Computers – and particularly the Internet – have opened up new avenues for crime to occur. To programmers (like myself), they pose a new option of choosing good over evil. In this work, Poulsen documents and depicts the work of Max Vision, a hacker who ended up conducting a cybercrime ring of illegal credit cards. This ring duped financial institutions of hundreds of millions of dollars. Fortunately, the feds busted this ring and decimated the conspiracy. Since then, illegal carding has gone relatively defunct (for now).
This book reads like an in-depth newspaper article, which makes sense since the author is a senior editor at Wired.com. While certainly embellished a little for drama, the writing sticks mainly to the facts and to interviews. Well-researched, it documents holes in the financial system that are now plugged. Max Vision and his compatriots exposed these holes through their crimes.
So how was the crime ring done? The credit card industry seemed secure before online transactions took over. Then, hacking into insecure databases and re-grafting that information into new magnetic stripes could produce a bevy of illegal credit cards. These credit cards could be converted into cash by buying expensive items from chains and re-selling them on eBay. Since thousands, if not millions, of credit cards are used, there is no one easy way to shut down the operation.
The feds ended up shutting down the operation by arresting the co-conspirators and thus decimating the human network. After that, chip technology has by-and-large replaced magnetic stripes as the communicative agent of credit cards. Through better encryption and randomization, this new technology, though slightly slower, makes replication of purchasing agents much harder.
An engaging story, this work successfully conveys a story that is not well-known to the public. I wonder whether the tale would translate well into a movie. Perhaps there is not enough drama and too much technological theory. Nonetheless, such fast-paced action is part and parcel of this work. A good read from a book club for me!
Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground
by Kevin Poulsen
Copyright (c) 2011
ISBN13 9780307588685
Page Count: 266
Genre: Investigative Journalism
www.amazon.com