The Darknet and Smarter Crime: Methods for Investigating Criminal Entrepreneurs and the Illicit Drug Economy (Palgrave Studies in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity) - Hardcover

Bancroft, Angus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3030265110 ISBN 13: 9783030265113

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Synopsis

This book draws on research into darknet cryptomarkets to examine themes of cybercrime, cybersecurity, illicit markets and drug use. Cybersecurity is increasingly seen as essential yet it is also a point of contention between citizens, states, non-governmental organisations and private corporations as each grapples with existing and developing technologies. The increased importance of privacy online has sparked concerns about the loss of confidentiality and autonomy in the face of state and corporate surveillance on one hand, and the creation of ungovernable spaces and the facilitation of terrorism and harassment on the other. These differences and disputes highlight the dual nature of the internet: allowing counter-publics to emerge and providing opportunities for state and corporate domination through control of the data infrastructure. 

The Darknet and Smarter Crime argues that, far from being a dangerous anarchist haven, the darknet and the technologies used within it could have benefits and significance for everyone online. This book engages with a number of debates about the internet and new communication technologies, including: surveillance and social control, anonymity and privacy, the uses and abuses of data encryption technologies and cyber-cultures and collective online identities

About this title

About the Author

Angus Bancroft is Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Edinburgh, UK. His current research interests are cyber-security, illicit markets and views of darknet users. He is the author of three previous books: Dead White Men and Other Important People (Palgrave, 2016); Drugs, Intoxication and Society (Cambridge Polity, 2009); and Roma and Gypsy-Travellers in Europe: Modernity, Race, Space and Exclusion (Avebury Ashgate, 2005). 

From the Back Cover

This book draws on research into darknet cryptomarkets to examine themes of cybercrime, cybersecurity, illicit markets and drug use. Cybersecurity is increasingly seen as essential, yet it is also a point of contention between citizens, states, non-governmental organisations and private corporations as each grapples with existing and developing technologies. The increased importance of privacy online has sparked concerns about the loss of confidentiality and autonomy in the face of state and corporate surveillance on one hand, and the creation of ungovernable spaces and the facilitation of terrorism and harassment on the other. These differences and disputes highlight the dual nature of the internet: allowing counter-publics to emerge and providing opportunities for state and corporate domination through control of the data infrastructure. This book argues that, far from being a dangerous anarchist haven, the darknet and the technologies used within it could have benefits and significance for everyone online. 

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3030265110
• ISBN 13: 9783030265113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 249