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Future Crimes
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Science & Technology (2015)One of the world’s leading authorities on global security, Marc Goodman takes readers deep into the digital underground to expose the alarming ways criminals, corporations, and even countries are using new and emerging technologies against you—and how this makes everyone more vulnerable than ever imagined.
Technological advances have benefited our world in immeasurable ways, but there is an ominous flip side: our technology can be turned against us. Hackers can activate baby monitors to spy on families, thieves are analyzing social media posts to plot home invasions, and stalkers are exploiting the GPS on smart phones to track their victims’ every move. We all know today’s criminals can steal identities, drain online bank accounts, and wipe out computer servers, but that’s just the beginning. To date, no computer has been created that could not be hacked—a sobering fact given our radical dependence on these machines for everything from our nation’s power grid to air traffic control to financial services.
Yet, as ubiquitous as technology seems today, just over the horizon is a tidal wave of scientific progress that will leave our heads spinning. If today’s Internet is the size of a golf ball, tomorrow’s will be the size of the sun. Welcome to the Internet of Things, a living, breathing, global information grid where every physical object will be online. But with greater connections come greater risks. Implantable medical devices such as pacemakers can be hacked to deliver a lethal jolt of electricity and a car’s brakes can be disabled at high speed from miles away. Meanwhile, 3-D printers can produce AK-47s, bioterrorists can download the recipe for Spanish flu, and cartels are using fleets of drones to ferry drugs across borders.
With explosive insights based upon a career in law enforcement and counterterrorism, Marc Goodman takes readers on a vivid journey through the darkest recesses of the Internet. Reading like science fiction, but based in science fact, Future Crimes explores how bad actors are primed to hijack the technologies of tomorrow, including robotics, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. These fields hold the power to create a world of unprecedented abundance and prosperity. But the technological bedrock upon which we are building our common future is deeply unstable and, like a house of cards, can come crashing down at any moment.
Future Crimes provides a mind-blowing glimpse into the dark side of technological innovation and the unintended consequences of our connected world. Goodman offers a way out with clear steps we must take to survive the progress unfolding before us. Provocative, thrilling, and ultimately empowering, Future Crimes will serve as an urgent call to action that shows how we can take back control over our own devices and harness technology’s tremendous power for the betterment of humanity—before it’s too late.
From the Hardcover edition.
Technological advances have benefited our world in immeasurable ways, but there is an ominous flip side: our technology can be turned against us. Hackers can activate baby monitors to spy on families, thieves are analyzing social media posts to plot home invasions, and stalkers are exploiting the GPS on smart phones to track their victims’ every move. We all know today’s criminals can steal identities, drain online bank accounts, and wipe out computer servers, but that’s just the beginning. To date, no computer has been created that could not be hacked—a sobering fact given our radical dependence on these machines for everything from our nation’s power grid to air traffic control to financial services.
Yet, as ubiquitous as technology seems today, just over the horizon is a tidal wave of scientific progress that will leave our heads spinning. If today’s Internet is the size of a golf ball, tomorrow’s will be the size of the sun. Welcome to the Internet of Things, a living, breathing, global information grid where every physical object will be online. But with greater connections come greater risks. Implantable medical devices such as pacemakers can be hacked to deliver a lethal jolt of electricity and a car’s brakes can be disabled at high speed from miles away. Meanwhile, 3-D printers can produce AK-47s, bioterrorists can download the recipe for Spanish flu, and cartels are using fleets of drones to ferry drugs across borders.
With explosive insights based upon a career in law enforcement and counterterrorism, Marc Goodman takes readers on a vivid journey through the darkest recesses of the Internet. Reading like science fiction, but based in science fact, Future Crimes explores how bad actors are primed to hijack the technologies of tomorrow, including robotics, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. These fields hold the power to create a world of unprecedented abundance and prosperity. But the technological bedrock upon which we are building our common future is deeply unstable and, like a house of cards, can come crashing down at any moment.
Future Crimes provides a mind-blowing glimpse into the dark side of technological innovation and the unintended consequences of our connected world. Goodman offers a way out with clear steps we must take to survive the progress unfolding before us. Provocative, thrilling, and ultimately empowering, Future Crimes will serve as an urgent call to action that shows how we can take back control over our own devices and harness technology’s tremendous power for the betterment of humanity—before it’s too late.
From the Hardcover edition.
393 pages, Hardcover
First published February 24, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 631 reviews
October 10, 2016
Stages of reading "Future Crimes..." by Marc Goodman:
(1) Wow, this is fascinating material. I am scared of the Internet and the power Internet companies have over me.
(2) I should tell people to read this book, especially my parents.
(3) No. I will definitely not tell my parents. It will scare them into hopeless fear, which might be worse than the small chance of a hack.
(4) Ok, some good examples here.
(5) Hmm ... didn't he already make this point?
(6) Interesting.
(7) I'm getting bored. This book is incredibly repetitive.
(8) That's a smart example!
(9) Oh, God, I have 400 pages left?
... The book is good, the material is smart, but he is in desperate need of an editor. This could have been a 5-star 250 page book. Instead, it is a high 3 star 500 page book.
(1) Wow, this is fascinating material. I am scared of the Internet and the power Internet companies have over me.
(2) I should tell people to read this book, especially my parents.
(3) No. I will definitely not tell my parents. It will scare them into hopeless fear, which might be worse than the small chance of a hack.
(4) Ok, some good examples here.
(5) Hmm ... didn't he already make this point?
(6) Interesting.
(7) I'm getting bored. This book is incredibly repetitive.
(8) That's a smart example!
(9) Oh, God, I have 400 pages left?
... The book is good, the material is smart, but he is in desperate need of an editor. This could have been a 5-star 250 page book. Instead, it is a high 3 star 500 page book.
June 21, 2015
This book’s prose...
It’s got more mixed metaphors than a 50-car pile up of smoothie blenders has spilled milk, and more cliches than a plethora of dystopian futures unfolding like bad origami.
It’s got a strictly-defined plethora of the word ‘plethora’ loosely-defined.
Its deeply beheld love of adverbs and concomitant utilization of exponentially and stupefyingly complicating adjectives is impossibly difficult to avoid, as is its blind insistence on using the word ‘data’ in the plural, even in instances when any reasonable native speaker would use it in the singular.
Over and over it repeats its assertions and claims, redundantly. It is both an alarm and a wake-up call, a warning and a dire prediction, a call to arms and to action.
And it is very, very fond of quoting Sun Tzu.
I’ve not even gotten to the content yet! It’s repetitive. A little editing could've shaved a quarter if not half the length off this thing, without sacrificing any information. Many of its claims are obviously overblown. Wired Magazine has a corrective on the book's take on the Dark Web (“The Dark Web as You Know It Is a Myth by Joseph Cox, http://www.wired.com/2015/06/dark-web...), and the book's general take on the vulnerability of our entire digital infrastructure is better stated in a few hundred words here: https://medium.com/message/everything... (“Everything Is Broken” by Quinn Norton”).
And yet! The book’s first ~2/3 presents a lot of content that might be a surprise, even to tech folks who think they're somewhat in-the-know about information security. Despite all the books’ flaws, it might actually be worthwhile to folks interested in privacy, cybercrime, and the technological vulnerability of... just about everything.
It’s got more mixed metaphors than a 50-car pile up of smoothie blenders has spilled milk, and more cliches than a plethora of dystopian futures unfolding like bad origami.
It’s got a strictly-defined plethora of the word ‘plethora’ loosely-defined.
Its deeply beheld love of adverbs and concomitant utilization of exponentially and stupefyingly complicating adjectives is impossibly difficult to avoid, as is its blind insistence on using the word ‘data’ in the plural, even in instances when any reasonable native speaker would use it in the singular.
Over and over it repeats its assertions and claims, redundantly. It is both an alarm and a wake-up call, a warning and a dire prediction, a call to arms and to action.
And it is very, very fond of quoting Sun Tzu.
I’ve not even gotten to the content yet! It’s repetitive. A little editing could've shaved a quarter if not half the length off this thing, without sacrificing any information. Many of its claims are obviously overblown. Wired Magazine has a corrective on the book's take on the Dark Web (“The Dark Web as You Know It Is a Myth by Joseph Cox, http://www.wired.com/2015/06/dark-web...), and the book's general take on the vulnerability of our entire digital infrastructure is better stated in a few hundred words here: https://medium.com/message/everything... (“Everything Is Broken” by Quinn Norton”).
