New review: CrimeDotCom by Geoff White

The internet and the World Wide Web are two of the most profound inventions in the history of the world. They have impacted the world in myriad ways an for as many advantages as they bring, they have also unfortunately brought ever more complex problems to solve.  The million dollar question is, can we truly ever be safe online? By that I mean a few things; can our data be stored safely, can we retain digital privacy, and an we trust the companies who promise those things?

Geoff White's explosive new book shows that there may never be an end to this conflict. For as the web keeps improving and expanding, there will always be those with a drive to find and exploit holes, whether for monetary gain or just for the challenge. 

Geoff White's book takes us on a whistlestop ride of some of the most major crimes and hacks to have affected the digital world that have had very tragic consequences. From credit card fraud - a so-called victimless crime, a myth which Geoff White thoroughly debunks - and the hacking of the NHS, to hugely ambitious nation-state attempted hacks, such as a time when Ukraine's entire power grid was switched off. 

Each chapter reads like some sort of heist or hacking movie plot. It's hard to believe, for those like myself wholly unacquainted with the world of tech apart from the very basics needed to go about my daily life, that such things are not fiction. But the world of cybercrime, state sponsored digital warfare, and geopolitics are becoming frighteningly ever more intertwined. And none is more worrying than the chapter that deals with hacking the vote. Those whom have followed the excellent work of Carole Cadwalladr will be familiar with the Cambridge Analytica story that Geoff White talks about in this book. The internet and world wide web seems to have begun as a great egalitarian project, or even just a more efficient way of working, but with the rise of big tech and power concentrated in the hands of a very few, very flawed (as it turns out) people, we have to be more stringent than ever to protect ourselves online. 

I thought that I wouldn't understand a lot of the terminology used in this book, but I needn't have worried. Geoff White explains terms like end-to-end encryption, concepts like Bitcoin, and the Dark Web, in very easy-to-understand terms without ever feeling condescending. His passion for the world of cybersecurity and the human stories behind it is palpable. It also feels a bit like being able to arm oneself against so many of the run-of-the mill crimes that are being attempted by individual or low level hackers throughout the world. 

The internet isn't going away. Companies are coming up with more sophisticated ways of preventing hacking and theft of things most precious to us, even if we aren't aware of their value as we should be. But, as the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed so I highly recommend this book. Not just because it's a thoroughly interesting read, but because it will give you a good foundation of what it means, as a human, to be online and how to navigate that space while protecting and guarding ourselves on it.