Deaver.
Manipulation
- How can you regulate something you don’t even know is illegal? Once upon a time, rigging the election required stealing sufficient ballots from the recently departed.
- You can now direct impact directly into people’s eyes without them noticing. Artificial intelligence viruses, spoof films, and cyber troll farms are all part of a conflict that most people, even those who safeguard us, are unaware of.
- Is it possible to stop it before our political structures collapse?
- Dark Market
Written by: Misha Glenny
- If you spend 30 minutes on the black web, you’ll never similarly view the internet again.
- Drugs, firearms, and stolen passports may all be delivered to your door in days. Do you require a hacker? A murderer? It’s simple to discover an onion site that meets your requirements.
- This is where your content ends after a ransomware assault steals it. After reading this, you will think more carefully about submitting your address and name on the internet.