And yet! The book’s first ~2/3 presents a lot of content that might be a surprise, even to tech folks who think they're somewhat in-the-know about information security. Despite all the books’ flaws, it might actually be worthwhile to folks interested in privacy, cybercrime, and the technological vulnerability of... just about everything.
July 17, 2016
I don't usually read books (non-fiction or otherwise) over extended periods of time. And, if not for the limitations of library-lending, I might have inched through this one at an even slower pace (giving me ample opportunity to rock quietly in the corner in terror).
Things didn't start out this way. I tore into the first several chapters of Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It with my usual aplomb. But there's only so much risk one can absorb before declaring defeat. Author and former cybercrime cop, Marc Goodman , can't be faulted for the breadth of threats out there. However, by the time I got to the What We Can Do About It sections (the last 50 pages or so), I felt decidedly worn down. So, take this review with a grain of salt, because it's a good book with a whole boatload of information that's often ignored.
The Future Is Now
Goodman starts off by stating that he is well aware of, and is very much for the wonders of modern technology— and I'm with him on that (as noted in my review of Nation of Enemies ). It's not about a showdown, but we need to face the changing techno-landscape with an attitude akin to that of Hawaiians regarding the ocean; one of respect and awareness that, while beautiful, it's more powerful than you can imagine, and can have brutal consequences.
Furthermore, we need to be thinking about Moore's Outlaws* now (and also yesterday, and the day before that), which will require effort, since we're not used to thinking in exponential terms. Also, said outlaws (and their corporate equivalent, which he refers to as “Crime Inc.”) are already outpacing us in a serious way (the whole Silk Road affair is barely a sneak peek).
Opening Pandora's Virtualbox*
Things get overwhelming quickly. As nefarious as the DarkNet may be, cryptocurrency and onion routers seem like reasonable precautions once Goodman starts discussing just how little privacy we have, given the digital exhaust we produce just tooling around the regular old interwebs on the daily. With the Internet of Things , we invite more and more connected devices into our home, all of which are apparently quite hackable (though I'm not really ready to start worrying about pedophiles storing illicit images on my Nest just yet).
‘Bots & ‘Borgs
First things first — robots . Though no definition of the term satisfies all parties involved, robots are basically machines that can be programmed to carry out tasks (with varying levels of autonomy). The world is already chock full of 'em, though not necessarily in a “rise of the machines” kind of way. However, just because the machines aren't thinking on their own, doesn't mean they're not dangerous. Malware and malicious actors aside, the human error and our “in screen we trust” attitude has been and will continue to be a problem. There are plenty of examples, but I think the recent Robot Grabs, Crushes Man To Death incident at a German Volkswagen factory sums it up pretty well.
My only beef with the Goodman's treatment of industrial robots is that he kind of neglects Bayesian counterfactuals. It's been awhile since I've read The Jungle, but I'm pretty sure that factory safety was a problem long before Roomba came along. But, the remote threat is new(ish), and, as robots become increasingly autonomous, we've got some serious thinking about Asimov's Laws ahead of us.
Cyborg is another somewhat ill-defined term, though I'll go with the definition that doesn't include glasses and/or peg-legs. Goodman's bionics section, “Hackable You,” does discuss the advantages and opportunities presented by these technologies. The problem, as suggested by the title, is that these computers inside of us aren't all that secure— a problem compounded by the fact that updating the hardware involves cutting people open.
And then, of course, there are the big fears that could potentially make “Surviving Progress” a tricky feat. Whether we're talking 'bots or 'borgs, a lack of foresight could doom us all.
The Final Frontier
I can't blame you if your first inclination is to throw your hands in the air and declare defeat. Goodman suggests practicing better “cyber hygiene” — a public health approach that actually makes quite a bit of sense. After all, you can't unilaterally protect your information if your friends are running around giving Candy Crush access to their address book, while posting and tagging photos of you on facebook willy nilly (though my advice would be to ditch that friend).
This book's probably better than I'm giving it credit for, an easy 7/10 stars , and maybe more once I wrap my head around it all. But the look on Krieger's face, below, pretty much captures my feelings upon finishing.
_________________________________
* Goodman's super into wordplay, so brace yourself for that.
Things didn't start out this way. I tore into the first several chapters of Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It with my usual aplomb. But there's only so much risk one can absorb before declaring defeat. Author and former cybercrime cop, Marc Goodman , can't be faulted for the breadth of threats out there. However, by the time I got to the What We Can Do About It sections (the last 50 pages or so), I felt decidedly worn down. So, take this review with a grain of salt, because it's a good book with a whole boatload of information that's often ignored.
The Future Is Now
Goodman starts off by stating that he is well aware of, and is very much for the wonders of modern technology— and I'm with him on that (as noted in my review of Nation of Enemies ). It's not about a showdown, but we need to face the changing techno-landscape with an attitude akin to that of Hawaiians regarding the ocean; one of respect and awareness that, while beautiful, it's more powerful than you can imagine, and can have brutal consequences.
Furthermore, we need to be thinking about Moore's Outlaws* now (and also yesterday, and the day before that), which will require effort, since we're not used to thinking in exponential terms. Also, said outlaws (and their corporate equivalent, which he refers to as “Crime Inc.”) are already outpacing us in a serious way (the whole Silk Road affair is barely a sneak peek).
Opening Pandora's Virtualbox*
Things get overwhelming quickly. As nefarious as the DarkNet may be, cryptocurrency and onion routers seem like reasonable precautions once Goodman starts discussing just how little privacy we have, given the digital exhaust we produce just tooling around the regular old interwebs on the daily. With the Internet of Things , we invite more and more connected devices into our home, all of which are apparently quite hackable (though I'm not really ready to start worrying about pedophiles storing illicit images on my Nest just yet).
‘Bots & ‘Borgs
First things first — robots . Though no definition of the term satisfies all parties involved, robots are basically machines that can be programmed to carry out tasks (with varying levels of autonomy). The world is already chock full of 'em, though not necessarily in a “rise of the machines” kind of way. However, just because the machines aren't thinking on their own, doesn't mean they're not dangerous. Malware and malicious actors aside, the human error and our “in screen we trust” attitude has been and will continue to be a problem. There are plenty of examples, but I think the recent Robot Grabs, Crushes Man To Death incident at a German Volkswagen factory sums it up pretty well.
My only beef with the Goodman's treatment of industrial robots is that he kind of neglects Bayesian counterfactuals. It's been awhile since I've read The Jungle, but I'm pretty sure that factory safety was a problem long before Roomba came along. But, the remote threat is new(ish), and, as robots become increasingly autonomous, we've got some serious thinking about Asimov's Laws ahead of us.
Cyborg is another somewhat ill-defined term, though I'll go with the definition that doesn't include glasses and/or peg-legs. Goodman's bionics section, “Hackable You,” does discuss the advantages and opportunities presented by these technologies. The problem, as suggested by the title, is that these computers inside of us aren't all that secure— a problem compounded by the fact that updating the hardware involves cutting people open.
And then, of course, there are the big fears that could potentially make “Surviving Progress” a tricky feat. Whether we're talking 'bots or 'borgs, a lack of foresight could doom us all.
The Final Frontier
I can't blame you if your first inclination is to throw your hands in the air and declare defeat. Goodman suggests practicing better “cyber hygiene” — a public health approach that actually makes quite a bit of sense. After all, you can't unilaterally protect your information if your friends are running around giving Candy Crush access to their address book, while posting and tagging photos of you on facebook willy nilly (though my advice would be to ditch that friend).
This book's probably better than I'm giving it credit for, an easy 7/10 stars , and maybe more once I wrap my head around it all. But the look on Krieger's face, below, pretty much captures my feelings upon finishing.
_________________________________
* Goodman's super into wordplay, so brace yourself for that.
February 15, 2016
Technology can be a wonderful thing; you have a world at your fingertips with powerful search engines, the combined knowledge of humanity with Wikipedia and social networks keeping you in touch with friends and family all over the globe. However, there is a dark underside to all these positives. In the rush to market with web and internet based services there are often many compromises with security, and it is through these loopholes that Crime Inc., as Goodman describes them, take the opportunity to slip in.
