Fancy Bear Goes Phishing cover art

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing

The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks

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Fancy Bear Goes Phishing

By: Scott Shapiro
Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

It's a signal paradox of our times that we live in an information society but do not know how it works. And without understanding how our information is stored, used and protected, we are vulnerable to having it exploited. In Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, Scott Shapiro exposes the secrets of the digital age. With lucidity and wit, he establishes that cybercrime has less to do with defective programming than with the faulty wiring of our psyches and society. And because hacking is a human story, he tells the fascinating tales of perpetrators including Robert Morris Jr, the graduate student who accidentally crashed the internet in the 1980s, and the Bulgarian 'Dark Avenger' who invented the first mutating computer-virus engine. We also meet a sixteen-year-old from South Boston who took control of Paris Hilton's cell phone and the Russian intelligence officers who sought to take control of a US election, among others.

In telling their stories, Shapiro exposes the hackers' tool kits and gives fresh answers to vital questions: why is the internet so vulnerable? What can we do in response? The result is a lively and original account of the future of hacking, espionage and war, and of how to live in an era of cybercrime.

©2023 Scott Shapiro (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Freedom & Security History & Culture Politics & Government Security & Encryption Technology & Society True Crime Espionage Computer Security Hacking Technology Cybersecurity Russia Software Cyber Warfare War

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Critic reviews

Shapiro's snappy prose manages the extraordinary feat of describing hackers' intricate coding tactics and the flaws they exploit in a way that is accessible and captivating even to readers who don't know Python from JavaScript. The result is a fascinating look at the anarchic side of cyberspace. (Publishers Weekly)
Scott Shapiro's Fancy Bear Goes Phishing fills a critical hole in cybersecurity history, providing an engaging read that explains just why the internet is as vulnerable as it is. Accessible for regular readers, yet still fun for experts, this delightful book expertly traces the challenge of securing our digital lives and how the optimism of the internet's early pioneers has resulted in an online world today threatened by spies, criminals, and over-eager teen hackers. (Garrett Graff, co-author of The Dawn of the Code War)
The question of trust is increasingly central to computing, and in turn to our world at large. Fancy Bear Goes Phishing offers a whirlwind history of cybersecurity and its many open problems that makes for unsettling, absolutely riveting, and-for better or worse-necessary reading. (Brian Christian, author of Algorithms to Live By and The Alignment Problem)
All stars
Most relevant  
Good to hear some exploits explained. Although tends to be the basic ones, like buffer overflow. The relentless mentioning of upcode and downcode gets annoying though.

Interesting and exploits explained

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I felt that I learnt so much without having to sweat over too many technicalities (though my background did include Assembler programming) There was a run of chapters from Kill Chain to the Attack of the Killer Toasters where I couldn’t put the book down. On the downside, I couldn’t see where it was going for the first few chapters and the conclusion seemed a bit esoteric. But it was so good that I bought a paper copy for a friend and I plan to listen to the middle chapters again to help me make some changes to the way I do things.

Turned My Vague Concern about Data Security Into Something Really Tangible and Useful

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Perfect balance of tech and storyline. Educational and engaging at the same time, with scary aspects.

Excellent techno nerdy drama

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Even though this is all stuff I am very familiar with I still found it useful set into such a connection and overview. Great telling and always good with a repeat for us who knows.

Great overview

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A fantastic history of cyber security and hacking. Narrated very well and always interesting. I even went back over a few things for my own understanding and research. overall - excellent.

Excellent

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Cyber breaches are older than most think. This book is an entertaining education of its history and what is to come. Enjoyed the reading voice too.




Fascinating history of hacking’s past and a view to its future

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The book uses very basic terms that you wouldn't find in cyber security but the story's are good, and treating the reader like a 'noob`with some of the terms used
like mainframe.

very basic terms

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I learnt a lot listening to this. I found the history of how the internet and operating systems developed through the stories of the early hacks fascinating. The concept of upcode versus down code was also new to me and thought provoking. However, I did get lost later in the book which was down to my lack of knowledge rather than a failure of the author.

If you have tech knowledge you'll be fine

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A book of stories detailing history of viruses and the internet. Misleading title, disappointing download. Performance and stories are ok if that’s what you’re expecting.

No about fancy bear

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Again, this book doesn’t go into much depth about how cybersecurity works or how it can be used. Instead, it’s a collection of stories about cybersecurity with very easy explanations of how things can work. Don’t expect a deep dive into the technology’s story. It’s okay but not great, in my opinion, though I seem to be in the minority.

Fancy bear for beginners Not Much Depth

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