Dark Screens: Hackers and Heroes in the Shadowy World of Ransomware

by Anja Shortland

A riveting account of major ransomware attacks and their devastating consequences, revealing how exposed we really are—and how we can protect ourselves Imagine opening your computer only to find every document and every program locked. All you can see is a red screen with a countdown timer, urging you to pay a ransom within 72 hours or lose access forever. For more than a decade, hackers have been extorting billions of dollars from businesses, governments, and individuals with ever more sophisticated variations on this simple scheme.   Dark Screens offers a ringside seat to the most notorious ransomware attacks of the twenty-first century. It sheds light on the inner workings of criminal gangs that target hospitals, public infrastructure, and vulnerable companies—as well as the individuals and organizations trying to stop them. It tracks how ransomware is becoming a weapon of cyberwar, as seen in the Russian “NotPetya” attack, and the worldwide “WannaCry” cyberattack by North Korea. Ransomware expert Anja Shortland shares these stories to sound the alarm about how vulnerable we are to cyberattacks and highlight best practices from cybersecurity and crisis management to law enforcement and public policy.   Dark Screens shines a light on the fascinating underworld of superhackers whose activities have potentially catastrophic implications for us all.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published April 28, 2026

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly written and on a topic of great interest to many of us in 2026, this was a quick read and a good recap and stiching together of stories about hackers from the beginning of the Internet (even a bit before) until the height of ransomware, which is pretty much now. It doesn't seem as if the author has gone deeper than gathering what others have already reported in the past. If you happen to have been following events as they developed, there might not be much here that is new, but for someone who wasn't paying attention until the day they received notice that their personal information was stollen in a data breach or that their work was shut down by a ransomware attack, this book does a good job of getting you up to speed.

It had been a while since I'd read about how bitcoin works--having just wished and expected it to go away as just another fad--but the description here was good. I was aware of how the blockchain works to save information about ownership in a way that could not be tampered with, but I had never really known how "bitcoin mining" works. The idea seems ludicrous to me, creative, but incredibly clunky. Transactions in bitcoin depend on "miners' who solve math puzzles to move transactions around. The miners like so many rats on spinning wheels in the chase for kibble. When they solve puzzles, they get paid and bitcoin gets made and moved around. No minders, and the system will freeze.

Bitcoin rocketed to prominence for one reason only: it allows people to buy things secretly without any chance that their identity will be known. From porn to politicians, everything can be bought with bitcoin. Is it any wonder that our current US president is so enthusiastic about it? No worries about tax audits or money trails when you do it all in bitcoin. The train has already left the station, that's for sure, and I am confident that Washington is already being corrupted at every level by payoffs made in bitcoin. That's not the author's contention, just my reflection on what seems likely, given my low opinion of the integrity of our politicians.

Speaking of integrity and low opinion . . . the author is actually rather sympathetic about her hackers and darkweb denizens. She often seems to see them as worth admiration rather than condemnation. Me, I think they are likely responsible for more harm to more people than any other kind of criminal, and they should be hunted down and locked up in a cell cut off from the signal.

[Ankit Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Screens: Hackers and Heroes in the Shadowy World of Ransomware is one of those rare nonfiction books that feels as intense as a thriller while still being incredibly informative. Anja Shortland takes a topic that many people find confusing or overly technical and turns it into a fascinating story about power, fear, money, and digital survival.

What I appreciated most was how the book explored both sides of the ransomware world — not just the criminals behind the attacks, but also the negotiators, cybersecurity experts, and organizations trying to contain the damage. The author doesn’t rely on sensationalism; instead, she presents the cybercrime ecosystem in a smart, balanced, and thought-provoking way.

The writing is sharp and accessible, making complex cybersecurity issues easy to understand without oversimplifying them. Every chapter reveals how deeply ransomware affects modern society, from hospitals and corporations to governments and ordinary individuals. It’s unsettling at times because the threats described in the book feel very real and very current.

This book completely changed the way I think about digital security and the invisible systems we rely on every day. Even readers who are not tech experts will find themselves pulled into the stories and the broader questions the book raises about technology, responsibility, and global vulnerability.

If you enjoy investigative nonfiction, cybersecurity topics, or books that uncover hidden aspects of the modern world, Dark Screens is definitely worth reading. Informative, timely, and surprisingly gripping from start to finish.

[Scott Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortland gives us a compelling history and detailed autopsies of the biggest most recent cybersecurity failures. While breaking down ransomware escapades, we also get an insight into how hacking cartels work, get created and get dismantled. We learn about collaborative efforts to reduce ransomware instances and the costs associated with recovery. Since 2021, the number of incidences has decreased: global efforts have occurred to find and shut down hack-farms; corporations have tightened up security e.g. requiring multi-factor authentication method(s) for all users; identification of risky penetrations—phishing, etc.—has increased. In fact, a Sophos cybersecurity survey—cited by government task forces—shows a decrease in the ransoms awarded to reclaim data and acces, and the number of instances. The leading reason for breaches are holes in IT security systems; for example, one major incident described in the book happened because registered users could access the system by only entering their user ID and no password was required.

While the recommendations in the book can be found in several task force reports and many cyber security white papers, this seems to be a thorough narrative of how we got here, from the start of personal computers, and the internet to just last year. For anyone who wants to know what’s happening on a global scale to combat this, and read about some successes, this is a must read.