What do you think?
Rate this book
DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You
The benefits of living in a digital, globalized society are enormous; so too are the dangers. The world has become a law enforcer's nightmare and every criminal's dream. We bank online; shop online; date, learn, work and live online. But have the institutions that keep us safe on the streets learned to protect us in the burgeoning digital world? Have we become complacent about our personal security--sharing our thoughts, beliefs and the details of our daily lives with anyone who might care to relieve us of them?
In this fascinating and compelling book, Misha Glenny, author of the international best seller "McMafia," explores the three fundamental threats facing us in the twenty-first century: cybercrime, cyberwarfare and cyberindustrial espionage. Governments and the private sector are losing billions of dollars each year fighting an ever-morphing, often invisible and often supersmart new breed of criminal: the hacker.
Glenny has traveled and trawled the world. By exploring the rise and fall of the criminal website DarkMarket he has uncovered the most vivid, alarming and illuminating stories. Whether JiLsi or Matrix, Iceman, Master Splynter or Lord Cyric; whether Detective Sergeant Chris Dawson in Scunthorpe, England, or Agent Keith Mularski in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Glenny has tracked down and interviewed all the players--the criminals, the geeks, the police, the security experts and the victims--and he places everyone and everything in a rich brew of politics, economics and history.
The result is simply unputdownable. DarkMarket is authoritative and completely engrossing. It's a must-read for everyone who uses a computer: the essential crime book for our times.
In this fascinating and compelling book, Misha Glenny, author of the international best seller "McMafia," explores the three fundamental threats facing us in the twenty-first century: cybercrime, cyberwarfare and cyberindustrial espionage. Governments and the private sector are losing billions of dollars each year fighting an ever-morphing, often invisible and often supersmart new breed of criminal: the hacker.
Glenny has traveled and trawled the world. By exploring the rise and fall of the criminal website DarkMarket he has uncovered the most vivid, alarming and illuminating stories. Whether JiLsi or Matrix, Iceman, Master Splynter or Lord Cyric; whether Detective Sergeant Chris Dawson in Scunthorpe, England, or Agent Keith Mularski in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Glenny has tracked down and interviewed all the players--the criminals, the geeks, the police, the security experts and the victims--and he places everyone and everything in a rich brew of politics, economics and history.
The result is simply unputdownable. DarkMarket is authoritative and completely engrossing. It's a must-read for everyone who uses a computer: the essential crime book for our times.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2011
75 people are currently reading
1362 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
March 28, 2012
Facsinating story let down in places by workmanlike prose and a confusing cast of characters. A dramatis personae would not have gone amis.
Also I'm annoyed that he didn't tell us the outcome of the Dietmar Lingel trial. Did I miss something?
These complaints aside it's impossible not to be impressed by the hours of research and good old fashioned journalistic leg work that goes into something like this.
For a little taster of what's in the book you can listen to Glenny on the RSA podcast
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-an...
Also I'm annoyed that he didn't tell us the outcome of the Dietmar Lingel trial. Did I miss something?
These complaints aside it's impossible not to be impressed by the hours of research and good old fashioned journalistic leg work that goes into something like this.
For a little taster of what's in the book you can listen to Glenny on the RSA podcast
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-an...
July 2, 2012
I work in this field. This is one of the most misleading inaccurate titles I've read. It doesn't give a good understanding of the field and skirts around some of the most important issues around. See the definition of viruses, trojans and worms for just how wrong this book is.
It actually hurt to read at points.
This is incredibly disappointing because Misha Glenny is a fantastic journalist who cut his teeth doing war journalism in the Balkans.
It actually hurt to read at points.
This is incredibly disappointing because Misha Glenny is a fantastic journalist who cut his teeth doing war journalism in the Balkans.
August 24, 2012
Cut up your credit cards, close down your PC, cancel on-line banking, hide your money under the mattress. After reading Misha Glenny's investigation of cybercrime you will find it hard to believe anything is safe. If you haven't been affected yet, put it down to luck. But don't doubt that it is coming to an ATM near you any time soon.
DarkMarket is the story of a loose alliance of (mainly young) geeks, sufficiently bored, sufficiently savvy and sufficiently amoral, who find ways of helping themselves electronically to money that doesn't belong to them. Some become unimaginably wealthy (at least until they are caught) but others are doing it simply "because it's there." Catching them, as Glenny outlines at length, is complicated. Often they are committing a crime in a country far from where they are situated, couriering the proceeds to yet another country. Under whose jurisdiction might they be prosecuted, even supposing they can be caught? If the detectives can extract evidence, in itself no easy task, where do they find a court capable of understanding what is put before them?
And who exactly are these cybercriminals? They operate under pseudonyms, seldom, if ever, meeting in person. Some are cops playing criminal in an attempt to infiltrate the network. By the end of this particular tale it seems that DarkMarket has been brought down and some, if not all, of its most virulent participants are out of commission. But has DarkMarket already resurfaced under another name? Probably.
This is a rivetting read with a chilling conclusion.
