Crack99: The Takedown of a $100 Million Chinese Software Pirate - Softcover

David Locke Hall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393354334 ISBN 13: 9780393354331

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017

Synopsis

The inside story of the largest digital piracy sting to date.

Digital pirates, particularly in China, steal and resell hundreds of billions of dollars worth of intellectual property each year. CRACK99 is an edge-of-the-seat account of the United States Justice Department's prosecution of the biggest cybercriminal operation to date. On a cheesy website called CRACK99, Xiang Li sold everything from satellite tracking and aviation simulation to communications systems design software for knock-down prices. When David Locke Hall and his team started buying CRACK99's products, the hunt for this elusive pirate began. After earning Xiang's trust, Hall's team met Xiang on Saipan, where the sting was nearly foiled before Xiang was captured, flown to the US and prosecuted. An eye-opening look at the dark side of cybercrime and the chilling consequences for technology and national security, CRACK99 reads like a caper only it's true in every riveting detail.

About this title

Review

A quirky tale of international pursuit through a legal labyrinth with unsettling implications regarding proliferation of ominous technologies.

A rollicking true tale of high-level undercover cyber espionage in which Hall puts every bit of his extensive experience and investigative skills into catching a cyber-pirate. His stories of teaming with Homeland Security agents to double-cross a Chinese cyber criminal are, in a word, sensational.--Retired FBI Special Agent Robert K. Wittman, author of Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures

A gripping and sobering account of the hemorrhage of high-end American computer programs into the Chinese internet black market...A riveting story.--Dennis Blair, former director of national intelligence and co-chairman, Intellectual Property Commission

A crackling good tale, well-told in Hall's confiding, thoughtful, and humorous tone.

About the Author

David Locke Hall was a federal prosecutor for twenty-three years. He served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve for thirty years, retiring at the rank of captain. He lives near Philadelphia, where he works in private practice.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0393354334
• ISBN 13: 9780393354331
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320