Industry of Anonymity: Inside the Business of Cybercrime

by Jonathan Lusthaus

The most extensive account yet of the lives of cybercriminals and the vast international industry they have created, deeply sourced and based on field research in the world’s technology-crime hotspots.

Cybercrime seems invisible. Attacks arrive out of nowhere, their origins hidden by layers of sophisticated technology. Only the victims are clear. But every crime has its perpetrator―specific individuals or groups sitting somewhere behind keyboards and screens. Jonathan Lusthaus lifts the veil on the world of these cybercriminals in the most extensive account yet of the lives they lead, and the vast international industry they have created.

We are long past the age of the lone adolescent hacker tapping away in his parents’ basement. Cybercrime now operates like a business. Its goods and services may be illicit, but it is highly organized, complex, driven by profit, and globally interconnected. Having traveled to cybercrime hotspots around the world to meet with hundreds of law enforcement agents, security gurus, hackers, and criminals, Lusthaus takes us inside this murky underworld and reveals how this business works. He explains the strategies criminals use to build a thriving industry in a low-trust environment characterized by a precarious combination of anonymity and teamwork. Crime takes hold where there is more technical talent than legitimate opportunity, and where authorities turn a blind eye―perhaps for a price. In the fight against cybercrime, understanding what drives people into this industry is as important as advanced security.

Based on seven years of fieldwork from Eastern Europe to West Africa, Industry of Anonymity is a compelling and revealing study of a rational business model which, however much we might wish otherwise, has become a defining feature of the modern world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, Technology, Audiobook, Business

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 16, 2018

Reviews

[Ryan]

Interesting topic but really weak execution. For all the research this guy apparently did (there are a lot of citations), there is not a single thing in the entire book which isn't obvious. Like, "people pick nicknames and there is tension between rotating them frequently for opsec and maintaining consistent branding."

There are lots of better books which incidentally cover all of this material while actually being informative and entertaining. Kingpin, Dark Market, Krebs, etc. are all vastly better books.

[Richard]

The book is focused on the daily challenges of cybercrime from within the industry. While interesting, the discussion did not discuss the connection to the types of cybercrime, how they are developed, how they integrate with the different cybercrime communities, their tooling and how law enforcement seeks to penetrate, support or deny these existing and new efforts.

While the author said it took 7 years to research (which I don't doubt), I feel the tangential aspects : (1) architecting cyber crime, (2) designing processes, attack surfaces and teams of personnel and (3) minimizing risk. would have been good treatises to discuss. There was a minimal (chapter 53) but valuable discussion on what is being done to fight it/ what should be done.

[Mitchell]

I swear I read this years ago and I wanted to read it again because it was interesting. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, because it wasn't anything like I remembered! It was still a good informative read. At times, being a more academic text, it was a bit dense, and I found the thesis of each chapter getting a little repetitive, but overall it was good.

[The Inquisitive Biologist]

Industry of Anonymity is a solid sociological treatise and an eye-opening peek into the world of cybercrime, based on a huge number of interviews. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2020...

[Jari Pirhonen]

A comprehensive study of cybercrime and cybercriminals. A bit dry to listen - no surprises. Good that cybercrime is studied, though.

[Jason]

It is pretty obvious that he is an outsider. Books written by people involved in this are far more interesting.

[Jenny Horne]

Elements were interesting but the audiobook narrator was not very engaging and the reading of references really took me out of the information they were sharing.

[Anthony]

Excellent history of the development of cybercrime and it’s current organization as the cybercrime “industry.”

[Saeed Ammaneh]

do not listen to the audio version of this book, the narrator is reading every citation and it's very annoying and distracting, it is an interesting book nonetheless.