DarkMarket is the story of a loose alliance of (mainly young) geeks, sufficiently bored, sufficiently savvy and sufficiently amoral, who find ways of helping themselves electronically to money that doesn't belong to them. Some become unimaginably wealthy (at least until they are caught) but others are doing it simply "because it's there." Catching them, as Glenny outlines at length, is complicated. Often they are committing a crime in a country far from where they are situated, couriering the proceeds to yet another country. Under whose jurisdiction might they be prosecuted, even supposing they can be caught? If the detectives can extract evidence, in itself no easy task, where do they find a court capable of understanding what is put before them?
And who exactly are these cybercriminals? They operate under pseudonyms, seldom, if ever, meeting in person. Some are cops playing criminal in an attempt to infiltrate the network. By the end of this particular tale it seems that DarkMarket has been brought down and some, if not all, of its most virulent participants are out of commission. But has DarkMarket already resurfaced under another name? Probably.
This is a rivetting read with a chilling conclusion.
April 11, 2025
Knyga ispūdinga apie juodojo interneto nusikaltimus(kortelių vagystės, Duomenų vagystės) ir policijos infiltruotus agentus. Autorius kalbino labai daug asmenų. Iš kriminalinio pasaulio ,is policijos. Kaip jiems pavyko po kruopštaus ir sunkaus darbo surasti ir areštuoti organizatorius (Ukrianiečiai , Amerikiečiai), bei uždaryti didžiausią nelegalią juodojo interneto rinką. 😱
August 12, 2012
Glenny's secret here as with his earlier McMafia is to take a fragmented subject which has many real world loose ends and forge something close to a novel type structure which makes the whole story accessible. Certainly the issues here are serious although it is slightly oversold as most of the crime is credit card fraud (although there is an astonishing amount of that). Its difficult to see how our national law & order systems ever get to grips with an international problem like this particularly when different parts of one county's system did not know what the other part was doing!
Interesting and I will be checking those ATMs with more care from now on........
Interesting and I will be checking those ATMs with more care from now on........
February 26, 2023
An excellent example of investigative journalism. Highly recommended.
June 30, 2017
A strong, compelling work of modern literary journalism. Leaves one fearful for our ignorance and vulnerability in this particular area of crime.
January 8, 2013
Published in 2011, an action-packed account of the events and characters involved in the rise, operation and decimation of several high-profile online marketplaces that provided a venue for scammers, credit card fraudsters, hackers, and such cyber criminals, to build reputations, form connections, and exchange goods and services.
Key insights from the book:
Cultural, political, legal and societal differences between countries give rise, as with any criminal activity, to loopholes that lawbreakers exploit. Certain countries adopt lax attitudes towards cyber crime, and have neither the interest nor the resources to devote towards combating it. Some countries turn a blind eye to it as long as their national companies and infrastructure are not the ones being targeted. In countries where corruption is common within political and law enforcement bodies, criminal activity is not only ignored but abetted. Protected by powerful backers, some criminals might operate ‘beyond the law.’
Even if criminals are tracked down, if they are based in a country that lacks an extradition agreement with the country of their pursuers, then they have free reign, essentially, to continue their activities. With luck and care, as long as circumstances remain favourable, wrong-doers may conduct their business unmolested.
Examples of features that are country-specific:
-In an earlier era, although illegal activities were perpetrated throughout most of the world, French criminals were generally francophone, used the Minitel system rather than the Internet, and used American credit cards, not French ones. The Minitel system was more secure, and had a smaller user base, making it a less attractive target. Thus, cybercrime in France was initially restricted in its scope, to a relatively national level.
-The FSB uses the SORM-2 system to acquire and store data from ISPs each time they are requested. All Russian ISPs must comply with this regulation, and have to pay a fee to fund the cost of the system. Encryption is illegal in Russia and possession of a file with a digital lock on it is a crime. Russian cybercriminals are free to clone credit cards, hack bank accounts and distribute as much spam as they want, as long as their victims are located in western Europe and the US.
-ISPs in the UK are required to store all data regarding computer traffic for between 6 months to 2 years, and the data is accessible by government agencies under national legislation. Details such as the time and volume of traffic are monitored, although the content is not.
Collaboration between governmental intelligence agencies and international counterparts can be patchy. The US SS and the FBI, for example, have sometimes failed to share information with each other, resulting in competition and redundancy. They sometimes investigated each other's undercover agents without realising it. Intelligence agencies in France, Germany, and the UK, would have to work with each or one of these organisations, instead of dealing with a single entity, resulting in extra overhead and consumption of resources.
Services that were popular amongst those engaged in criminal activities included hushmail, ICQ, IRC, and E-Gold. ICQ and IRC are dynamic- unless exchanges are saved intentionally, no trace of the conversation is left. Ironically, these services did not always confer as much anonymity as users believed. Following the arrest of E-Gold founder Douglas Jackson in 2006, for example, government agencies had full access to its records, unbeknownst to most users. The Canadian webmail provider, hushmail, provided the police with log records after mounting pressure, in 2007. Safemail is an encrypted email system, owned and run b a company in Tel Aviv. If an Israeli court subpoenaed certain information, then presumably it would be possible to obtain and crack the mail.