Scouring his vast database of crime cases he brings us tales of identity theft, financial theft and how criminals are now using modern technology to extend their reach. There are stories of gangs printing guns from the latest 3D printer technology, how servers are brought down by DoS attacks, how they can active webcams and baby monitors remotely to spy of people and capture images for blackmail. They have found ways to hack pacemakers too, bringing the terrifying reality of lethal voltages being sent to your own medical equipment. Even drones are starting to be extensively used by crooks, not only for surveillance, but fitting them with weapons brings a whole new deadly terror; Skynet is nearly here.
Even who you would think are the good guys, are not entirely innocent. The main reason that services provided by Google and Facebook are free is that you are the product. They mine your likes and searches, the results of which are sold on to data analysis companies who are looking for trends and targeted advertising to offer to companies. This starts the very moment you sign up, as the lengthy terms and conditions that no one ever reads not only claim all your data as theirs, but also seek to eliminate all responsibility and comeback against theft of your data.
So far, so bad.
The future really does not look too rosy. Coming soon is the internet of things, where almost all devices in your home from lightbulbs to fridges will have some sort of access to the internet. This means the advent of the smart home is finally upon us, and that you will be able to control various things from your smartphone, even when not there. Great, or so you’d think; control over your home with a simple touch. But fairly often these devices have precious little security and offer the easiest route into your home network by an experienced hacker.
All of this is frankly terrifying. Our society is now totally dependent on these web based technologies and systems for essential infrastructure elements like power, water and security. These systems are all very well and offer the companies that use them financial advantages, but the big problem with all of this that there is precious little security and no resilience to cyber-attacks. These historically have come from hackers, but now others are getting in on the act with the first known attacks originating from states. Goodman offers us a bleak future, but he does have some suggestions on how we as individuals can improve our security even something as simple as covering the camera on your laptop when you are not using it, to using twin security login methods. He does point a finger at the software industry though, not only do they need to raise their game and produce software that is less sieve, but they also need to start accepting responsibility when there are breaches and not washing their hands of it. If you are brave enough, it is worth reading for anyone who is interested in technology; 3.5 stars overall.
Scouring his vast database of crime cases he brings us tales of identity theft, financial theft and how criminals are now using modern technology to extend their reach. There are stories of gangs printing guns from the latest 3D printer technology, how servers are brought down by DoS attacks, how they can active webcams and baby monitors remotely to spy of people and capture images for blackmail. They have found ways to hack pacemakers too, bringing the terrifying reality of lethal voltages being sent to your own medical equipment. Even drones are starting to be extensively used by crooks, not only for surveillance, but fitting them with weapons brings a whole new deadly terror; Skynet is nearly here.
Even who you would think are the good guys, are not entirely innocent. The main reason that services provided by Google and Facebook are free is that you are the product. They mine your likes and searches, the results of which are sold on to data analysis companies who are looking for trends and targeted advertising to offer to companies. This starts the very moment you sign up, as the lengthy terms and conditions that no one ever reads not only claim all your data as theirs, but also seek to eliminate all responsibility and comeback against theft of your data.
So far, so bad.
The future really does not look too rosy. Coming soon is the internet of things, where almost all devices in your home from lightbulbs to fridges will have some sort of access to the internet. This means the advent of the smart home is finally upon us, and that you will be able to control various things from your smartphone, even when not there. Great, or so you’d think; control over your home with a simple touch. But fairly often these devices have precious little security and offer the easiest route into your home network by an experienced hacker.
All of this is frankly terrifying. Our society is now totally dependent on these web based technologies and systems for essential infrastructure elements like power, water and security. These systems are all very well and offer the companies that use them financial advantages, but the big problem with all of this that there is precious little security and no resilience to cyber-attacks. These historically have come from hackers, but now others are getting in on the act with the first known attacks originating from states. Goodman offers us a bleak future, but he does have some suggestions on how we as individuals can improve our security even something as simple as covering the camera on your laptop when you are not using it, to using twin security login methods. He does point a finger at the software industry though, not only do they need to raise their game and produce software that is less sieve, but they also need to start accepting responsibility when there are breaches and not washing their hands of it. If you are brave enough, it is worth reading for anyone who is interested in technology; 3.5 stars overall.
June 2, 2019
My update after reading 5 pages: "This book should've been 200 pages shorter, shouldn't it?" I stand by my assessment.
Future crimes isn't what I'd call a bad book by any means; it's well researched - (although I dislike that instead of footnotes the author has a list at the end of the book where the references are to page numbers) - and it's not badly written per se. The author tells the stories of various crimes, small but more often big ones. He explains what the crimes are and more importantly why they are possible to commit. In this he also shows that while not always a crime, corporations and governments sometimes deal in what borders on being illegal. Furthermore, in the case of the people committing these cyber crimes, the author explains the hierarchy of the organizations, and that they have a lot in common with regular companies in terms of structure.
So where did we go wrong? Well, have you seen all these trees?
That's where this goes wrong. While Goodman has all this knowledge about the crimes he describes, it's hard to believe it was necessary to go into detail on each and every one. A classic example of 'can't see the forest for all the trees'. For one thing, the first half (or at least what felt like it) is him showing us various crimes committed. While interesting, sure, they are hardly "future crimes". In fact, they have already been committed. After this he gets into the structure of Crime Inc. which isn't all that interesting or necessary, if you ask me. Then we might begin talking about future crimes, but it's not really that either; it's about the security risks of being connected, and how using fingerprints might not be the best way to lock your phone or tablet (because hey, the fingerprint is translated into 1s and 0s, just like any other password, the difference is you can't change your fingerprint once someone cracks that code). With this Goodman continues to the Internet of Things in which we connect more and more of our devices to the internet - like who WOULDN'T connect their electronic candles to the internet if they could.
No, I'm not a technophobe. And yes, Goodman does make some good points. Sure, I'd say more people need to learn that the internet isn't a neutral playing ground or that algorithms decide what google search result they get or that there are major risks that comes with living in a connected world. But Goodman's presentation of the subject is not the one I'd choose or recommend. My worry is that people will be turned off by reading a number of stories of how easy it is to commit a crime on the internet, and give up before Goodman gets around to talking about security and (a little) about the future. There's a short chapter at the end of the book with tips for the average internet user that are sound and more people should be aware of. In the end though, I still believe the book should've been shorter and more focused on the forest and less on the trees.
Future crimes isn't what I'd call a bad book by any means; it's well researched - (although I dislike that instead of footnotes the author has a list at the end of the book where the references are to page numbers) - and it's not badly written per se. The author tells the stories of various crimes, small but more often big ones. He explains what the crimes are and more importantly why they are possible to commit. In this he also shows that while not always a crime, corporations and governments sometimes deal in what borders on being illegal. Furthermore, in the case of the people committing these cyber crimes, the author explains the hierarchy of the organizations, and that they have a lot in common with regular companies in terms of structure.
So where did we go wrong? Well, have you seen all these trees?
That's where this goes wrong. While Goodman has all this knowledge about the crimes he describes, it's hard to believe it was necessary to go into detail on each and every one. A classic example of 'can't see the forest for all the trees'. For one thing, the first half (or at least what felt like it) is him showing us various crimes committed. While interesting, sure, they are hardly "future crimes". In fact, they have already been committed. After this he gets into the structure of Crime Inc. which isn't all that interesting or necessary, if you ask me. Then we might begin talking about future crimes, but it's not really that either; it's about the security risks of being connected, and how using fingerprints might not be the best way to lock your phone or tablet (because hey, the fingerprint is translated into 1s and 0s, just like any other password, the difference is you can't change your fingerprint once someone cracks that code). With this Goodman continues to the Internet of Things in which we connect more and more of our devices to the internet - like who WOULDN'T connect their electronic candles to the internet if they could.
No, I'm not a technophobe. And yes, Goodman does make some good points. Sure, I'd say more people need to learn that the internet isn't a neutral playing ground or that algorithms decide what google search result they get or that there are major risks that comes with living in a connected world. But Goodman's presentation of the subject is not the one I'd choose or recommend. My worry is that people will be turned off by reading a number of stories of how easy it is to commit a crime on the internet, and give up before Goodman gets around to talking about security and (a little) about the future. There's a short chapter at the end of the book with tips for the average internet user that are sound and more people should be aware of. In the end though, I still believe the book should've been shorter and more focused on the forest and less on the trees.
