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1. No other book on cybercrime like it.
   First of all, it is very well written. A problem with many reporters that becomes apparent when they write a book is that they may be decent reporters, but they are not talented writers – the book still reads like a journal article that desperately wants to bootstrap itself to the level of a book, i.e., it’s mainly longer and even more boring. This book flows like entertaining crime fiction; it was hard for me to put it down. And I didn’t.The format is built as a kind of fugue of several character trajectories. Within such a short space the author develops a remarkably good feel for who these people are, what they are “like”, how they think, what is important to them, what is good or bad about them (often both). The only information we are generally exposed to in everyday life about cybercrime is at the point of contact of the event itself – who got hacked, who did it, what is company or agency X doing to assess and counter the threat, etc. We don’t usually get a look into the minds or the people behind it. This book is such a look, and it’s an interesting – and accurate – look.OK, the character threads only lightly intersect. That there isn’t a higher order of intersection or a culmination in some grand finale is a function of the facts. Readable as it is, this *isn’t* fiction. But it’s not a technical book either. It’s difficult to characterize or categorize this book, it really isn’t like anything else. If you are an intelligent reader curious about this subject or even an expert in this subject, I would recommend it.A couple of critical reviews I read reflect to me a total lack of understanding of what they (think they) read. If following more than one thread is too onerous and disjointed for their attention span to follow… or they cannot reconcile authenticity with obvious necessity of altered names to protect people… or they expect the author to gerrymander facts in a nonfiction book for a more climactic ending then they shouldn’t be reading this book much less reviewing it — the problem is with the reader, not the book.

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2. No Ending
   Interesting, but goes nowhere. The book just ends with many pages of documentation about the information given. I was really interested to see how it all played out, but no such luck

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3. Enjoyable true crime read (but I think some it might be made up)
   For me this book was a page turner. While I was reading it I began to think some of it was made up. I searched some of the names (especially NOW bank) and could not find anything on them except in reviews of this book. Nonetheless, even if it were fiction it would be a good read.

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4. A Behind the Scenes View into the World of a Cyber Defender and a Cyber Criminal
   This book Kingdom of Lies: Unnerving Adventures in the World of Cybercrime by Kate Fazzini was a very well written story that gives the reader an inside view of modern cybersecurity through the eyes of several different characters. The author gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of a ransom ware cybercrime organization that is constantly looking for victims all over the globe that they can extort for hefty sums of money. One of the main characters, the leader of a cybercriminal organization, sees his operation as a business with budgets and talented employees that work together to find and target more victims. For the other main character, the readers get a glimpse into the life of a cybersecurity defender at a major bank with all of the ups and downs and internal politics of running a cybersecurity operations department for a large financial institution. The leader of the security defenders is a person who has been with the organization a long time and has helped impart her security knowledge and wisdom to the people she has hired over the years, building a formidable team of cybersecurity experts. But even with the great security team she gets to work with, there are still constant challenges she has to face with limited budgets, conflicting priorities, and leadership disagreements. The author presents the characters as authentic people living with real world problems, but also doesn’t shy away from the technical side and the social engineering aspect of cybersecurity as well. Many books about cybersecurity can be very dry and technical, or in other cases they can be overly glamourous with fantastic unrealistic scenarios. With this book, the author seemed to find a good balance between the two sides giving the reader a realistic perspective into the minds and motivations of the people who live in the world of cybersecurity every day. Reading this book was an enjoyable experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone else who might be interested in learning more about the behind-the-scenes world of cybersecurity.

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5. Cybercrime is people!
   This book deserves five stars simply for making me interested in cybercrime and cybersecurity, two otherwise impersonal, impenetrable and intimidating terms. How does Kate Fazzini accomplish this? Well, in a very old-fashioned, low-tech manner: by telling stories about the actual people who thrive and survive in this shadowy world. But don’t expect to get swamped by jargon and arcana. This is a panorama of compelling vignettes and threads, kept humming by Fazzini’s fleet, tangible, humane yarn-spinning. To put it in cinematic terms, it’s as if David Fincher made a Robert Altman movie about hackers, cyberwarriors and PowerPoint ninjas as they contend with the uncertainty and confusion of the 21st century. These people are also mothers, fathers, friends, lovers and tinkerers with appetites, fears and desires — and you’ll enjoy spending some time with them.

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6. This was a really good read! Ironically, and/or timely, what with all the recent ransomware attacks. It should be required reading for anyone in charge of IT security or even remotely connected to IT. Sure, sure you can say you know all about IT security, but then, why are large corporations and North American government departments still falling victim? Sure, sure you can say its expensive to implement counter-measures, but what is the full cost of being a victim? The lawsuits? The overtime? The new hardware?

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7. This could have been a great read, but it introduces so many different characters you are not sure which ones you need to remember. It is also not clear what the story line is. It misses the chance to explain how the military nincompoop of NOW bank gets his come uppance, a great chance for schadenfreude missed.

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8. A very interesting read, for the real life anecdotes and stories. Very readable and thoughtful. There is, however, at least one other book written by a former policeman which is better.

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9. I bought this hoping to learn how cybercrime systems are effective, how they are programmed. Instead I got reams of fast-paced personality descriptions posing as action narrative. Journalism.I learnt nothing I didn’t already know just from reading newspaper articles.The suggestion the author is the cybercrime Michael Lewis is not justifiable.Over-hyped. Don’t waste your money.

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10. Didn’t know what was supposed to be base on reality or what was fiction; jumped from plot to plot they did not tie together. Interesting info at times, but as a novel, was extremely disappointing. There really was no plot or story, other than one subplot for which there was really no ending.

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