The underlying message is, that services are run by companies and people, and even if a system is allegedly failsafe and secure in theory, when implemented, theory is confronted by the messy squishy real world, which often offers affordances for one to pry open the cracks. If, for example, law enforcement agencies infiltrate or are involved in the setting up or running of such services themselves, then hackability is practically built into the system.
A common characteristic of the websites described in the book (such as DarkMarket, CarderPlanet, Shadowcrew, and CardersMarket), was the provision of a platform that allowed otherwise solitary cyber criminals to form ‘opportunistic packs.’ Glenny describes the evolution of services developed on each site, and embellishes the narrative with colourful depictions of the individual personalities behind them.
For example, a highly-valued service was the provision of an escrow system, similar to that offered by a bank or a marketplace such as eBay and Amazon: site administrators acted as a neutral third party, overseeing transactions between members, and thus replacing inefficient and unrealistic trust-based direct interactions with an impersonal, reliable workaround.
Skills could be combined and traded: those with a background in programming, hacking, or engineering could design and sell software and equipment, while those equipped with street smarts but lacking in that sort of technical know-how could purchase or rent equipment and carry out thefts in the flesh. Purveyors of stolen credit card details could sell their wares to buyers, who in turn performed the physical and risky act of withdrawing cash. Sellers of skimming devices could dispatch their machines to those who lacked the ability and time to design, build, and engineer their own, but who were willing to install them on ATMs.
A strategy used by DarkMarket at one stage (when it achieved a monopoly over the distribution of skimmers), was to sell the machines together with a PIN pad that was designed to be installed over the existing, legitimate one. Encrypted PINs would be recorded on the fake pad, and the buyers of skimmers had to send the data back to the sellers for decryption. The sellers would then organise and take a cut of the cash-out through ‘mules,’ thus creaming off illegal transactions. Money mules are oft-unsuspecting people who respond to advertisements offering money for little work, in which money is deposited into their bank account before being forwarded on, and the mules take a percentage as their cut.
A theme common to this book and McMafia is that of the economic and social landscape in countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China, where access to relatively high levels of education are combined with rising material aspirations amidst massive wealth disparities, thus creating fertile conditions for the proliferation of cybercrime.
Digital interactions may be extremely challenging to track down. But if they are linked to real-world activities, such as packaging and mailing of skimming devices, then investigators can devise creative solutions when hunting their quarry. For example, in 2008, inspections of confiscated ATM skimming machines in Turkey revealed that certain models were being made in large numbers, implying that they were made in a factory, possibly in Romania or Bulgaria. The police identified the three largest shipping firms in the city of Istanbul, training the staff of courier companies to spot a skimmer (usually registered as a vehicle or machine spare part), and gave them instructions on what to do if they saw one. This eventually yielded the phone number and CCTV image of a suspect, and the arrest of several operators of an organised-crime syndicate.
Striking parallels exist between the world of cyber crime and that of WWII code-breaking and espionage. Various players need to communicate information in secret and pit their coding skills against those of their adversaries. Interactions between agents occur in physical reality, as well as electronically. Thus the identities of your contacts are rarely assured- spies might be posing as someone else, communications might be intercepted and read or altered, and all this second-guessing and need for outwitting the opponent leads to an arms race with targets that are constantly shifting. Events in the digital realm have significant consequences in reality, whether they result in the movement of sums of money or the clapping of criminals into prison; the loss of soldiers or the end of a war.
Minor gripes:
Glenny’s riveting, slightly sensational style of writing makes this a highly-readable page-turner, on one hand, but also occasionally results in stylistic choices that detract from clarity. For example, he has a tendency of introducing new characters with dramatic flourish, structuring sentences so that a vivid description precedes their identity, and phrases it in such a way that the reader, coming across a name for the first time, hesitates for a moment, wondering if this character had already been mentioned before. One gets the distinct impression that Glenny has polished the technique of creating a snazzy sound bite by writing for magazines and newspapers- by creating a little puzzle, he engages the reader and sets the mental cogs moving.
While that works fine for articles, which are relatively short, it carries less well into a book of over two hundred pages that is stuffed with dozens of characters, many of whom have screen names as well as complex and less-than-transparent real-life identities. In addition, when referring to individuals, he sometimes switches between first and last names. If you’re reading DarkMarket for the first time and are serious about keeping track of who’s who, I’d advise keeping a list of characters as they appear.
There was exactly one sentence in the book that I disagreed with and found absurd- “...With further research, this could mean that it will be possible to identify hacker personality types among children who are still at school.” I can just imagine kids being administered with a hackers’ version of Myers-Briggs, and told that they belong to the ‘hacker’ or the ‘leave-untouched-er’ category. As with MBTI, all I can say is, ‘a fat lot of good that would do.’
In summary: Enlightening, engaging, and extremely enjoyable. Does not go deeply into technical detail, provides basic descriptions of technology to facilitate understanding. Focused on the narrative and historical events, clearly the culmination of much research, interviewing, and sorting and organisation of facts and documents.