November 15, 2020
This book has a lot of information. Certainly there was too much of it for me to absorb. The scariest part for me is that every smart device in my home is listening, watching, sharing and just waiting to be hacked. Just another thing to worry about. Of course the book also covers drones, AI, robots, self driving cars, copying machines, medical devices, the energy grid etc., etc., etc.
December 25, 2014
Future Crimes: Everyone Is Vulnerable And What We Can Do About Its by Marc Goodman is an amazingly well researched book about cybercrime. He was only 28 and an investigative sergeant in LAPD when he was asked if he knew how to use Word Spell. That was in 1995. He did and he got the job for investing computer crime. That was the birth of computer crime with pages and cell phone now it has grown into a huge industry. And it is going to get worse. Plenty of research has gone into this book and none of it is boring. So even though it is a long book, you will be entranced until the end.
This book covers more venues of computer crime than I ever imagined. Goodman takes us into the underworld of the Internet. This is the world of underground crime. Why are we so vulnerable? Why are we so trusting? This book is frightening because is telling the reality of the new world. If you get scared reading through all the avenues of computer crime, just hang around until you get to the last two chapters. That one will give you and businesses ways to prevent fraud and increase protection.
Password safety, many people use the same password for many accounts? What if you did and someone hacked you Facebook account, then with the additional information on your profile they can get into your bank account, credit cards and more.
There is a paradox about the computer, even though it is extremely helpful, it can be dangerous when the wrong people use it for their gain. In the last two chapters, the author explored what can be done to make us safer and how we can use computers to help mankind.
In the last two chapters, the author explored what can be done to make us safer and how we can use computers to help mankind.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the hazards of cyberspace and also how to protect themselves from them.
I received an Advance Reading Copy from Vine Amazon but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review.
December 22, 2015
I heard this book on audio and it comes with a warning. If you hear or read the contents of this book, it will change you forever. The stories and information about our world and technology will drive you to be more cautious and careful about your digital footprint (and it certainly did that for me). Marc Goodman has written an important book that everyone who uses a computer or has a smartphone needs to read and learn from this excellent book. I highly recommend FUTURE CRIMES.
February 24, 2015
After reading this book you might be forgiven for disconnecting from the Internet, smashing your smartphone into little pieces and heading for the hills to live a much simpler, disconnected life. Hopefully, with a bit of reflection, you might not take such drastic action but you will be inspired to modify your online behaviour and encourage your friends and colleagues to do likewise.
This is a really and truly depressing read, yet the author makes it incredibly interesting and you have to pinch yourself that this isn’t a fiction book that has gone just a bit too far. You can feel giddy trying to keep up with the sheer diversity of online crimes, whether they are hackers wiping a lifetime of irreplaceable pictures of someone’s child just for kicks or state-sponsored organisations hacking into a system to gain commercial information or a military advantage.
The author has no need to over-egg the pudding either and make things up. The sheer facts and statistics do this and much more besides. Remember, these are only the events that have come to light! So much more is hidden, whether as an attempt to protect a company’s reputation or, perhaps more alarmingly, because nobody knows… not even the victim. This reviewer had to read this part of the book several times for the sheer scale of matters to sink in: “The landmark survey carried out by Verizon business services, working in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service, the Dutch National Police and the U.K. Police Central E-crimes Unit, reported that on average 62% of the intrusions against business took at least two months to detect. A similar study by Trustwave Holdings revealed that the average time from the initial breach of a company’s network until discovery of the intrusion was an alarming 210 days. That’s nearly seven months for an attacker—whether organized crime, the competition, or a foreign government—to creep around unfettered in a corporate network stealing secrets, gaining competitive intelligence, breaching financial systems, and pilfering customers’ personally identifiable information, such as their credit card numbers.”
This is staggering, mind blowing and alarming. Yet this subject is something this reviewer has a more than passing interest in following so it is not entirely unchartered territory. A lot of these crimes start from a relatively “small” thing. A compromised password, an insecure computer system or even a user clicking on an “innocent-looking” link or attachment. Then the rest is history… Sometimes the intrusion is to steal information, other times it is just to “vandalise” the system and create mayhem or for a joke.
Is that not enough? We are being “spied on” under the guise of convenience or providing a service. We don’t actually know big the problem is, what is happening to our information and what people are doing with it. An online dictionary site, for example, has at one stage installed 234 different tracking files on ONE visitor’s computer during ONE visit. Who reads the online privacy policy or terms of service document? Very few and the companies know it. The book notes a Carnegie Mellon University study that shows the average American encounters 1,462 privacy policies a year, each with an average length of 2,518 words, adding: “If one were to read each and every one of those policies, it would take seventy-six full workdays, at eight hours a day, from our lives. In the aggregate, that works out to 53.8 billion hours for all Americans, at an estimated national opportunity cost of $781 billion of lost productivity every year because of the nightmare and disgrace that are the ToS,” writes the author.
Can it get worse? Most people suspect some of the bigger companies are trying it on. What’s the limit?
“Google too has demonstrated its penchant for ridiculous ToS. For example, anybody who uses Google Docs or happens to upload a spreadsheet, PDF, or Word document to Google Drive automatically grants ownership of the document to Google,” writes the author, suggesting that if J. K. Rowling had written Harry Potter in Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word, she would have granted Google the worldwide rights to her work! That would be an expensive free service, wouldn’t it? Of course, there’s no suggestion that Google intends to enforce these rights and defenders suggest “technical reasons” for such language. But why not rule out in plain language such clear unintended uses?
Page after page your jaw will drop. You will be shocked, amazed, saddened, depressed and confounded. You should buy this book but maybe you might start to fear buying it online. For now, at least, there are physical bookstores although even they will be tracking what you are doing…
There’s not a lot more to say. Buy this book and devour it! You’ll wish you hadn’t had to but you will be better informed and rather annoyed at the end of it.
Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It, written by Marc Goodman and published by Doubleday Books. ISBN 9780385539005, 464 pages. YYYYY
This is a really and truly depressing read, yet the author makes it incredibly interesting and you have to pinch yourself that this isn’t a fiction book that has gone just a bit too far. You can feel giddy trying to keep up with the sheer diversity of online crimes, whether they are hackers wiping a lifetime of irreplaceable pictures of someone’s child just for kicks or state-sponsored organisations hacking into a system to gain commercial information or a military advantage.
The author has no need to over-egg the pudding either and make things up. The sheer facts and statistics do this and much more besides. Remember, these are only the events that have come to light! So much more is hidden, whether as an attempt to protect a company’s reputation or, perhaps more alarmingly, because nobody knows… not even the victim. This reviewer had to read this part of the book several times for the sheer scale of matters to sink in: “The landmark survey carried out by Verizon business services, working in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service, the Dutch National Police and the U.K. Police Central E-crimes Unit, reported that on average 62% of the intrusions against business took at least two months to detect. A similar study by Trustwave Holdings revealed that the average time from the initial breach of a company’s network until discovery of the intrusion was an alarming 210 days. That’s nearly seven months for an attacker—whether organized crime, the competition, or a foreign government—to creep around unfettered in a corporate network stealing secrets, gaining competitive intelligence, breaching financial systems, and pilfering customers’ personally identifiable information, such as their credit card numbers.”
This is staggering, mind blowing and alarming. Yet this subject is something this reviewer has a more than passing interest in following so it is not entirely unchartered territory. A lot of these crimes start from a relatively “small” thing. A compromised password, an insecure computer system or even a user clicking on an “innocent-looking” link or attachment. Then the rest is history… Sometimes the intrusion is to steal information, other times it is just to “vandalise” the system and create mayhem or for a joke.
Is that not enough? We are being “spied on” under the guise of convenience or providing a service. We don’t actually know big the problem is, what is happening to our information and what people are doing with it. An online dictionary site, for example, has at one stage installed 234 different tracking files on ONE visitor’s computer during ONE visit. Who reads the online privacy policy or terms of service document? Very few and the companies know it. The book notes a Carnegie Mellon University study that shows the average American encounters 1,462 privacy policies a year, each with an average length of 2,518 words, adding: “If one were to read each and every one of those policies, it would take seventy-six full workdays, at eight hours a day, from our lives. In the aggregate, that works out to 53.8 billion hours for all Americans, at an estimated national opportunity cost of $781 billion of lost productivity every year because of the nightmare and disgrace that are the ToS,” writes the author.
