Future Crimes

calendar program advising him his Gmail password was incor- rect. Immediately thereafter, the face of his laptop its beautiful screen turned ashen gray and quit, as if it had died. The only thing visible on the screen was a prompt: please enter your four-digit password. Honan knew he had never set a password.
Honan ultimately learned that a hacker had gained access to his iCloud account, then used Apple s handy find my phone feature to locate all of the electronic devices in Honan s world. One by one, they were nuked. The hacker issued the remote wipe command, thereby erasing all of the data Honan had spent a lifetime accumulating. The first to fall was his iPhone, then his iPad. Last, but certainly not least, was his MacBook. In an instant, all of his data, including every baby picture he had taken during his daugh- ter s first year of life, were destroyed. Gone too were the priceless photo- graphic memories of his relatives who had long since died, vanquished into the ether by parties unknown.
Next to be obliterated was Honan s Google account. In the blink of an eye, the eight years of carefully curated Gmail messages were lost. Work conversations, notes, reminders, and memories wiped away with a click of a mouse. Finally, the hacker turned his intention to his ultimate target: Honan s Twitter handle, @Mat. Not only was the account taken over, but the attacker used it to send racist and homophobic rants in Honan s name to his thousands of followers.
In the aftermath of the online onslaught, Honan used his skills as an investigative reporter to piece together what had happened. He phoned Apple tech support in an effort to reclaim his iCloud account. After more than ninety minutes on the phone, Honan learned that he had just called thirty minutes prior to request his password be re

the worst of his predictions from taking shape."
Financial Times

"A superb new book."
The Boston Globe

"You couldn't ask for a better [cyber risk] overview than Future Crimes."
Harvard Business Review

"Marc Goodman is a go-to guide for all who want a good scaring about the dark side of technology."
New Scientist
 
"Utterly fascinating stuff...Goodman weds the joy of geeky technology with the tension of true crime. The future of crime prevention starts here."
NPR, San Francisco

"A well-researched whirlwind tour of internet-based crime."
Science Magazine

"By the middle of the first chapter you ll be afraid to turn on your e-reader or laptop, and you ll be looking with deep suspicion at your smartphone...[Goodman's] style is breezy but his approach is relentless, as he leads you from the guts of the Target data breach to the security vulnerabilities in social media...Mr. Goodman argues convincingly that we are addressing exponential growth in risky technologies with thinking that is, at best, incremental.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

OMG, this is a wakeup call. The outlaws are running faster than the architects. Use this book to shake up the companies you buy from, the device makers, telecom carriers, and governments at all levels. Demand that they pay attention to the realities of our new world as outlined within this thorough and deep book. Marc Goodman will startle you with the ingenuity of the bad guys. I'm a technological optimist. Now I am an eyes-wide-open optimist.
Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine and bestselling author of What Technology Wants

"A riveting read."
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, professor of engineering at NYU and New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan

From black ops to rogue bots and everything in between, Future Crimes is a gripping must-read.  Marc Goodman takes readers on a brilliant, 'behind-the-screens' journey into the hidden world of 21st century criminal innovation, filled with one mind-boggling example after another of what s coming next.  Future Crimes raises tough questions about the expanding role of technology in our lives and the importance of managing it for the benefit of all humanity.  Even better, Goodman offers practical solutions so that we not only survive progress, but thrive to an extent never previously imagined.
Peter H. Diamandis, New York Times bestselling author of Abundance; CEO, XPRIZE Foundation; Exec. Chairman, Singularity University

"Future Crimes is the Must Read Book of the Year.  Endlessly fascinating, genuinely instructive, and truly frightening. Be warned:  Once you pick it up, you won't put it down. Super cool and super interesting." 
Christopher Reich, New York Times bestselling author

Technology has always been a double edged sword fire kept us warm and cooked our food but also burned down our villages.  Marc Goodman provides a deeply insightful view into our twenty-first century s fires. His philosophy matches my own: apply the promise of exponentially growing information technologies to overcome age old challenges of humankind while at the same time understand and contain the perils. This book provides a compelling roadmap to do just that.
Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author and futurist

Much has been discussed regarding today s cybercrime threats as well as the cybercriminals modus operandi. What is lacking, however, is what we can do about them. Mr. Marc Goodman s book Future Crimes brings our global dialogue on safety and security to the next level by exploring how potential criminals are exploiting new and emerging technologies for their nefarious purposes.  It provides a futuristic perspective grounded on current case studies. Future Crime is an essential read for law enforcers, corporations and the community alike. It offers answers beyond what comes next to what we can do, both individually and collectively, to secure ourselves and our communities.
Khoo Boon Hui, former President of Interpol

"A tour de force of insight and foresight.  Never before has somebody so masterfully researched and presented the frightening extent to which current and emerging technologies are harming national security, putting people s lives at risk, eroding privacy, and even altering our perceptions of reality. Future Crimes paints a sobering picture of how rapidly evolving threats to technology can lead to disasters that replicate around the world at machine speed. Goodman clearly demonstrates that we are following a failed cybersecurity strategy that requires new thinking rather than simply more frameworks, more information sharing, and more money.  Read this now, and then get angry that we really haven t taken the technology threat seriously.  If the right people read Goodman s book and take action, it might just save the world."
Steven Chabinsky, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI s Cyber Division

"As with Naomi Klein s This Changes Everything and Robert Whitaker s Anatomy of an Epidemic, Future Crimes deserves a prominent place in our front-line library. Goodman takes us behind the computer screen to a dark world where Crime Inc. flourishes at our expense. When the criminal mind conceives what if it is only a matter of time before its dream becomes our nightmare. Goodman urges us to take responsibility for this new world we are speeding towards. If we don t perhaps the greater crime will be ours."
Ed Burns, co-creator of The Wire

  This is a fantastic book and one that should be read by every cyber crime fighter.  Technology breeds crime...it always has and always will. Unfortunately, there will always be people willing to use technology in a negative self serving way. Your only defense is the most powerful tool available to you education. Read Future Crimes and understand your risks and how to combat them. The question I am most often asked in my lectures is, What s the next big crime?  The answer is in this book.
Frank Abagnale, New York Times bestselling author of Catch Me If You Can and Stealing Your Life