Key insights from the book:
Cultural, political, legal and societal differences between countries give rise, as with any criminal activity, to loopholes that lawbreakers exploit. Certain countries adopt lax attitudes towards cyber crime, and have neither the interest nor the resources to devote towards combating it. Some countries turn a blind eye to it as long as their national companies and infrastructure are not the ones being targeted. In countries where corruption is common within political and law enforcement bodies, criminal activity is not only ignored but abetted. Protected by powerful backers, some criminals might operate ‘beyond the law.’
Even if criminals are tracked down, if they are based in a country that lacks an extradition agreement with the country of their pursuers, then they have free reign, essentially, to continue their activities. With luck and care, as long as circumstances remain favourable, wrong-doers may conduct their business unmolested.
Examples of features that are country-specific:
-In an earlier era, although illegal activities were perpetrated throughout most of the world, French criminals were generally francophone, used the Minitel system rather than the Internet, and used American credit cards, not French ones. The Minitel system was more secure, and had a smaller user base, making it a less attractive target. Thus, cybercrime in France was initially restricted in its scope, to a relatively national level.
-The FSB uses the SORM-2 system to acquire and store data from ISPs each time they are requested. All Russian ISPs must comply with this regulation, and have to pay a fee to fund the cost of the system. Encryption is illegal in Russia and possession of a file with a digital lock on it is a crime. Russian cybercriminals are free to clone credit cards, hack bank accounts and distribute as much spam as they want, as long as their victims are located in western Europe and the US.
-ISPs in the UK are required to store all data regarding computer traffic for between 6 months to 2 years, and the data is accessible by government agencies under national legislation. Details such as the time and volume of traffic are monitored, although the content is not.
Collaboration between governmental intelligence agencies and international counterparts can be patchy. The US SS and the FBI, for example, have sometimes failed to share information with each other, resulting in competition and redundancy. They sometimes investigated each other's undercover agents without realising it. Intelligence agencies in France, Germany, and the UK, would have to work with each or one of these organisations, instead of dealing with a single entity, resulting in extra overhead and consumption of resources.
Services that were popular amongst those engaged in criminal activities included hushmail, ICQ, IRC, and E-Gold. ICQ and IRC are dynamic- unless exchanges are saved intentionally, no trace of the conversation is left. Ironically, these services did not always confer as much anonymity as users believed. Following the arrest of E-Gold founder Douglas Jackson in 2006, for example, government agencies had full access to its records, unbeknownst to most users. The Canadian webmail provider, hushmail, provided the police with log records after mounting pressure, in 2007. Safemail is an encrypted email system, owned and run b a company in Tel Aviv. If an Israeli court subpoenaed certain information, then presumably it would be possible to obtain and crack the mail.
The underlying message is, that services are run by companies and people, and even if a system is allegedly failsafe and secure in theory, when implemented, theory is confronted by the messy squishy real world, which often offers affordances for one to pry open the cracks. If, for example, law enforcement agencies infiltrate or are involved in the setting up or running of such services themselves, then hackability is practically built into the system.
A common characteristic of the websites described in the book (such as DarkMarket, CarderPlanet, Shadowcrew, and CardersMarket), was the provision of a platform that allowed otherwise solitary cyber criminals to form ‘opportunistic packs.’ Glenny describes the evolution of services developed on each site, and embellishes the narrative with colourful depictions of the individual personalities behind them.
For example, a highly-valued service was the provision of an escrow system, similar to that offered by a bank or a marketplace such as eBay and Amazon: site administrators acted as a neutral third party, overseeing transactions between members, and thus replacing inefficient and unrealistic trust-based direct interactions with an impersonal, reliable workaround.
Skills could be combined and traded: those with a background in programming, hacking, or engineering could design and sell software and equipment, while those equipped with street smarts but lacking in that sort of technical know-how could purchase or rent equipment and carry out thefts in the flesh. Purveyors of stolen credit card details could sell their wares to buyers, who in turn performed the physical and risky act of withdrawing cash. Sellers of skimming devices could dispatch their machines to those who lacked the ability and time to design, build, and engineer their own, but who were willing to install them on ATMs.
A strategy used by DarkMarket at one stage (when it achieved a monopoly over the distribution of skimmers), was to sell the machines together with a PIN pad that was designed to be installed over the existing, legitimate one. Encrypted PINs would be recorded on the fake pad, and the buyers of skimmers had to send the data back to the sellers for decryption. The sellers would then organise and take a cut of the cash-out through ‘mules,’ thus creaming off illegal transactions. Money mules are oft-unsuspecting people who respond to advertisements offering money for little work, in which money is deposited into their bank account before being forwarded on, and the mules take a percentage as their cut.
A theme common to this book and McMafia is that of the economic and social landscape in countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China, where access to relatively high levels of education are combined with rising material aspirations amidst massive wealth disparities, thus creating fertile conditions for the proliferation of cybercrime.
Digital interactions may be extremely challenging to track down. But if they are linked to real-world activities, such as packaging and mailing of skimming devices, then investigators can devise creative solutions when hunting their quarry. For example, in 2008, inspections of confiscated ATM skimming machines in Turkey revealed that certain models were being made in large numbers, implying that they were made in a factory, possibly in Romania or Bulgaria. The police identified the three largest shipping firms in the city of Istanbul, training the staff of courier companies to spot a skimmer (usually registered as a vehicle or machine spare part), and gave them instructions on what to do if they saw one. This eventually yielded the phone number and CCTV image of a suspect, and the arrest of several operators of an organised-crime syndicate.
