CRACK99: The Takedown of a $100 Million Chinese Software Pirate

by David Locke Hall

The utterly gripping story of the most outrageous case of cyber piracy prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice. A former U.S. Navy intelligence officer, David Locke Hall was a federal prosecutor when a bizarre-sounding website, CRACK99, came to his attention. It looked like Craigslist on acid, but what it sold was anything but amateurish: thousands of high-tech software products used largely by the military, and for mere pennies on the dollar. Want to purchase satellite tracking software? No problem. Aerospace and aviation simulations? No problem. Communications systems designs? No problem. Software for Marine One, the presidential helicopter? No problem. With delivery times and customer service to rival the world’s most successful e-tailers, anybody, anywhere―including rogue regimes, terrorists, and countries forbidden from doing business with the United States―had access to these goods for any purpose whatsoever. But who was behind CRACK99, and where were they? The Justice Department discouraged potentially costly, risky cases like this, preferring the low-hanging fruit that scored points from politicians and the public. But Hall and his colleagues were determined to find the culprit. They bought CRACK99's products for delivery in the United States, buying more and more to appeal to the budding entrepreneur in the man they identified as Xiang Li. After winning his confidence, they lured him to Saipan―a U.S. commonwealth territory where Hall’s own father had stormed the beaches with the marines during World War II. There they set up an audacious sting that culminated in Xiang Li's capture and imprisonment. The value of the goods offered by CRACK99? A cool $100 million. An eye-opening look at cybercrime and its chilling consequences for national security, CRACK99 reads like a caper that resonates with every amazing detail.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Technology, Audiobook, China, Crime

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2015

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys*]

Sometimes it's the reader and not the book. I can see where this book would be interesting, but I think it's just all over my head. (I hate admitting that)
I'm just going to hang it up after trying and stopping it several times. It's to the point where if I try to keep reading it I'm still not going to enjoy it.

Booksource: I did receive a copy of this book from the publisher for review. I feel like crud because I couldn't finish it.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original review posted at Book of Bogan

Crack99 is the story of the hunt by the US government for a Chinese software pirate who was found to be selling high-tech and high-priced pirated software at bargain basement prices. Following the journey over a number of years, from first discovering the existence of the site, through to his ultimate takedown, Crack99 is part memoir, and part discussion of the nature of justice in America.

I guess I had always seen the prosecution of intellectual property thieves as something more of a property, or a commercial interest, rather than it being a national security issue. And that is part of the battle the author has to go through in selling the prosecution of this individual to his bosses. There is a bit of unabashed ra-ra-Murica going on in this book, and while I didn't necessarily empathise with the man behind the piracy operation, although it is hard not to feel a little pity for him in the end; I didn't feel much of a connection with the author either.

This is especially true once the whole operation goes down, and he does something of a victory tour mopping up all of the bad guys, and triumphing in their downfall. This isn't really edge of your seat, gripping reading, much is given over to some of the technicalities of what the pirates were doing, and how the Americans were playing catch up to try to work out how they were accomplishing their work.

It was an interesting look into the operations of how investigations and law enforcement operations and logic works. And while the man behind the operation was certainly ripping off the legitimate producers of these programs, the story lacks the tension and the drama of the story of the takedown of a computer hacker, for instance. From an economic and legal perspective, sure, it is an interesting tale, but it just felt like the every day to me.

An interesting read without being spectacular.

[Sue Koontz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting for two reasons: one, I had no idea the extent of the theft of technology going on through the Internet and that China would rather steal the technology than spend money on developing their own. Two, that our Department of Justice would rather go after minor drug sellers/users than pursue hard cases that are important to the welfare, security and future of our country. Bureaucrats love showing tally sheets in order to prove they are relevant whether the work they do is relevant or not (l've worked in and dealt with the federal government and have experienced this first hand). The only part of the book which seemed to drag was the lengthy descriptions of the different computer software and its uses. I am sure people in these industries may have found this interesting, but for the average reader it brought this intriguing story to a stand still - after a while I just skipped over these descriptions.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief Review
In this book you follow the investigation from David Hall and his team as they navigate the first real case of cyber theft. David does a great job of taking what could be a VERY technical and legalese filled book and breaking down each portion to make it digestible to the everyday reader. This is a book that can be read by any person without any previous knowledge in US law or cyber technical information.

Why I Read this book
I work in the cyber industry and the use of pirated software was massive when I started my career and so it was interesting how much of this I would recognize/how much has changed.

