Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks

Fancy Bear, Robert Morris, Dark Avenger, Cameron Lacroix, and Paras Jha are five great hacks that demonstrate the human element of computer hacking and the exploitation of philosophical principles of computation. Scott Shapiro's book exposes the secrets of the digital age and explains how our information society works, how our data is stored and manipulated, and why it is so subject to exploitation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 432 pages
Publication date: 02 May 2024
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing is a captivating exploration of five remarkable hacks, their origins, motivations, and far-reaching consequences. Beyond the infamous Fancy Bear, Robert Morris, and Dark Avenger, we are introduced to Cameron Lacroix, a sixteen-year-old from South Boston, who hacked Paris Hilton's cell phone to gain fame, and Paras Jha, a Rutgers undergraduate who created a massive botnet to cheat in his calculus exam and disrupt the online game Minecraft, inadvertently causing significant damage to the internet. Scott Shapiro's five stories demonstrate that computer hacking is not merely a technological tale but a human one. He delves into the intricacies of our information society, the ways in which our data is stored and manipulated, and the reasons behind its vulnerability to exploitation. Shapiro's work is both an intellectual romp and a gripping true-crime narrative, shedding light on the philosophical principles of computation that make computers possible and, consequently, make hacking possible.

Weight: 314g
Dimension: 197 x 129 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780141993843