Can it get worse? Most people suspect some of the bigger companies are trying it on. What’s the limit?
“Google too has demonstrated its penchant for ridiculous ToS. For example, anybody who uses Google Docs or happens to upload a spreadsheet, PDF, or Word document to Google Drive automatically grants ownership of the document to Google,” writes the author, suggesting that if J. K. Rowling had written Harry Potter in Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word, she would have granted Google the worldwide rights to her work! That would be an expensive free service, wouldn’t it? Of course, there’s no suggestion that Google intends to enforce these rights and defenders suggest “technical reasons” for such language. But why not rule out in plain language such clear unintended uses?
Page after page your jaw will drop. You will be shocked, amazed, saddened, depressed and confounded. You should buy this book but maybe you might start to fear buying it online. For now, at least, there are physical bookstores although even they will be tracking what you are doing…
There’s not a lot more to say. Buy this book and devour it! You’ll wish you hadn’t had to but you will be better informed and rather annoyed at the end of it.
Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It, written by Marc Goodman and published by Doubleday Books. ISBN 9780385539005, 464 pages. YYYYY
April 1, 2017
I enjoyed it very much. There is a lot pack in this book. Marc Goodman covers an ample spectrum. True there are many things on this book that you have heard before but I bet you that unless you are an specialist on this field there are many things you dont. It s really astonishing what happens and how expose is the single individual and the organizations/business It makes you double think what to trust and to a certain degree it justify if you take a paranoid approach in terms of security. There is a lot to learn. The problem is so big that it would be foolish to expect the author to have solutions/recommendations to all of them, still there are some practical advice that on a personal level you can take. When you realize all the things that happens that prepares you to a certain degree to be more on the defensive. Technology permeates everything people do in the modern world, what he address are very serious problems
April 8, 2017
Muito redundante até chegar nos firmes futuros de fato. Boas ideias e uma boa explicação sobre para onde a tecnologia caminha, mas com floreios e bastante sensacionalismo. Entendo que o autor precisa vender a ideia do livro, de que precisamos nos preocupar com as possibilidades de crimes que as tecnologias criam, mas achei muito exagerado. E não vi nada de tão novo e surpreendente que livros como Data and Goliath, 4th Revolution ou mesmo Homo Deus não tenham discutido.
December 31, 2014
I was lucky enough to see an early draft copy of the chapter on robotics, but I have just finished the pre-release version of the book, and it is excellent. Having seen him speak several times at Singularity University and TED, I have always been impressed by Goodman's broad base of knowledge. I consider myself pretty well-informed about technology, and I am blown away by how the book explains how the seedier elements of society have and will use technology to do the bad stuff they do.
One of the things that makes the book an engaging read is that Goodman is an excellent storyteller with a good sense of humour. Each chapter contains real-life stories that illustrate and really drive home the points he is making. The book is simultaneously informative, horrifying, and uplifting.
Hearing about how technology can be and has been misused is edifying and interesting, but perhaps the best part of the book is that Goodman offers solutions, from recommended policy changes to a list of things you can do on your own computer to protect yourself from the less ethical elements of society. At the end of this book, I felt very much like I did at the end of An Inconvenient Truth: Yes, things could get bad, but we can fix it, and now I know how.
Highly recommended. Future Crimes is basically An Inconvenient Truth for technology, with the same exhaustive analysis and the same exceptionally useful suggestions for how to fix the problems it details.
One of the things that makes the book an engaging read is that Goodman is an excellent storyteller with a good sense of humour. Each chapter contains real-life stories that illustrate and really drive home the points he is making. The book is simultaneously informative, horrifying, and uplifting.
Hearing about how technology can be and has been misused is edifying and interesting, but perhaps the best part of the book is that Goodman offers solutions, from recommended policy changes to a list of things you can do on your own computer to protect yourself from the less ethical elements of society. At the end of this book, I felt very much like I did at the end of An Inconvenient Truth: Yes, things could get bad, but we can fix it, and now I know how.
Highly recommended. Future Crimes is basically An Inconvenient Truth for technology, with the same exhaustive analysis and the same exceptionally useful suggestions for how to fix the problems it details.
February 16, 2022
While what's here may not be all that surprising (at least to some and in some cases) it should scare all of us to death. The problem is that the water has been heating up so slowly we haven't noticed.
April 5, 2019
Do yourself a favor, read this book! With more and more dependency on technology and gadgets you better know what are risks and how to avoid them.
July 4, 2015
The book was strongest when describing modern computer crime cases. Unfortunately, Goodman's speculation into future crimes often sounded like what Bruce Schneier disparagingly calls "movie-plot crimes." Also the parts of the book on pedophiles and online harassment seemed out of place in a book mostly about organized cybercrime. These parts seemed to be included for fear mongering or filler.
So, I would have preferred if he stuck to actual stories about hackers and cybercrime.
So, I would have preferred if he stuck to actual stories about hackers and cybercrime.
May 14, 2015
I was very confused by the documentation used in this book. At first glance it would appear that Goodman does not back up any of the facts he shares with his reader to support his theses, however there are end notes at the back of the book, that indicate sources with page numbers. There is no way to tell what he is documenting however because there are no footnotes. There are multiple notations for some of the pages. I am wondering of this is something new (perhaps to save money?) or some sort of a printing error. The fact that I could not easily locate the sources diminishes Goodman's scholarship, and the validity of his ideas. Much of what he has written is plausible, based on my own readings around "The Dark Side" of the internet.
This is a dense book and took a while to plow through. Goodman covers every evil plot that can possibly be done via the internet. Although I assume he intends his prose to be frightening, it is so overdone that his predictions about the evil wrought by the internet become tedious. His overuse of the term "Crime Inc." which references bad people that do awful things to institutions, businesses, government and individuals is so overused that I flinched every time the phrase was used. And with any book of this sort, he ends it with suggestive cures to the plight new technology has brought to our world.
There is a cycle that (I believe the attribution is correct) law professor Tim Wu discusses where we are initially enamored with a new technology, and then the naysayers surface to tell us how harmful our world has become because of the technology, and then we go into a period of normalcy, where the technology and emotions around the impact become "domesticated" and part of everyday life. Goodman's current work about the internet feels like overkill in the warnings of impending disaster.
I teach a course called "The Dark Side of the Internet" and would certainly consider using this book for its provocative arguments about life online.
This is a dense book and took a while to plow through. Goodman covers every evil plot that can possibly be done via the internet. Although I assume he intends his prose to be frightening, it is so overdone that his predictions about the evil wrought by the internet become tedious. His overuse of the term "Crime Inc." which references bad people that do awful things to institutions, businesses, government and individuals is so overused that I flinched every time the phrase was used. And with any book of this sort, he ends it with suggestive cures to the plight new technology has brought to our world.
There is a cycle that (I believe the attribution is correct) law professor Tim Wu discusses where we are initially enamored with a new technology, and then the naysayers surface to tell us how harmful our world has become because of the technology, and then we go into a period of normalcy, where the technology and emotions around the impact become "domesticated" and part of everyday life. Goodman's current work about the internet feels like overkill in the warnings of impending disaster.
I teach a course called "The Dark Side of the Internet" and would certainly consider using this book for its provocative arguments about life online.
October 30, 2015
I always knew we made ourselves vulnerable with our online presence but didn't know how much we were exposing ourselves to bad people and how vulnerable we are even beyond just putting information into a website. This book has made me stop and think about where and what I post going forward.
November 6, 2015
Future Crimes is a remarkable mix of boring and terrifying that I didn't think was possible. The book walks through every aspect of modern technology and either indicates how it's been subverted by criminal enterprise or soon will be. There are short paragraphs in the beginning representing how criminality has grown in potential scale over time and a brief ending on what we need to do but neither is long enough to add enough insight to make this book stand above just staying up to date on security news. I was expecting some information on the procedurals of cyber crimes and there were none.
I recommend you find a security personality like Brian Krebs or Bruce Schneier and simply follow them on the media of your choice.
I recommend you find a security personality like Brian Krebs or Bruce Schneier and simply follow them on the media of your choice.
May 26, 2015
Unnecessary exaggerated and lots of ideas based on speculation, not facts.
August 4, 2018
Eye-opening and alarming. Goodman is not against technology and is quick to point out its many benefits, but he does make the case that we are making ourselves gratuitously vulnerable to harm, particularly considering the speed of technological advance and the inevitable move toward ubiquitous internet connection.