For more, https://boydsbar.xyz/crack99/

[Kris Roedig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pretty darn good book. I didn’t think cyber crime and the investigation of said crimes would be - in any way- exciting. Truth be told, it probably ISN’T that exciting to live it. But, this book made it at least interesting.

The author explained in detail but not to the point of tedium, exactly what was happening and why and just how it affects a LOT of people.

It seems author David Lock Hall has a few good stories he should tell - along with a travelogue of his misadventures with delicacies around the world.

Mark Peckham brought a lot of energy to the narration and emphasis at just the right moments to deliver a punchline or a bit of information that moves the case along. But holy heck does he sound like Willem Dafoe. I may be the only one who hears it (or for that matter knows that intimately what Dafoe’s voice sounds like) but it’s true!!

Anyway, this certainly will not be interesting to everyone, a very small group in fact, but it was a very good listen.

[Cindy B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging plot on cyber criminals, the post arrest treatment, and sentences. Very humane story. Excellent narration and well written. Clean. Will read author again.

[Juan Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author at multiple points in time glides past points in his journey where we get to see just how disjointed, out of touch, and abusive our criminal justice is at times.
At the core this is a story about a Chinese man who browses Russian and Chinese forums for pirated software, he himself is not cracking, hacking, or bypassing anything. He is literally ripping software he finds online, cataloging, doing translations, and then proceeding to sell off something he found for free online to unsuspecting American businesses. I'm not saying this isnt illegal, or that he shouldnt have been punished. But we have used government resources, over the course of literal years, to take down a SKID.
All the while our author is making unbased assumptions, most of which are just unfounded and come from someone who has very little experience in the online space, and it shows.
Weird conspiracies of a rogue employee, Chinese state sponsorship, middle eastern backed plots, all these very outlandish assumptions to a case with a very simple reality.
This wasnt the takedown of a super hacker, a child bred to infiltrate and corrupt American made software.
This was a Chinese man who could type into google "American software, latest version, cracked, free" to find a working search result, and sell it to people who didn't know how to google.
And it turns out our government came to be one of those buyers.
This is revealed in the book, but not in a way to show just how deep the problem runs or to show the foolishness of past assumptions to show how disconnected our government is from actual competence. But it is rather glided over as the book wraps up with the "takedown" of their perceived cyber genius criminal.
And if you have no online literacy, it would be very easy to misunderstand how these events took place, after finishing the book, I cant help but feel the author himself didn't even understand what happened, even after all the cards were on the table.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

About time someone told the truth about the People's Republic of China:

- thieving is fine, as long as Americans are the victims
- America is lost
- we pay defense contractors to protect us, and they won't even protect themselves
- we are incredibly naive, wide open for the taking
- nobody here listens and nobody cares

Every economist who talks about the Chinese miracle needs to understand that thieves appear wealthy as long as they aren't prosecuted. It's the wealth of future American generations, and that horse has left the barn and been spirited away.

It's the largest wealth transfer in history, and few care, and fewer have done anything about it. Dave Hall and his teams it seems.

American business: do you really, REALLY think Cease and Desist letters mean one flying damn in China?

Every time you see an unfunded school, a pothole, or the skyrocketing national debt, remember why.

[Laurens · Rating 2 out of 5]

The tedious detailing of version numbers, the bombastic claims regarding use of the software and its importance, the lack of understanding of economics (similar to RIAA claims about the "cost" of music piracy) and the clear lack of technological knowledge make this book a miss.

From a random page "He also used in in connection with his work, including redesigning the cathode for the Black Hawk helicopter". I had to laugh because the author clearly doesn't understand what he's walking about - but wants to include a technological term ("cathode") and reference to a well-known weapons platform.
or: "he was using the [cracked] software for work related purposes, which made us concerned about the reliability of [his] output". Cracked software has no effect on the -reliability of the output-. It may effect the stability of the software (rarely) - but not the reliability of the output.

These are non-trivial issues that I picked up in a few seconds of browsing the book, which show that the author (who was the prosecutor) has no real understanding of the subject matter.

[Richard K · Rating 1 out of 5]

What could have been an interesting article is instead padded into a bombastic and boring book.

It's also rather annoying if you're knowledgeable in areas of world politics, technology, or computers (especially software).

