Cybercrime Vandalizing the Information Society

As a guide to mainstream conceptions of hacking, viral code, and e-fraud, the book is invaluable both for the authorities it targets and its discussion of the antiauthoritarians who want to minimize both cyberharm and electronic oppression. Furnell makes some excellent points, well worth repeating as they're often ignored: computer security is still mostly laughable, most bad-guy hackers are less motivated by greed than other crooks, and traditional law-enforcement techniques are conspicuously irrelevant. For its topic, Cybercrime is comparatively calm and rational--just what we need to beat down the hype. --Rob Lightner