Internet’s dark underbelly exposed
THE INTERNET has become a way of life for many of us – we talk online, bank online, buy online, but do we know about the dark side?
And there is one – hackers, crackers, rippers, men with strange nicknames and virtually their own language skimming pin numbers off credit cards, organising cyber attacks via enslaved BotNet computers… we’re at war and we don’t even know it.
This is the story of the rise and fall of DarkMarket, a website devoted to furthering cybercrime. Its forums put buyers and sellers of stolen financial details on the same page, its administrators ran an escrow system, making sure that players could do deals without being ripped off.
This exposé, by journalist Misha Glenny, reads like a mystery novel, or even a thriller, introducing the hackers and those who have made a career of trying to track them down.
Who are they, these super-smart criminals with names such as Matrix001, RedBrigade, Script, Boa, JiLsi, Iceman, Master Splyntr, Cha0, Lord Cyric and others?
They live in the virtual world of the internet, hiding behind their security systems and avatars. Most are men. Often they are dysfunctional teenagers. They are almost impossible to trace.
DarkMarket, which was closed down in 2008, was primarily a carders site – all the illegal means of milking credit cards – but Glenny also touches on cyber industrial espionage and cyber warfare, the scams and spams.
It is fascinating and required reading.
And cybercrime is still out there, constantly morphing to meet new challenges and usually at least one step ahead of law enforcement. Today the proliferation of mobi and apps offers fresh opportunities.
Chapters are short and succinct, the style terse. At times I got bogged down among the nicknames, not sure who was what, when and where. I soon realised I was not alone. Who was Cha0 or Lord Cyric – one man? Two? A whole crime syndicate? Operating where? With what goals – profit, terrorism, the overthrow of government? Who knows?
All we, as innocent internet users, can do is protect our credit cards, protect our computers, do our best to keep out viruses, Trojans and worms and never, never let our guard down. Oh yes, and read this book. Your world will never be the same again. Published by Random Struik; costs R215