On the technical side, the author has an limited understanding of the various topics and technologies. I don't expect an in-depth explanation but at the same time skipping it altogether might be better than a woefully inaccurate explanation.

As for the political side, it's as though a White House press briefing became a person and became an uncredited coauthor. For example, there's a section about the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini taking power however the CIA's involvement in the 1953 coup is conveniently absent.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

We did not enjoy this book. The author came across as arrogant and more interested in self-promotion of his role in the military and the justice system than on enlightening the reader about the facts of the case. In many case descriptions, he would randomly launch into details about himself, his career, or his disapproval of how the government or former employer handled a situation. Many of those details just didn't seem relevant to the pirating case, and just seemed more in line with a memoir I didn't care to read. This was a fairly short case scenario that was made to be a much-too-long book.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. The author does seem to go on a very long tangent about an arms dealer but he then references the similarities to that operation and the Crack99 case.

It was a good listen at a bit under 11 hours and you can definitely speed up the playback to 1.3x or higher and follow the story.

Even though it’s a bit of a dated story I still found it very interesting.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but I believe the author overstated the 'dangers' of the software pirate. He was a small time middleman at best. Anyone who has spent any time on usenet or irc had access to more software than this chinese cracked software vendor.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Angeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow start and not my style, but still interesting.

[Damo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're intet Syed in computers and software it's an interesting read. Heavy in technical details but shows the fight law enforcement is up against.

[Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written expose, but it contains a fair deal of information which might not be quite on topic.

[Bill Baltas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good tru story of the investigation of a hacker, his crime and the resulting prosecutions. The author also covers technology theft by Chinese companies and the Chinese government.

[Taivo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Over dramatized and very repetitive. Should have been much shorter.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hall's book "Crack99", about a Chinese software expert who pirated hundreds of technical software programs and resold them at pennies on the dollar, really shows the difficulty in prosecuting these types of crimes. ​Copyright rules apparently mean little in China, and it's likely that the Chinese government not only ignores piracy, but may condone it or support it. And with no extradition treaties, Hall points out how difficult it is to get U.S. prosecutors to actively take on an overseas piracy case, since arrests are so difficult, and successful prosecutions unlikely. Thus, the successful prosecution of the Crack99 pirate was unique and interesting.
While the author does a good job of describing the difficulty in successfully stopping and prosecuting software piracy, he was unable or unwilling to detail how the existing software security and piracy protections in so many programs were apparently easily defeated. Also, the book bogged down at times when describing the software which was pirated. Many of the programs are extremely high tech, used in military, industrial, and engineering / design applications. I'd be quite sure saying that the names of the software are unknown to most readers, as are their ultimate uses. At times in the book, the author lists name after name of the software pirated, along with the developers list price and the pittance the Crack99 pirate sold them for. To me, it was someone reading a supermarket receipt, e.g., bananas, $1.29, orange juice, $3.75, coffee, $6.00, wine, $12.00, etc. Except in the book the longish lists were of obscure software titles instead of grocery products, which didn't mean much to me. After the author made it clear that there were hundreds of products for sale on the Crack99 website, and they typically sold for ridiculously low prices, I got the idea. Anything after that was pretty much wasted on me.
​I also found it interesting to note that U.S. users of illegally pirated software seemed rarely to be investigated, fined, or prosecuted. It reminds me of the current immigration issues. Everyone complains about people entering the country illegally, but companies knowingly hiring illegal immigrants seems to be immune from punishment.
One limitation in this book is that it focuses (by design and intent) primarily on pirating of high tech, high cost software for industrial applications, and on the significant financial losses which occur for U.S. producers of the software. I think it's also important to recognize that computer security doesn't stop with software piracy. That seems only be the tip of the iceberg. Readers interested in the subject and who wish go explore the subject a little further may find
Fred Kaplan's "Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War", and / or Marc Goodman's "Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It" as good expansions of the subject. These books go beyond piracy issues, and show how susceptible all our Internet computer networks are, and how important this is as a National Security threat. Each also describes how our computers, cell phones, and basically any of our electronic communication devices can be hacked, and provide recommendations we might take against the threats.