Striking parallels exist between the world of cyber crime and that of WWII code-breaking and espionage. Various players need to communicate information in secret and pit their coding skills against those of their adversaries. Interactions between agents occur in physical reality, as well as electronically. Thus the identities of your contacts are rarely assured- spies might be posing as someone else, communications might be intercepted and read or altered, and all this second-guessing and need for outwitting the opponent leads to an arms race with targets that are constantly shifting. Events in the digital realm have significant consequences in reality, whether they result in the movement of sums of money or the clapping of criminals into prison; the loss of soldiers or the end of a war.
Minor gripes:
Glenny’s riveting, slightly sensational style of writing makes this a highly-readable page-turner, on one hand, but also occasionally results in stylistic choices that detract from clarity. For example, he has a tendency of introducing new characters with dramatic flourish, structuring sentences so that a vivid description precedes their identity, and phrases it in such a way that the reader, coming across a name for the first time, hesitates for a moment, wondering if this character had already been mentioned before. One gets the distinct impression that Glenny has polished the technique of creating a snazzy sound bite by writing for magazines and newspapers- by creating a little puzzle, he engages the reader and sets the mental cogs moving.
While that works fine for articles, which are relatively short, it carries less well into a book of over two hundred pages that is stuffed with dozens of characters, many of whom have screen names as well as complex and less-than-transparent real-life identities. In addition, when referring to individuals, he sometimes switches between first and last names. If you’re reading DarkMarket for the first time and are serious about keeping track of who’s who, I’d advise keeping a list of characters as they appear.
There was exactly one sentence in the book that I disagreed with and found absurd- “...With further research, this could mean that it will be possible to identify hacker personality types among children who are still at school.” I can just imagine kids being administered with a hackers’ version of Myers-Briggs, and told that they belong to the ‘hacker’ or the ‘leave-untouched-er’ category. As with MBTI, all I can say is, ‘a fat lot of good that would do.’
In summary: Enlightening, engaging, and extremely enjoyable. Does not go deeply into technical detail, provides basic descriptions of technology to facilitate understanding. Focused on the narrative and historical events, clearly the culmination of much research, interviewing, and sorting and organisation of facts and documents.
August 17, 2021
DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You follows the story of the now-defunct cybercrime forum DarkMarket.
Based on the description my local library provided, I thought this book would be more like American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton - an exploration of the people behind a criminal enterprise and the impacts of the site itself on average people. In other words, I was expecting a book that was more focused on DarkMarket and the case itself, and this book did not meet my expectations.
Glenny writes a fair amount about global cybersecurity practises in this book. I found this to be somewhat tangent to what I thought the focus of the book was: the DarkMarket investigation. For example, an interlude is dedicated to discussing Estonia's cybersecurity practises. I'm still not sure how this is relevant to DarkMarket.
On top of that, Glenny also has a more dry writing style, which made this book even more difficult to read for me.
As to be expected with the subject matter of this book, there is a lot of technical lingo being used. I get the feeling that it's already less technical than similar books and Glenny did a decent job of explaining the concepts. But, the trouble with too much detail is that it can make the book difficult to follow, particularly for the lay reader.
I acknowledge that as a true crime fan who knows nothing about cybersecurity, I'm probably not the right reader for this book. However, if you're more interested and knowledgeable about the technical aspects of cybersecurity, you might want to consider giving this one a read.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
Based on the description my local library provided, I thought this book would be more like American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton - an exploration of the people behind a criminal enterprise and the impacts of the site itself on average people. In other words, I was expecting a book that was more focused on DarkMarket and the case itself, and this book did not meet my expectations.
Glenny writes a fair amount about global cybersecurity practises in this book. I found this to be somewhat tangent to what I thought the focus of the book was: the DarkMarket investigation. For example, an interlude is dedicated to discussing Estonia's cybersecurity practises. I'm still not sure how this is relevant to DarkMarket.
On top of that, Glenny also has a more dry writing style, which made this book even more difficult to read for me.
As to be expected with the subject matter of this book, there is a lot of technical lingo being used. I get the feeling that it's already less technical than similar books and Glenny did a decent job of explaining the concepts. But, the trouble with too much detail is that it can make the book difficult to follow, particularly for the lay reader.
I acknowledge that as a true crime fan who knows nothing about cybersecurity, I'm probably not the right reader for this book. However, if you're more interested and knowledgeable about the technical aspects of cybersecurity, you might want to consider giving this one a read.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
February 10, 2019
Where is Lord Cyric?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 9, 2021
Λίγο φλύαρο σε κάποια σημεία χωρίς να υπάρχει κανένας απολύτως λόγος. Ωστόσο, στο σύνολό του αποτελεί ένα ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα που περιγράφει συνοπτικά την έξαρση του εγκλήματος στον ψηφιακό κόσμο.
