The Ransomware Hunting Team

A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime

De: Renee Dudley, Daniel Golden

Narrado por: BD Wong

A 2023 Audie Award winner!

"Ever careful in his pacing, BD Wong narrates this cybersecurity tale as if he's pitching the story for a movie."—AudioFile

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, Dudley and 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2022 Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Best ransomware book. Informative and entertaining

Renee and Dan do a fantastic job explaining ransomware and showing the human aspect of this challenging topic.

Too Long and Meandering But Still Cool

Hard to keep track of who is who in this thing because it jumps around so much. Didn’t have the cleanest narrative but it’s super interesting. I would have liked to learn more about ransomware and the tech itself, and less the minutiae of every character’s background. BD Wong rocks so I could listen to him read the phone book.

Ok Book but Lacks Cohesive Story

Book was ok. Glad I got to learn about the ransomware hunting team (RHT) and some of its key members who are absolute heroes and are worthy of so much respect. The story was all over the place though. A lot of time was spent introducing the guy who first conducted a ransomware attack, which initially made me think the book would be a story about the history of ransomware and how RHT fit within that story. Instead, the book introduces the RHT characters and goes through some of their life events. (Their jobs, spouses, health and financial troubles, etc), which turns the story into mini-biographies about some RHT members. The book also goes through some of the RHT’s interactions with US Govt agencies and private businesses. While interesting, I can’t help but wonder if it caused harm to relationships RHT members built with law enforcement, who may not be as willing to work with RHT after having their business exposed to the world. If so, that’s unfortunate and seemingly exploitive of the RHT who deserve better. On the business front, the book spent considerable time discussing how some businesses exploited ransomware for gain, however, it once again was departure from any semblance of a cohesive story. Finally, the authors didn’t seem to know how to finish the book. Overall, the book lacks a consistent story line and readers should expect interesting but sometimes random stories about RHT members and their lives with long tangents about other ransomware topics.

Excellent and easy to listen

Working in the IT support field, nothing in this book was surprising except how old ransomware actually was, but it was nevertheless an enjoyable read, a well-told set of stories that came together to tell some true tales that is entertaining for an expert and easily approachable for anyone at a lower skill level, from hobbyists to business owners. Highly recommended!

Great book with interesting people

I really enjoyed the book. The only thing I personally miss, is a little bit more technical detail about how the ransomwares where cracked

The amazing thing that this groups did and got free!

A little repetitive at time but definitely good info. Would have liked a list of the ransomware criminals listed as a PDF

Good story on the significance of malware

Good book, but I feel like some of it was drawn out. As someone that works in IT, I remember a lot of the headlines they mention, so it’s interesting to hear the behind the scenes info about them.

Primer on the good guys in cybersecurity

Great sequel and companion to ‘This is How They Tell Me the World Ends.” I greatly enjoyed hearing the tradeoffs, financial and moral, that businesses and hackers alike face.

Not just for the technical people

These book will allow you to appreciate cybersecurity and the defenders. Told as a story of stories so you can better understand and relate to the content.

Too much background info

So much detailed information about the people's families and background makes it quite boring. i was expecting more about tech and ransomware and the people involved. not their entire family history and pets name.