[Kaye McSpadden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and important story about the complexities of battling international cyber-crime. The "Crack99" case was the largest successfully prosecuted case of its kind at that time. Written by the federal prosecutor who oversaw the investigation and prosecution, the story is interesting and at times, suspenseful. I especially enjoyed learning about the process they went through to identify and catch the guy (he was in China). However, in addition to the basic Crack99 story, I enjoyed learning about some of the broader issues, such as the pressures on federal prosecutors to focus on "low-hanging fruit" (ie, simple, easy cases such as small-time drug dealers) instead of larger, more complex cases like those that have international involvement. I also appreciated his discussion about the profound consequences of cyber theft, including economic impact and threats to national and local security. The only reason I'm not giving it four stars is because somewhere in the middle, he went into a long, detailed telling of a case involving international weapons smuggling, and I lost interest for awhile. There were some important developments and lessons from that case that were relevant to the Crack99 case, but it simply wasn't the story I wanted to hear. Still, I found Crack99 to be a very worthwhile read, and I do recommend it, especially if you are interested in learning more about cyber crime.

[pluton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was about a software cracking team from the 90s, but no — it's about a very recent story. The book is for regular people, as opposed to IT people, because very few technical details are mentioned. There is no exciting tracking down of the seller of the cracked apps, in fact, his name and address was known from the beginning. I would've expected something like The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage.
More than a half of the book describes the general situation of the current illegal cyber world, different laws and regulations that were used for this case, poor communication between various US government agencies, and a dozen of issues that the prosecutor needed to handle to finish the case. An interesting tiny detail: the author said they'd got an email search warrant for a gmail.com address, but Google or its response is never mentioned in the book.
Also, at least one thing is incorrect: page 247 says "…it is well known that pirated software contains malware…" — Wrong! Pirated software may contain malware.

[Falbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book brought home to me just how far the government is behind the eight-ball on software piracy and internet security issues. The whole thing is a self-congratulatory opus about spending hundreds of man-hours and tens of thousands of hours to bust a small time Chinese middleman. It becomes very clear by the end that the government hasn't a clue as to what is really going on out on the internet and scares the piss out of me heading into the future. This Hall guy comes across as completely inept, and, according to him, he's about the only one trying to do anything at all to address the loss of information from the government and large U.S. corporations to the overseas market. Depressing as all hell.

[Mujahid Aziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was geeked up start finding all kind of free software hacking sites & thing like that. Also notice after reading this book have a lot of police around. Has a lose in a digital matrix feel combine with a tech warfare of unlock encryption if your into that time of deal...great book but not for everyone P.S also notice that after reading this book money checks & paying with card begin acting funny as in decline purchases even at the time of plenty money is in your bank account weird right, must be the book lol its all in the wording of the book speaks new cop & digital programmer underworld talk...Crack99

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story about how an American federal prosecutor spent a lot of government time and money to catch the equivalent of a guy selling bootleg CDs at a bazaar. The irony of him writing about how catching street drug pushers is ineffective is wholly lost on the author. It's mildly amusing to read about the utter befuddlement (self admitted) he experiences trying to figure out what is happening but this grows thin pretty quickly. Obviously, the US government is not as clueless as this author would like you to believe although they can't be said to be winning the war (of which this story is not part of) either.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit long winded with too much random details from his life, but overall Mr. Hall did a hell of a job exposing just how bad the United States cyber security is. The fact that you could, and probably still can, buy drone, satellite, and other high tech software for pennies on the dollar is terrifying. Furthermore, this was just one of the millions of sites like it on the internet and Xiang Li just one of millions of hackers out there.

Hopefully this case, and others like it kickstarted the government and private sector into putting more money into cyber security and protection.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt like this story would have taken place years before it did, like closer to 2003 versus 2008-2011. I was surprised at the type of software transacted in this case.

Hall presented the takedown of an illegal arms dealer to introduce the strategy for arresting cracked software re-seller Xiang Lee in person. I learned a little history, as it pertains to Saipan, which is near Guam.

Kudos to the team for their investigation, and eventual arrest and conviction of this Chinese national (and two of his US customers). A good read.

[Ralph Trickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at the justice department

I enjoyed seeing into what happens inside an investigation like that. The low rating is because it feels like it was pumped up a bit by lists of software products and by short digressions on other cases. They were too short to be interesting but combined made the book a lot longer than it should have been. I'd like to see something else by the same author that was a bit more broad about his career.

[Ryan Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, engaging read on the take down of a software pirate and the larger policy and security implications in the modern geopolitical landscape. Well written and fun to read, definitely recommended to anyone who enjoys a good crime story.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting when dealing with characters involved with the car. I guess, with the author being a lawyer, he could not help taking deep dives into all kinds of supporting documentation, which got tedious at times.