October 30, 2012
This was an easy read which was actually a disappointment as I was expecting something a bit more serious and less like a novel. It was a little dumbed down which I think is unnecessary with the younger audience who surely know what the internet is but need to understand more about the dangers of using your credit card. There were a lot of characters and I occasionally got lost between remembering thier real name and thier virtual identity. There were a few loose ends but I can live with that.
I think the thing that bothered me most was the fact that everything was based on 200+ hours interviews. Where was the factual corroboration? Maybe it was there or maybe it was just cross checking the stories. Anyway, it left me a little suspicious of the veracity of the whole story, especially of the Turkish and Slavic skimmers. I think that the book would have also benefited from even more detail and examples of how you can loose your credit card data to the bad guys.
I think the thing that bothered me most was the fact that everything was based on 200+ hours interviews. Where was the factual corroboration? Maybe it was there or maybe it was just cross checking the stories. Anyway, it left me a little suspicious of the veracity of the whole story, especially of the Turkish and Slavic skimmers. I think that the book would have also benefited from even more detail and examples of how you can loose your credit card data to the bad guys.
November 22, 2012
Cringe-worthy.
While I had a few problems with this book, my primary one was undoubtedly the writing style, which seemed too colloquial, simplistic and almost condescending to any adult. See, for example, how the footnote on page 34 ends an explanation on the differences between viruses, worms and trojans with: "But, basically, they all do bad things to your computer."
While I had a few problems with this book, my primary one was undoubtedly the writing style, which seemed too colloquial, simplistic and almost condescending to any adult. See, for example, how the footnote on page 34 ends an explanation on the differences between viruses, worms and trojans with: "But, basically, they all do bad things to your computer."
October 21, 2019
One of those books that could have been an amazing read but wasn't... The subject matter itself is definitely captivating but the writing style leaves a lot to be desired. I get it that not every reader is a tech-savvy nerd but it seemed occasionally that the author was under the impression that his audience consists solely of computer illiterate people and the text was dumbed down a lot :(
November 24, 2025
Misha Glenny walks into the cybercrime world like a historian. His approach is different from Bartlett’s—less anthropological, more geopolitical. Where Bartlett peers into people, Glenny peers into systems. And during Covid, when everything from groceries to grieving shifted online, this systemic lens felt painfully relevant.
The man does not write like your usual cybersecurity correspondent. He writes like someone who has spent a lifetime tracking the emotional weather behind political storms. His instinct is journalistic, but his impulse is almost novelistic: he sees narratives, motives, and vulnerabilities. And this is what makes DarkMarket feel uncannily alive.
Glenny frames cybercrime not as isolated acts of digital mischief but as part of a vast, evolving economy—one shaped by poverty, surveillance, global inequality, and the gamified seduction of anonymity.
His central argument is that cybercrime didn’t appear out of nowhere. It bloomed from fertile soil—ungoverned digital spaces, overconfident governments, and tech-savvy young people with limited opportunities.
The heart of the book is the eponymous forum, DarkMarket—a bustling bazaar of stolen identities, credit card fraud, fake passports, money laundering lessons, and bragging teenage hackers whose moral compasses spun like ceiling fans during a heatwave.
The forum becomes a stage where the drama of modern cybercrime unfolds.
Glenny isn’t interested in painting the hackers as pixelated villains. Like you, he’s drawn to contradictions. He reveals young people who might’ve been brilliant engineers, philosophers, or artists if they’d been dealt a different socioeconomic hand. He even captures the tragicomic absurdity of cyber cops trying to chase criminals across digital borders that governments refuse to acknowledge.
For a 21st-century reader, the book’s value lies in its institutional critique. Glenny makes it clear that the digital underground thrives because the legal system is built for the analogue world. The criminals evolve faster than the structures built to catch them—an irony O. Henry would’ve loved, frankly.
Stylistically, Glenny has a cinematic flair. His pacing feels like long tracking shots through server rooms, war rooms, chatrooms, and interrogation rooms.
And because he centres human stories within global systems, he gives you something many cybersecurity books lack: emotional stakes.
Reading DarkMarket during the pandemic, when everyone became newly fragile to phishing scams, ransomware, and identity theft, adds a layer of personal urgency. You’re not observing anymore; you’re implicated. Glenny reminds you gently, ominously, almost affectionately: “Yes, darling, this concerns you.”
This is the book you read when you want to feel both informed and slightly menaced—like sipping tea while someone quietly tells you your door is unlocked.
The man does not write like your usual cybersecurity correspondent. He writes like someone who has spent a lifetime tracking the emotional weather behind political storms. His instinct is journalistic, but his impulse is almost novelistic: he sees narratives, motives, and vulnerabilities. And this is what makes DarkMarket feel uncannily alive.
Glenny frames cybercrime not as isolated acts of digital mischief but as part of a vast, evolving economy—one shaped by poverty, surveillance, global inequality, and the gamified seduction of anonymity.
His central argument is that cybercrime didn’t appear out of nowhere. It bloomed from fertile soil—ungoverned digital spaces, overconfident governments, and tech-savvy young people with limited opportunities.
The heart of the book is the eponymous forum, DarkMarket—a bustling bazaar of stolen identities, credit card fraud, fake passports, money laundering lessons, and bragging teenage hackers whose moral compasses spun like ceiling fans during a heatwave.