Goodman is thorough to the extent that it became a bit tiring reading example after example of how technology has been or can be hacked or used for evil. Nevertheless, everyone should read at least one chapter of this book to gain greater awareness of the cyber threats and privacy violations that have become commonplace in our technological society.
Goodman is thorough to the extent that it became a bit tiring reading example after example of how technology has been or can be hacked or used for evil. Nevertheless, everyone should read at least one chapter of this book to gain greater awareness of the cyber threats and privacy violations that have become commonplace in our technological society.
Read
January 30, 2016من الكتب اللى غيرت نظرتى لامور كتير
الكتاب اسمه جرائم المستقبل، كل شئ متصل، الجميع معرض للخطر، و ماذا يمكن ان نفعل حيال ذلك
الكتاب منقسم لثلاثة اجزاء
الجزء الاول عن الجرائم الالكترونية اللى بتحصل دلوقتى و مدى تاثيرها على العالم
الجزء التانى عن مستقبل الجريمة و المصايب اللى ممكن تنقلها التكنولوجيا للبشرية اذا ما اتعاملناش معاها صح
الجزء التالت حلول عملية ممكن تتطبق على المستوى الفردى و الجماعى
كمية المعلومات اللى جمعها الكاتب مهولة
و يمكن ده كان سبب وقوعه فى بعض الاخطاء زى كلامه عن dread pirate roberts
اللى كان يفتقد الى حد ما للدقة
لكن الكتاب بصفة عامة لازم يتقرى سواء بالنسبة للشخص المتخصص او الانسان العادى اللى ما عندوش خبرة بالتكنولوجيا
الكتاب مش مترجم عربى لان ما عندناش مترجمين ولا قراء مهتمين مع الاسف
April 6, 2017
Future Crimes is the scariest book I’ve read in years.
You’re almost certainly reading this review on a device powered by microprocessors. Do you know who’s looking over your shoulder as you read? I’m betting you don’t.
Let’s say you were reading this by clicking a link on Facebook. If so, Facebook would be recording that fact — and every other action you took while you were on its site.
If, instead, you were to access this review on my website using Chrome, Internet Explorer, or IOS, then you’d be adding to the databanks of Google, Microsoft, or Apple — and all the personal data you have stored on your computer, notebook, or smartphone would also be up for grabs.
Since you’re reading it on Amazon.com or Goodreads, you should know that Amazon is accumulating similar information about you and your preferences.
All of the above is true
Don’t believe me? You could read the Terms of Service you okayed when you installed any of those programs. Admit it, now: you didn’t read that 50-page document in four-point type — and you’re extremely unlikely to do so even now. The Terms of Service issued by the companies that provide the software you use (and sometimes hardware, too) permit them to learn everything there is to know about you online and to do with it what they will. The same goes for any online vendor you’ve ever bought anything at all from. And what they all do is not just tailor their ads to your tastes and behavior: they sell that data to data brokers such as Axciom, Epsilon, and ReedElsevier, who in turn make it available to all comers. Including Internet thieves, terrorists, stalkers, anarchist hackers, and other miscreants. Assuming those same evil-doers haven’t already obtained all your information by hacking into massive databases such as those maintained by Target or Sony or, for that matter, the federal government.
Yes, you read that right: If you do practically anything online, your life is an open book to the world (unless you happen to be extremely sophisticated about cyber security). As Marc Goodman puts it in Future Crimes, “The more we plug our devices and our lives into the global information grid — whether via mobile phones, social networks, elevators, or self-driving cars — the more vulnerable we become to those who know how the underlying technologies work and how to exploit them to their advantage . . . Simply stated, when everything is connected, everyone is vulnerable.” All the more so because the bad guys are usually two steps ahead of the rest of us.
Now comes the Internet of Things
As if this isn’t bad enough, just wait for the so-called Internet of Things to mature. Already, the car you drive may have as many as fifty microprocessors embedded within it. Once your home becomes a “smarthome,” with all lights, locks, heating, cooling, and appliances controllable through a handheld device, your life will truly become vulnerable to malware (viruses, Trojans, and worms) as well as the predations of an identity thief or some other variety of Internet crook.
Already, a truly diabolical thief can acquire software that enables him to hold your computer hostage, locking you out of all your files unless you pay a ransom running to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. (Bitcoin is the preferred mode of payment.) And even if that thief can be identified by name and address, he’s probably working in plain sight in St. Petersburg or Kiev and completely out of reach of law enforcement.
So, you think your antivirus program will keep the predators at bay? As Goodman writes, “the antivirus software you are running on your own computer is likely only catching 5 percent of the emerging threats targeting your machine.” Yes, five percent. Moreover, a cyber attack is typically detected not in minutes or hours, when something might be done about it, but in months or even years.
It turns out that the Internet is a far more complex and dangerous environment than you’re likely to know. Certainly, I wasn’t aware that Google has indexed only 16 terabytes of the data that comprises the Internet, while 7,500 terabytes are hidden from view. A German research institute determined “that there were forty-nine million strains of computer malware in the wild. By 2011, the antivirus company McAfee reported it was identifying two million new pieces of malware every month.” Yes, every month. And McAfee’s estimate is a conservative one.
Much bigger threats
If only our personal electronic devices alone were at risk! Consider the US electric grid, “often called the most complex machine in the world.” Goodman cites a report by the US Department of Energy revealing that the grid “connects fifty-eight hundred individual power plants and has more than 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. Yet 70 percent of the grid’s key components are more than twenty-five years old. Each of these components used much older . . . technologies that are readily attackable and persistently targeted.” In fact, Goodman goes on to report that one utility “had been the target of more than 10,000 attempted cyber attacks each month.”
Can you think of a more effective way to shut down American civilization than taking out our electric grid?
Do you think the Pentagon could prevent this? Think again. Chinese hackers working for their government have already acquired all the data associated with the “$300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,” and that’s just the most expensive weapons system. They’ve also pilfered the plans for our missile defense system, our most advanced helicopters, and numerous others. “According to an FBI report,” Goodman writes, “China has secretly developed an army of 180,000 cyber spies and warriors, mounting an incredible ninety thousand computer attacks a year against the U.S. Defense Department networks alone.” And many of those attacks aren’t detected until years later.
You ain’t seen nothing yet
As anyone who is intimately familiar with the progress of scientific research and development, not just in the US but around the world, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and other contemporary fields of inquiry are on the verge of creating enormous new opportunities for good — and terrifying potential for harm.
Much of Future Crimes is devoted to the vulnerability of the electronic devices we use today. That’s Part One. In Part Two, Goodman justifies the book’s title by exploring “The Future of Crime.” Read this, and I guarantee that you will be shocked by many of the examples Goodman cites that point to the dangers inherent in the new technologies now on the drawing board.
In Part Three, “Surviving Progress,” Goodman advances a number of recommendations about how to fight back against the hackers and Internet criminals who bedevil us today — and ameliorate or prevent the damage that future technologies might wreak on ourselves and our society. Some of these recommendations are bold, imaginative, and realistic. Future Crimes should be read by every government policymaker and every concerned citizen.
You’re almost certainly reading this review on a device powered by microprocessors. Do you know who’s looking over your shoulder as you read? I’m betting you don’t.
Let’s say you were reading this by clicking a link on Facebook. If so, Facebook would be recording that fact — and every other action you took while you were on its site.
If, instead, you were to access this review on my website using Chrome, Internet Explorer, or IOS, then you’d be adding to the databanks of Google, Microsoft, or Apple — and all the personal data you have stored on your computer, notebook, or smartphone would also be up for grabs.
Since you’re reading it on Amazon.com or Goodreads, you should know that Amazon is accumulating similar information about you and your preferences.
All of the above is true
Don’t believe me? You could read the Terms of Service you okayed when you installed any of those programs. Admit it, now: you didn’t read that 50-page document in four-point type — and you’re extremely unlikely to do so even now. The Terms of Service issued by the companies that provide the software you use (and sometimes hardware, too) permit them to learn everything there is to know about you online and to do with it what they will. The same goes for any online vendor you’ve ever bought anything at all from. And what they all do is not just tailor their ads to your tastes and behavior: they sell that data to data brokers such as Axciom, Epsilon, and ReedElsevier, who in turn make it available to all comers. Including Internet thieves, terrorists, stalkers, anarchist hackers, and other miscreants. Assuming those same evil-doers haven’t already obtained all your information by hacking into massive databases such as those maintained by Target or Sony or, for that matter, the federal government.
