I love these types of books for a research type style and the ability to go back to it and refresh your memory. I think this is more for those wanting to low at a very beginner level about hacking, I feel I’m more on the other side of it. But really good and will serve some as a good reminder as to how to be safe online.

It is a very interesting book. That talks about the fundamentals of computers. My students will love it. I hope to talk about hacking and the dangers or advantages that comes with it.

Hacked is a super informative and easy-to-read book about cybersecurity. Dr. Barker breaks down everything from ransomware to phishing in a way that anyone can understand, even if you're not tech-savvy. The real-world stories and expert tips make it feel really relatable, and there’s plenty of advice on how to protect yourself and your business from hackers. If you want to feel more secure online without getting lost in technical jargon, this book is definitely worth checking out!

A good introduction to hacking and how online tricks and scams have evolved over the years and are continuing to adapt to catch more and more of us off-guard. I've had to do a lot of mandatory cyber skills for my work over the years and I found this more informative and a lot more interesting.

After reading I feel much more security aware and conscious of things to watch out for.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in cybersecurity and cyberattacks. It breaks down complex concepts into an easily understandable format, making it accessible for beginners. While the subject matter isn't new, the author effectively simplifies the content, offering a clear and educational read.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I think the first thing I have to say about this book is that I am not very techie at all. I can use a computer for the basics but I’m very wary about what I put out there as I know there’s a lot I don’t know. Dr Jessica Barker has written a book that really resonated with me. I understood most of it and I appreciated that she puts guidance on each chapter about how to protect yourself against the various risks she describes.

The book is organised into chapters dealing with different types of cybercrime. There is a lot of detail and it’s a very readable book. It is also very shocking. There will always be people who exploit weakness and use their skills for ill reasons but it’s good to know that there are also people who want to stop them.

Recommended for anyone who wants to understand the risks of everyday computer use and read interesting stories of criminal behaviour.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

I chose to read this book as I felt like I needed a change. The book was interesting. Probably more for the techie amongst us.

I think what sets this book apart from other books I've read in this area is how completely nonjudgmental it is. Anyone can be a victim of cybercrime, and Barker shows examples where intelligent, professional people ended up with their data compromised. This book is well organized, covering the regular scams we see in the news to other kinds of tricks, like fake jobs and fake influencer opportunities.
Scammers are persistent, and it's not unusual for people not to know they've been compromised for over half a year. So much can happen in that time, and malicious insiders can compound the problem. Botnets, spyware, ransomware, the list of dangers keeps growing.
Barker goes through the different challenges and offers practical, doable advice on how to protect yourself and your business. It requires a lot of vigilance, though, and it will mean changing my routines. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

It is good to break free every now and then from the genres you usually gravitate to and to read something completely different. In my case, the ‘something different’ was Dr. Jessica Barker’s research into cybercrime, and I am very glad I did. This work, meticulously researched, presents many statistics and examples of commercial fraud such as identity theft, online scams, computer viruses and data breaches. Other readers may have commented on the subject matter being a little ‘dry’, but I felt the author addressed a complex and pertinent global menace in a skilful and nuanced way. The advice sections at the end of each chapter serve as additional reminders that our online profiles have to be protected – and that even complex topics require our immersion into them.
My thanks go to Netgalley and the Publishers for the ARC I was granted in exchange for an honest review.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

Everytime we read the paper or watch the news more often times than not we hear about a company getting hacked. The book tackles what hacking is ,strategies you need to protect yourself and your business. She also tackles how organizations are in trouble and how to safeguard themselves.

I think a book like "Hacked" is a must-read for anyone who is using the internet nowadays. In this book we can get a broad perspective of the different threats and tricks used to mislead us and tips to defend us. It is educational and accessible to laypeople.

This is a well-written, interesting book, covering many of the aspects of cybercrime today, from online scams to ransomware. A lot of the background of each is provided and explanations are in terms that the average business person can follow. Footnotes cover new terms, and chapters reference one another, for example DDOS attacks or IOT are covered separately but can occur in other chapters.

We see that viruses and their ilk were originally pretty harmless but became scarier and more for illicit gain. The biggest information-gathering viruses appear to have been organised by China, which is why there wasn't a flood of identity theft from these, but ID theft is a major crime with even children and the dead, and migrant workers, being targeted.

Cryptocurrency gets a chapter all to itself and keeps recurring. Whether as ransomware extortion payment or pyramid investing schemes.

See my longer review on Goodreads.

A good book about hacking and the various present-day online scams and how they have evolved and continuing to adapt to catch more of us unawares. It was a lot more interesting and informative than a lot of the mandatory training I have experienced on this topic and has certainly made me more security aware.