The forum becomes a stage where the drama of modern cybercrime unfolds.
Glenny isn’t interested in painting the hackers as pixelated villains. Like you, he’s drawn to contradictions. He reveals young people who might’ve been brilliant engineers, philosophers, or artists if they’d been dealt a different socioeconomic hand. He even captures the tragicomic absurdity of cyber cops trying to chase criminals across digital borders that governments refuse to acknowledge.
For a 21st-century reader, the book’s value lies in its institutional critique. Glenny makes it clear that the digital underground thrives because the legal system is built for the analogue world. The criminals evolve faster than the structures built to catch them—an irony O. Henry would’ve loved, frankly.
Stylistically, Glenny has a cinematic flair. His pacing feels like long tracking shots through server rooms, war rooms, chatrooms, and interrogation rooms.
And because he centres human stories within global systems, he gives you something many cybersecurity books lack: emotional stakes.
Reading DarkMarket during the pandemic, when everyone became newly fragile to phishing scams, ransomware, and identity theft, adds a layer of personal urgency. You’re not observing anymore; you’re implicated. Glenny reminds you gently, ominously, almost affectionately: “Yes, darling, this concerns you.”
This is the book you read when you want to feel both informed and slightly menaced—like sipping tea while someone quietly tells you your door is unlocked.
December 10, 2018
In his very reader-friendly manner Misha Glenny ( of McMafia and Brazilian underworld fame to name the few books by the same author) guides us through Internet underworld and introduces creators of sites for enticing and (this is something I found very interesting) support and mediation for various criminal activities.
Along the way we also meet law enforcement agencies who are chasing down criminals but don't cooperate, intelligence agencies utilizing same criminals for their own purposes, police officers blocked by bureaucracy and forced to act on their own [as they say in some cases it is better to ask forgiveness than permission] and security people that get chased down by their own agencies because you cannot trust anyone on the net and rumor can put the person in prison in no time.
Very interesting chapters linked to Turkey were a little bit down-played by the author. Considering entire schizophrenia and complete paranoia that rules the Internet [and especially shady parts of network] it is sometimes very difficult to discern lies and outright fantasies from the actual facts. And then I guess it is better to keep tone down.
Some readers said that writing style was condescending and/or long-winded. I did not have that experience. Everything presented is not given from the expert point of view. Misha Glenny is investigative journalist and it shows [in a good way], he knows a lot about a lot of things but does not use buzz words to let everyone know how smart he is. He lets experts speak through interviews and builds his story from there while making materiel understandable and available to everyone.
Highly recommended to all interested in current politics, crime-fighting and in general how technology changes our lives in not always good ways.
Along the way we also meet law enforcement agencies who are chasing down criminals but don't cooperate, intelligence agencies utilizing same criminals for their own purposes, police officers blocked by bureaucracy and forced to act on their own [as they say in some cases it is better to ask forgiveness than permission] and security people that get chased down by their own agencies because you cannot trust anyone on the net and rumor can put the person in prison in no time.
Very interesting chapters linked to Turkey were a little bit down-played by the author. Considering entire schizophrenia and complete paranoia that rules the Internet [and especially shady parts of network] it is sometimes very difficult to discern lies and outright fantasies from the actual facts. And then I guess it is better to keep tone down.
Some readers said that writing style was condescending and/or long-winded. I did not have that experience. Everything presented is not given from the expert point of view. Misha Glenny is investigative journalist and it shows [in a good way], he knows a lot about a lot of things but does not use buzz words to let everyone know how smart he is. He lets experts speak through interviews and builds his story from there while making materiel understandable and available to everyone.
Highly recommended to all interested in current politics, crime-fighting and in general how technology changes our lives in not always good ways.
April 9, 2024
This book is now over a decade old, so is doubtless some way behind the times in terms of how cybercriminals operate in today’s world. However, the basic tenant of the book – that we live our lives online – remains true. Now it is more likely we use mobile phones than a computer, but online banking, shopping, working, dating are ubiquitous.
Although the occasional huge cyberattack makes the headlines, the ‘mundane’ day-to-day scamming is still less understood. Mr. Glenny takes us from the late 90s thought to 2010, and tracks down the minds behind DarkMarket, one of the leading cybercrime websites of the day.
The book is written almost in the style of a thriller, with several strands including various criminals (some successful, some less so), law enforcement and the occasional victim. Darkmarket, despite its age, still offers an interesting, sometimes worrying, insight into the world of cybercrime. If you read this and continue to reuse passwords, you’re mad!
Although the occasional huge cyberattack makes the headlines, the ‘mundane’ day-to-day scamming is still less understood. Mr. Glenny takes us from the late 90s thought to 2010, and tracks down the minds behind DarkMarket, one of the leading cybercrime websites of the day.
The book is written almost in the style of a thriller, with several strands including various criminals (some successful, some less so), law enforcement and the occasional victim. Darkmarket, despite its age, still offers an interesting, sometimes worrying, insight into the world of cybercrime. If you read this and continue to reuse passwords, you’re mad!
July 6, 2017
This book comes in two guises: DarkMarket - Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You, and DarkMarket - How Hackers Became the New Mafia.
