r/nonfictionbookclub

Being in the tech space I’m always interested in books digital crime. Just finished Dark Wire by Joseph Cox and enjoyed it.

I’d heard of the encrochat and other busts so I was interested to hear how it happened.

The story is almost unbelievable. Rather than trying to break the encrypted phones being used by organised crime, the FBI essentially became the encrypted phone company themselves in a roundabout way. They helped distribute phones into criminal networks and then sat back while thousands of criminals unknowingly sent their messages straight to law enforcement.

It’s one of those true stories where you keep thinking, how did they actually pull this off?
Cox does a good job of explaining the technology without getting bogged down in it, and the best parts are watching ANOM spread almost entirely through trust.

Criminals recommended the phones to other criminals because they believed they were secure, which only made the network more valuable to the investigators watching it.

My only criticism is that the story is probably stronger than the characters. There are a lot of people coming in and out of the story due to the sheer scale of it and the ending was packed into the epilogue and rushed. Nobody really emerges as the central character you become invested in. ANOM itself almost becomes the main character. It’s clear that the author was limited to the public conversation of the criminals and nothing much more.

Still, it moves quickly, stays focused and, most importantly for me, actually builds towards something rather than wandering off into loosely connected side stories.

I really respect the author though for how he finished the book. In the last paragraph of the epilogue there is a great question.

If even an ambitious global operation such as this can’t lead to a tangible shift. What possibly can?

After all is said and done, it’s just pest control.

Just finished The Escape Artist. Phenomenal!

The escape itself is extraordinary, but what stayed with me most was what happened afterwards.

Here was a first-hand account of what happened — detailed information about what was happening, how people were being transported and murdered. The length that was taken to verify its authenticity and then that information eventually made its way right up to the highest levels of Allied governments.

And yet the response feels so painfully inadequate.

Reports circulated. Meetings were held. Strongly worded letters and statements were issued. People debated what could or couldn’t be done. Meanwhile, the killing continued. Eventually something was done but it was done only for self interest.

I think that’s what makes the book feel so relevant today. We often look back at history and imagine that, if people in power had only known what was happening, surely they would have acted.

The Escape Artist challenges that comforting idea.

Sometimes they did know.

The information was there. The warnings were there. The evidence was there. And still politics, bureaucracy, competing priorities, misplaced trust and simple inertia could stand between knowing about an atrocity and actually doing something to stop it.

It’s very easy, with the benefit of history, to ask: “How could they let this happen?”

And yet it left me thinking about what is happening in the world right now that future generations will ask the same question about — and who are we trusting to tell us how to respond?

Phenomenal book. One that will stay with me for a long time.

I want to make it clear, I am by no means a fan of Andrew Jackson but he is one of the most impactful early American presidents, for good and ill. What we know as the modern day politician can trace their roots back to the campaign style of Jackson all the way back in 1824. History is nothing but an endless loop. I stereotyped Jackson as some raving, frontiersmen who somehow landed in DC via his victory in New Orleans, I walk away now seeing how incredibly astute he was at playing the game. Ultimately to not ramble for paragraphs since I have many, many thoughts on this, I will say Jackson represents the best and worst of American character, more so than any other president. He shows in equal measure our capacity for kindness, loyalty and virtue while at the same time showing the depths of our cruelty, prejudices and willful ignorance.

A coworker gifted me this book is a lenghty + 1000 pages book . I know nothing about him nor the book.
Is it worth reading?https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/176399/buckley-by-sam-tanenhaus/