Easy to read description of cyber crime and its implications.
Scary that these type of actions can happen. Great insight into cyber crime.

A straightforward guide to cybercrime

Jessica Barker has written a book on cyber crime that tells it as it is. This is the first book on this subject that I’ve found easy to read and digest.

Being fully aware of the importance of the information she’s sharing and the aims of her book she doesn’t bamboozle us with jargon and acronyms. She writes in clear language thot helps readers to understand what cybercrime is, the tricks criminals use to hoodwink us, the things to be aware of and look out for and what we can do do to protect ourselves.

The lengths criminals will go to can be extreme so we all need to look out for ourselves and those close to us. The book left me with a clearer understanding of the nature of cybercrime, feeling much better equipped and more proactive about keeping data safe from those who would abuse and mis-use it.

A very clear and practical book on this constantly expanding field.

I was given this book from the author via netgalley only for the pleasure of reading and leaving an honest review should I choose to.

Once upon a time there were emails from officials in far off places, telling us that all sorts of riches were ours for the taking, if we’d just email back. Boutros Boutros-Ghali contacted me several times, pleading for help moving a shipment of gold, with my name on it. These days, there are text messages for parcels I didn’t order, funds at risk in bank accounts I don’t have, and even Taylor Swift tickets in local Facebook groups that will go at face value. I get regularly phished at work, my IT buddies sending out spoof after spoof to keep me on my toes.

And I never fell for one of them, until I did. A mail from a name I recognised, that I’d talked to a day or so before, asking me to check a list. They got me. An endless merry-go-round of IT “refresher” courses followed. None as insightful as reading “Hacked”.

“Hacked” walks readers through a cornucopia of online evils, from phishing to malware, spyware to deepfakes. There’s plenty of statistics, some sobering stories and lots of sensible advice. Barker details how giants like Facebook and Google have been phished, and how even the MGM chain had data encrypted as after an attack by a ransomware as a service group – where criminals rent easy to use kits that take all the technical difficultly of extortion. Worse, even LastPass, makers of password keeping software have been knobbled. Everyone is vulnerable to getting hacked of phished. It just takes the right attempt at the wrong time – online criminals can pump out billions of hacks and need to get lucky just once.

Barker reveals that back in the 1970’s the launch codes for missiles were set to 00000000. Worries about illegitimate use were er… trumped by worries about speed to launch. And that later both Carter and Reagan left codes in cast off clothing. One of the most interesting sections relates to passwords, and how things like dictionary attacks (throwing every word in a dictionary at a locked site) works around 80% of the time. There’s some useful advice on how to make passwords difficult to crack without being impossible to remember and way multi factor authentication (i.e. a password plus a code on your phone) is increasingly important.

As books go, it’s subject matter is inevitably rather dry, and in order to cover as much ground as possible, there’s not a lot of colour or depth added to the examples used. But with the scope of the book so wide, there was going to have to be a trade off between depth and pace, and generally it works very well.

Social media scams are endemic, and Barker provides a closer look whether it’s an Elon Musk fake video pimping cryptocurrency (Martin Lewis sued Facebook for not taking down a similar deepfake video) or the real ex NFL quarterback Tom Brady taking $30m for pushing the now busted FTX crypto company. The power of social media is neatly summed up when Barker describes how conspiracy theories about 5G lead to phone mast attacks in Bolivia. Where there is no 5G.

By the end I knew the difference between spray and pay, vishing and RaaS attacks, and how smart devices like doorbells and thermostats were weaponised to try and take down websites. As Shaw Taylor never actually used to say – “Keep virtually ‘em peeled”.

This book provides a great insight into what can happen and makes you more aware whilst you are using your devices.

A very good depiction of the variety of threats, what they are, how they work, and how to protect your self against them.

This insight into the world of cyber crime is a great read for a novice in cyber security or someone more adverse.

This was such an interesting read, It was educational, fascinating, scary & thought-provoking all at the same time. This would be an extremely eye opening read for anyone who has no day to day knowledge or experience in the Cyber world and its dark aspects.

This is an interesting book about Hacking and all its various forms and how it has evolved over the last couple of decades. From the early days of worms and trojan horses to the more recent phenomenon of romance scams and AI manipulation.

While the content is very detailed and the chapters allow you to jump in and out in any order, often linking you to more relevant information in other chapters, the read is a little dry. At times I felt like I was reading a thesis paper rather than something for the general public that could be used to help people to better protect themselves and their data.

There are tips at the end of each chapter and the book does have some good advice, but there were whole sections that just went over my head and that I struggled to get a grasp on.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.