Each has a different cover design and a different ISBN, however the text is the same in each.
The narrative is an easy and fairly informative read. It's not "techie" which was a bit of a let down for me but I can see why that would have put people off.
With any non-fiction, I like to see lots of references, endnotes etc. since they give the impression that the work was well researched. DarkMarket does not have any references but in fairness to Glenny, he does explain that the nature of the subject made references impossible.
This book is more about the in-fighting of hackers and "carders" rather than an introduction to the technicalities.
Each has a different cover design and a different ISBN, however the text is the same in each.
The narrative is an easy and fairly informative read. It's not "techie" which was a bit of a let down for me but I can see why that would have put people off.
With any non-fiction, I like to see lots of references, endnotes etc. since they give the impression that the work was well researched. DarkMarket does not have any references but in fairness to Glenny, he does explain that the nature of the subject made references impossible.
This book is more about the in-fighting of hackers and "carders" rather than an introduction to the technicalities.
October 30, 2020
I came for technical details but instead I found a really engaging geeky crime story. Glenny described the early days of cybercrime, mostly carding, by focusing on some of the most infamous websites: CardersMarket, ShadowCrew, and mainly DarkMarket. The story takes us from the US to Ukraine and Turkey where a lot of early cybercrime originated. The author describes collaborations between the criminals and law enforcement agencies which was often mired by the lack of trust and suspiciousness. Duplicity, betrayal, and paranoia common among the perpatrators was really palpable in the writing.
The book is still very readable in 2020, but technology has changed a lot since it was written. Tech aspects were not well described anyway.
The book is still very readable in 2020, but technology has changed a lot since it was written. Tech aspects were not well described anyway.
October 29, 2019
Sempre tive curiosidade sobre a “dark web” e Misha Glenny tornou esse mundo um pouco mais acessível para aqueles que são curiosos e têm um conhecimento básico mínimo ou inexistente sobre o assunto. Publicado em 2011 por Glenny, “Mercado Sombrio”, traz uma reflexão sobre problemas de crimes cibernéticos cada vez mais presentes em nossos dias.
Infelizmente é retratado apenas crimes com cartões de créditos no início do “boom” da internet, e por esse motivo o livro não chega a ser excelente porque nesse intervalo a rede evoluiu e o crime eletrônico também cresceu e se aperfeiçoou.
Infelizmente é retratado apenas crimes com cartões de créditos no início do “boom” da internet, e por esse motivo o livro não chega a ser excelente porque nesse intervalo a rede evoluiu e o crime eletrônico também cresceu e se aperfeiçoou.
September 23, 2020
This is the story of cybercrime in the early 2000s, and carder skimmmers in particular. It covers certain criminals and the law enforcement agents who captured them and how. I thought parts of the book were complicated, and I couldn't follow all of it. But the main point of the book, the story of the Darkmarket criminal website and how its administrators were brought to justice is intriguing. I really got into the story and was fascinated by both sides, the criminals and the law enforcers who caught them.
It was well worth reading for me
It was well worth reading for me
April 7, 2020
As a programmer working in payments and fraud prevention, some colleagues recommended this book to me a while ago. At first, I wasn't so convinced because I was expecting a rather more technical perspective of the topics, but the storytelling of the author is really engaging and kept me going. As you get more into the story, it becomes irresistible. I read the last chapters with a thrill as if I were watching an action movie.
September 30, 2018
Must read. A real eye opener. I've always been curious about the dark web & Glenny made that world accessible to those that are curious & have minimal or no base knowledge on the topic without boring the reader. Read like a thriller. I will be searching for more of Glenny's writings including articles. Intriguing & a must read!
February 23, 2020
Provided a very insightful story about the beginnings of cybercrime and the carding industry. It was great following along the story of the different characters who played a part at various different points. The book never felt boring, in part probably due to the interesting mix the internet and the real world provide in forming a persona for some of these real life characters.
April 8, 2020
Really shows how global the new digital crime networks are in the age of the internet. A cast of characters from every corner of the world and an ageing establishment clueless about the potential of their global capitalist infrastructure. Story of the good guys and the bad guys as crime moves into the cyber age.
October 16, 2018
It does not read anywhere close to as smoothly as McMafia did as Glenny is alot more wordier than before. Kind of a turn off and it makes me not want to finish this book. I might change my review if I keep going and end up enjoying it for other reasons.
March 15, 2022
Very interesting story. It was a pleasure for me to read the book. I only regret that it was written 10 years ago. As we know the field of Cyber Security evolves year after year, and because of that the current Cyber Security landscape is somewhat different.
August 2, 2022
Fascinating insight into cyber crime and how easy and pervasive it is. It’s frightening to think that if this was written 11 yrs ago how more sophisticated and organised the abuse is now. It’s also disappointing how little judicial punishment seems to be possible against those who are caught.
June 13, 2017
A journalistic endeavor.. Not an easy read. however, the work deserves the time needed to reach conclusion.
July 24, 2017
I heard Misha Glenny talk at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose in June. As soon as I reached home, I ordered this book on kindle. Fascinating, informative, terrifying in many ways
Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews