A real-life technological thriller about a band of eccentric misfits
taking on the biggest cybersecurity threats of our time.
"What Michael Lewis did for baseball in Moneyball, Renee Dudley and
Daniel Golden do brilliantly for the world of ransomware and hackers.
Cinematic, big in scope, and meticulously reported, this book is
impossible to put down." --Doug Stanton, New York Times bestselling
author of In Harm's Way and Horse Soldiers
Scattered across the world, an elite team of code crackers is working
tirelessly to thwart the defining cyber scourge of our time. You've
probably never heard of them. But if you work for a school, a business,
a hospital, or a municipal government, or simply cherish your digital
data, you may be painfully familiar with the team's sworn enemy:
ransomware. Again and again, an unlikely band of misfits, mostly
self-taught and often struggling to make ends meet, have outwitted the
underworld of hackers who lock computer networks and demand huge
payments in return for the keys.
The Ransomware Hunting Team traces the adventures of these unassuming
heroes and how they have used their skills to save millions of
ransomware victims from paying billions of dollars to criminals. Working
tirelessly from bedrooms and back offices, and refusing payment, they've
rescued those whom the often hapless FBI has been unwilling or unable to
help. Foremost among them is Michael Gillespie, a cancer survivor and
cat lover who got his start cracking ransomware while working at a Nerds
on Call store in the town of Normal, Illinois. Other teammates include
the brilliant, reclusive Fabian Wosar, a high school dropout from
Germany who enjoys bantering with the attackers he foils, and his
protégé, the British computer science prodigy Sarah White. Together,
they have established themselves as the most effective force against an
escalating global threat. This book follows them as they put their
health, personal relationships, and financial security on the line to
navigate the technological and moral challenges of combating digital
hostage taking.
Urgent, uplifting, and entertaining, Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden's
The Ransomware Hunting Team is a real-life technological thriller that
illuminates a dangerous new era of cybercrime.