Yes, you read that right: If you do practically anything online, your life is an open book to the world (unless you happen to be extremely sophisticated about cyber security). As Marc Goodman puts it in Future Crimes, “The more we plug our devices and our lives into the global information grid — whether via mobile phones, social networks, elevators, or self-driving cars — the more vulnerable we become to those who know how the underlying technologies work and how to exploit them to their advantage . . . Simply stated, when everything is connected, everyone is vulnerable.” All the more so because the bad guys are usually two steps ahead of the rest of us.
Now comes the Internet of Things
As if this isn’t bad enough, just wait for the so-called Internet of Things to mature. Already, the car you drive may have as many as fifty microprocessors embedded within it. Once your home becomes a “smarthome,” with all lights, locks, heating, cooling, and appliances controllable through a handheld device, your life will truly become vulnerable to malware (viruses, Trojans, and worms) as well as the predations of an identity thief or some other variety of Internet crook.
Already, a truly diabolical thief can acquire software that enables him to hold your computer hostage, locking you out of all your files unless you pay a ransom running to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. (Bitcoin is the preferred mode of payment.) And even if that thief can be identified by name and address, he’s probably working in plain sight in St. Petersburg or Kiev and completely out of reach of law enforcement.
So, you think your antivirus program will keep the predators at bay? As Goodman writes, “the antivirus software you are running on your own computer is likely only catching 5 percent of the emerging threats targeting your machine.” Yes, five percent. Moreover, a cyber attack is typically detected not in minutes or hours, when something might be done about it, but in months or even years.
It turns out that the Internet is a far more complex and dangerous environment than you’re likely to know. Certainly, I wasn’t aware that Google has indexed only 16 terabytes of the data that comprises the Internet, while 7,500 terabytes are hidden from view. A German research institute determined “that there were forty-nine million strains of computer malware in the wild. By 2011, the antivirus company McAfee reported it was identifying two million new pieces of malware every month.” Yes, every month. And McAfee’s estimate is a conservative one.
Much bigger threats
If only our personal electronic devices alone were at risk! Consider the US electric grid, “often called the most complex machine in the world.” Goodman cites a report by the US Department of Energy revealing that the grid “connects fifty-eight hundred individual power plants and has more than 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. Yet 70 percent of the grid’s key components are more than twenty-five years old. Each of these components used much older . . . technologies that are readily attackable and persistently targeted.” In fact, Goodman goes on to report that one utility “had been the target of more than 10,000 attempted cyber attacks each month.”
Can you think of a more effective way to shut down American civilization than taking out our electric grid?
Do you think the Pentagon could prevent this? Think again. Chinese hackers working for their government have already acquired all the data associated with the “$300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,” and that’s just the most expensive weapons system. They’ve also pilfered the plans for our missile defense system, our most advanced helicopters, and numerous others. “According to an FBI report,” Goodman writes, “China has secretly developed an army of 180,000 cyber spies and warriors, mounting an incredible ninety thousand computer attacks a year against the U.S. Defense Department networks alone.” And many of those attacks aren’t detected until years later.
You ain’t seen nothing yet
As anyone who is intimately familiar with the progress of scientific research and development, not just in the US but around the world, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and other contemporary fields of inquiry are on the verge of creating enormous new opportunities for good — and terrifying potential for harm.
Much of Future Crimes is devoted to the vulnerability of the electronic devices we use today. That’s Part One. In Part Two, Goodman justifies the book’s title by exploring “The Future of Crime.” Read this, and I guarantee that you will be shocked by many of the examples Goodman cites that point to the dangers inherent in the new technologies now on the drawing board.
In Part Three, “Surviving Progress,” Goodman advances a number of recommendations about how to fight back against the hackers and Internet criminals who bedevil us today — and ameliorate or prevent the damage that future technologies might wreak on ourselves and our society. Some of these recommendations are bold, imaginative, and realistic. Future Crimes should be read by every government policymaker and every concerned citizen.
February 10, 2017
This book addresses the challenges and benefits of the exponential growth of the internet in the modern world. The reader is provided easy to understand real life examples showing how an society's lack of interest and/or knowledge of the growing cyber security threats has already had massive negative impacts. The following companies are highlighted in the discussion: Apply, Amazon, Samsung, Google, Sony, Target, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Microsoft...just to name a few. To quote the author, "To date, no computer has been created that cannot be hacked". The bottom line is if you have any type of online presence, you are a target and probably anyone connected to you is as well. Luckily, the author does provide techniques that may minimize the possibility of you failing victim to unwanted cyber attacks. In an era where technology is helping us all live better and longer, this book is a must read to also help us live safer.
January 15, 2018
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انك لست الزبون ياعزيزي!!!
بل أنت السلعة
ذكر بروفسور في مجال علوم الحاسوب من جامعة يال ذات مرة أن هناك مجالين من الأعمال يشيران إلى زبائنهما بعبارة "مستخدمين users" : مصمموا برامج الحاسوب و تجار المخدرات. والأهم من ذلك أن فرصة تعافيك من الأضرار التي تسببها منتجاتهما واحدة. فأنت عندما تضغط على زر الموافقة على قائمة شروط الخدمة الطويلة دون أن تقرأها، فأنت توافق على انك تتحمل كامل المسؤولية عند حدوث أي ضرر
الفرضية التجارية التي لا يفهمها معظم مستخدمي الانترنت هي انهم يدفعون ثمنا باهظا مقابل ما يسمى بالخدمات المجانية التي يتلقونها على النت
يفصل الكاتب وبأسلوب شيق في الأخطار التي تصاحب هذا العصر عالي التقنية. .. حروب سايبرية و عوالم القراصنة و جرائم الانترنت المظلم و الكثير من عواقب انترنت الأشياء و الروبوتات
اوصي بشدة بقراءة هذا الكتاب
كن على يقين
انك لست الزبون ياعزيزي!!!
بل أنت السلعة
ذكر بروفسور في مجال علوم الحاسوب من جامعة يال ذات مرة أن هناك مجالين من الأعمال يشيران إلى زبائنهما بعبارة "مستخدمين users" : مصمموا برامج الحاسوب و تجار المخدرات. والأهم من ذلك أن فرصة تعافيك من الأضرار التي تسببها منتجاتهما واحدة. فأنت عندما تضغط على زر الموافقة على قائمة شروط الخدمة الطويلة دون أن تقرأها، فأنت توافق على انك تتحمل كامل المسؤولية عند حدوث أي ضرر
الفرضية التجارية التي لا يفهمها معظم مستخدمي الانترنت هي انهم يدفعون ثمنا باهظا مقابل ما يسمى بالخدمات المجانية التي يتلقونها على النت
يفصل الكاتب وبأسلوب شيق في الأخطار التي تصاحب هذا العصر عالي التقنية. .. حروب سايبرية و عوالم القراصنة و جرائم الانترنت المظلم و الكثير من عواقب انترنت الأشياء و الروبوتات
اوصي بشدة بقراءة هذا الكتاب
September 11, 2015
This book was difficult to rate. It covers serious threats that society and individuals face because of our highly technological, interconnected world, but the writing style and format seriously detract from the message. Goodman writes in a consistent hyperbole-rich style that, rather then building tension, numbs the reader and makes one start to doubt all that he says. I almost felt as though I was reading something a lobbyist wrote. There are much better books available on the subject of how precarious society is in this highly connected world. The rampant hyperbole is not necessary. The current world and the future are scary enough.
July 11, 2015
This is a MUST read. It's chalk full of facts surrounding the changes to society that technology is making, including some of the realities of AI. My only troubles with the book are that it was a bit too long (endless examples sometimes unnecessary), and the author's slant that governments are saintly (unless they are "rogue governments") and want to protect people, as well as the gloom-and-doomism in the first part of the book (which later thankfully turned positive). Overall some alarming and enlightening facts and ideas presented all the way through the book.
April 7, 2015
I couldn't put this book down, it is fascinating and terrifying to learn how much of our privacy is at stake these days.
March 17, 2015
Would have been 4 stars--much of the content is fascinating--were it not for the terrible editing.
December 13, 2020
Did you know that the technology to simply control gadgets (like your Google Glass) with your thoughts already exists? Did you hear about the 2013 story of electronic teakettles and irons manufactured in China that spread a virus to all your electronic devices through WiFi? :D Or that we'll be able to literally "bring back to life" died-out species like the mammoth, the dodo or the Tasmanian tiger? Or how about that the swine flu suddenly reemerged in 1977 after being dead for 20 years, just because of a lab accident? These and so many more fascinating little facts was what I was able to pick up during the reading experience of "Future Crimes", so if that sounds compelling to you, read on to find out a bit more about this book ;)
I have started this brick of a 600+ page book in an ebook format but finally decided to also purchase it in its paperback version because it was simply so full of such important and relevant information, that I wanted to have it on my bookshelf, to be able to re-read certain parts from time to time (I think the amount of post-its you can see on the photo visualises it perfectly :D ). For me this book instantly got filed into the category of "all time favourites" and I'd see it as a must-read for everyone. Yes, everyone. Even those people who always used to say that they don't care about what happens to the data accumulated about them because they have "nothing to hide":
"But 'I have nothing to hide' is absolutely the wrong way to think about our new dataveillance society. [...] If proponents of the 'nothing to hide' argument meant what they said, then they would logically not object to our filming them having sex with their spouses, publishing their tax returns online, and projecting video of their toilet use on the Jumbotron of a crowded stadium, right? After all, they have nothing to hide. [...] Given that Google and Facebook alone have hundreds of petabytes of data on their users stored in perpetuity, perhaps it is more worthwhile to question not what any of us may have to hide today but what we might wish to keep private in the future [...]." (p. 110)
I have gotten through the book in just about 2 weeks, it having grabbed my interest firmly and I definitely learned a lot of new things. I really enjoyed its structure, the clear separation in three bigger parts and different chapters. Thanks to that and even though it's so expansive, you're able to keep an overview all throughout the reading experience. The style was factual and easily understandable, which was very pleasant for someone who isn't an expert on the topic. Some of my favourite quotes (among the hundreds of others :O ) were the ones where it was illustrated how IT specialists and us "regular" people simply seem to speak two different languages. Creating a common and an easily understandable one being an important step towards better cyber security.
"We quite literally speak two different languages. [...]
The products that are meant to secure and protect us give us helpful warnings such as: 'Alert: Host Process for Windows Service Using Protocol UDP Outbound, IPv6NAT Transversal-No, is attempting to access the Internet. Do you wish to proceed?' What the hell does that mean? Nobody knows, except for the original authors of this 'helpful' warning. [...]
Why would people write down their password on Post-it notes and stick them on their computers? Because making people change them every two weeks and requiring that they be at least twenty characters long, with an uppercase letter, a number, a symbol, a haiku, and in iambic parameter, is just too much for the average users to handle." (p. 532-534)
Its only fault was that it was quite repetitive, which in my case I didn't mind too horribly since it helped me remember the most important information better. I felt like it even gave an interesting twist presented with Yuval Noah Harari's " Homo Deus " - not only which direction we're heading towards with the future of technology but also all the dangers that come along with it.
"Terrorists seem to be getting the message and both the 2004 Madrid bombings at the Atocha train station, in which 190 people were killed and nearly 2, 000 wounded, and the 7/7 London bombings, in which 52 civilians were slain and over 700 injured, were funded in whole or in part through hacking and credit card fraud." (p. 51)
As it already says in the title, this book focuses on the topic of how criminality will develop in the future, while strongly relying on the advances of technology. It speaks about such a wide variety of topics, ranging from real life examples of impressive "criminal hacks", the lack of education on cyber security, explaining the "Dark Web" or how making individuals spend time in jail enables them to earn more through criminal acts in the future, why so many services like Facebook, Instagram and Facebook are "free", the good and the bad sides of technology, to - most importantly - also proposing possible solutions to solve these problems. To me it had a lot of relatable moments, for example when the problematic of code in software nowadays were being explained, having worked within a company managing its own website and Android/iOS apps.
"Either openly or behind closed doors, the majority of the software industry operates under a variation of the motto 'Just ship it' or 'Done is better than perfect.' Many coders knowingly ship software that they admit 'sucks' but let it go, hoping, perhaps, to do better next time. [...]
This complexity, coupled with a profound laissez-faire attitude toward software bugs, has led Dan Kaminsky, a respected computer security researcher, to observe that today 'we are truly living through Code in the Age of Cholera.' " (p. 517 - 518)
To just leave you with one last quote, if you still need to be convinced, whether this book is relevant for you to read ;)
"Today you don't even need to be a synthetic biologist to get access to the tools of genetic sequencing. [...] They're called 'discreet DNA samples', and they can be processed for around 100$ each. Not sure if you want to hire that new guy who came into your office for the interview? Just send off the coffee cup he left behind to the lab to see if he might be a risk for a bunch of expensive disease that could cost your company a bundle. [...] Believe it or not, taking a stranger's DNA and sending it off to the lab is completely legal [...]." (p. 495)
June 4, 2019
Copyright 2015.
"You are not GOOGLE's customer; you are its product. That's why you don't get a bill. That's why there's no 800 technical support. Those items are reserved for its real customers: the advertisers who are purchasing all the data you litter along Google's information superhighway. You are the thing Google sells to other people..."
"After a lawsuit by thirty-eight American state attorneys general in 2013, Google admitted that its bizarre-looking Street View cars, those outfitted with high-tech 360-degree roof cameras, were not just taking photographs for its Street View mapping product as they drove down the streets of our neighborhoods but also pilfering data from computers inside our homes and offices, including passwords, e-mails, photographs, chat messages, and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users."
"Three months after it was purchased by FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM outraged its users when it announced it would sell their names, images, and photographs to advertisers."
"...anybody who uses Google Docs or happens to upload a spreadsheet, PDF, or Word document to Google Drive automatically grants ownership of the document to Google."
Vast scope of cybercrime incl. infrastructure terrorism; personal data location behaviors hacked, sold & used for corporate misuse & stalking; smartphone camera microphone contacts text messages; legal cases; exponential growth; cloud services; fake mediated screens; GPS; vote rigging; crowdsourcing gamification; deep web, shadow Internet, dark market; ubiquitous smart devices cars; Internet of Things IoT; robots drones AI; military; satellites spacecraft; biometrics fingerprints DNA genomics; 3D printers; bitcoin; ransomware; quantum computers; professionalism corporate practices of criminals; etc.
TO DO LIST: cover cameras; turn off Bluetooth WiFi location-tracking NFC cellular hotspots computers smartphones when not in use; long passwords (...); auto-run software updates; [delete unnecessary apps]; check privacy settings when terms & conditions updated; etc.
"You are not GOOGLE's customer; you are its product. That's why you don't get a bill. That's why there's no 800 technical support. Those items are reserved for its real customers: the advertisers who are purchasing all the data you litter along Google's information superhighway. You are the thing Google sells to other people..."
"After a lawsuit by thirty-eight American state attorneys general in 2013, Google admitted that its bizarre-looking Street View cars, those outfitted with high-tech 360-degree roof cameras, were not just taking photographs for its Street View mapping product as they drove down the streets of our neighborhoods but also pilfering data from computers inside our homes and offices, including passwords, e-mails, photographs, chat messages, and other personal information from unsuspecting computer users."
"Three months after it was purchased by FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM outraged its users when it announced it would sell their names, images, and photographs to advertisers."
"...anybody who uses Google Docs or happens to upload a spreadsheet, PDF, or Word document to Google Drive automatically grants ownership of the document to Google."
Vast scope of cybercrime incl. infrastructure terrorism; personal data location behaviors hacked, sold & used for corporate misuse & stalking; smartphone camera microphone contacts text messages; legal cases; exponential growth; cloud services; fake mediated screens; GPS; vote rigging; crowdsourcing gamification; deep web, shadow Internet, dark market; ubiquitous smart devices cars; Internet of Things IoT; robots drones AI; military; satellites spacecraft; biometrics fingerprints DNA genomics; 3D printers; bitcoin; ransomware; quantum computers; professionalism corporate practices of criminals; etc.
TO DO LIST: cover cameras; turn off Bluetooth WiFi location-tracking NFC cellular hotspots computers smartphones when not in use; long passwords (...); auto-run software updates; [delete unnecessary apps]; check privacy settings when terms & conditions updated; etc.
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