Publishers Weekly
★ 09/26/2022
In this sobering account, cybersecurity reporter Greenberg (Sandworm) delves into the efforts of law enforcement agencies and cybersleuths to trace criminal activity involving cryptocurrency, starting with the takedown in 2013 of Silk Road, “the sprawling, Bitcoin-based, billion-dollar online black market for dark web narcotics sales, created by a pseudonymous figure known as the Dread Pirate Roberts.” It took the FBI, IRS, and DHS two-and-a-half years of dogged research to identify the site’s founder as Ross Ulbricht, a 29-year-old Texan with no criminal record, and arrest him in a San Francisco library. Other operations have targeted child pornography websites and ransomware attacks. Greenberg examines in fascinating detail how criminals have employed technology for their nefarious ends, along the way providing a history of Bitcoin and a look at a possible future technology that would make “truly untraceable and anonymous finances possible.” He brings to vivid life the assorted players, including the agents who cracked the crimes, those in law enforcement who succumbed to the allure of fast money on the dark web, and the private citizens who ushered in the golden age of cryptocurrency tracing. This is a must-have for the true crime shelf. Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Co. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
“[Greenberg] deftly assembles a rogues’ gallery of characters… [An] absorbing narrative… Each key section of the book—the Silk Road story; the dismantling of its successor, AlphaBay; the massive theft of Bitcoin from the Mt. Gox exchange; and, finally, the bust of the Welcome to Video child porn emporium—unfolds like a compact mystery.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Immensely readable... Greenberg is known for his ability to explain complicated technology in a way anyone can understand, and he doesn’t disappoint when he tackles crypto…. The whole smoky world of crypto starts to open up... [He] takes readers on a romp through some of the most infamous dark web takedowns in recent memory.”
—Washington Post
"Greenberg sketches the evolution of a wholly new discipline in the surprisingly lively real-life police procedural [that] deftly teases out technical detail without slowing the narrative."
—Associated Press
“A pivotal story of the internet, the dark web and policing in the Digital Age. The book demonstrates in gripping, and sometimes thrilling detail, how law enforcement agencies such as the IRS Criminal Investigations unit have harnessed powerful emerging technology to trace cryptocurrency, which once seemed anonymous, right to the doorsteps of some of the world’s most wanted criminals… Tracers in The Dark raises essential questions about the future of cryptocurrency.”
—CyberScoop
“I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.”
—Michael Lewis, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Big Short
“Brilliant. Should be required reading for anyone in the ‘follow the money’ and investigative sphere. Gobsmacked by how good it is.”
—Congressman Denver Riggleman, New York Times bestselling author of The Breach
"Andy Greenberg has turned a prescient lens on the investigators, technology, and budding industry that may just be the most powerful weapon we wield in the fight against cybercriminals and illicit nation states who mistakenly believed that the blockchain and cryptocurrency offered them cover. Greenberg tells the tale of this new weapon with his usual eye for technical accuracy and gift for storytelling. This is how the good guys win."
—Nicole Perlroth, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
“A gripping, stranger-than-fiction tale of how a small team of geeks and federal agents cracked what was once thought to be untraceable cryptocurrency. Page after page, Tracers in the Dark proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there is no better reporter covering the wild west of the internet than Andy Greenberg.”
—Garrett M. Graff, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Watergate
“A riveting non-fiction thriller from an exceptional reporter and storyteller. Tracers in the Dark shines a light on how cryptocurrency has been used to hide human rights abuses and trafficking by global crime syndicates—and how a team of crypto tracers learned to expose those schemes by finding a new way to follow the money.”
—Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning director of Going Clear and Zero Days
"A master-class in the tactics and countertactics of financial cyberwarfare, laid out in a tense, exciting technothriller."
—Cory Doctorow, New York Times bestselling author of Attack Surface and Red Team Blues
"An immersive look into cryptocurrency and crime... Greenberg’s book is often thrilling, but it will also leave you with plenty to think about once you’ve finished it—making for the best kind of page turner."
—InsideHook
"The best cybercrime book of the last decade."
—Rick Howard, host of the Cyberwire Podcast
"I’ve been covering security for 22 years and I’ve read a whole pile of books on the subject... Tracers in the Dark is as good as it gets."
—Dennis Fisher, host of the Decipher Podcast
“A true, detailed, behind-the-scenes look at high-stakes police operations.”
—Tech Crunch
“[An] absorbing narrative…fascinating.”
—Wired
“A must-read...I was completely enthralled.”
—Laura Shin, host of the Unchained podcast and author of The Cryptopians
"In his exciting new book, [Greenberg] shows how cryptocurrency became a double-edged sword for the criminal sphere."
—L'Express (France)
"A probing investigation...that reads like a whodunit."
—Le Point (France)
"The thrilling tale of a technological race between surveillance authorities and cybercriminals...burning with topicality."
—L'Echo (France)
"Reads like a thriller...In this fine investigative book, corrupt cops, hardened crooks and Russian criminals intersect with intrigues pulled straight from a John LeCarré novel."
—Challenges (France)
"Fascinating and so enthralling...[A] highly recommended book."
—Library Journal (starred review)
"Greenberg examines in fascinating detail how criminals have employed technology for their nefarious ends...He brings to vivid life the assorted players, including the agents who cracked the crimes, those in law enforcement who succumbed to the allure of fast money on the dark web, and the private citizens who ushered in the golden age of cryptocurrency tracing. This is a must-have for the true crime shelf."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Spellbinding.... Written with great enthusiasm and with an ear for the dramatic turn of phrase...this is the kind of book that yanks the reader’s eyes wide open.... Lively, highly relevant, and more than a little scary.”
—Booklist
"A sinuous, eminently readable story of the darker corners of cyberspace... Reminiscent in all the best ways of Clifford Stoll’s Cuckoo’s Egg, smoothly blending crime writing with matters of the deepest techno-geekery. An absorbing work of true crime.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Library Journal
★ 09/01/2022
Many readers do not understand how cryptocurrency works nor know that federal agents are attempting to take down a criminal empire of digital black markets. Greenberg (Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers) methodically and meticulously explains the way cryptocurrency functions. He documents how Bitcoin has been used to conduct illegal activities and the agencies that follow it. The author debunks the myth that cryptocurrency is untraceable through a discussion of cases that agents have cracked by going after the heads of a dark website, which included the work of dirty agents trying to stay one step ahead of being caught. Since this illegal activity has developed only in the past decade, federal government agencies have a learning curve to fight it. These stories are fascinating and so enthralling, it is hard to distinguish real people from the aliases used to protect identities and privacies. Greenberg shows that tracking cryptocurrency is at once a cat-and-mouse game and a whack-a-mole situation. VERDICT This highly recommended book has been picked up by Jigsaw Productions to develop into a scripted screen adaptation, a documentary, and a podcast. There are few books on the crypto underworld, making this a must for all libraries.—Michael Sawyer
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-09-28
A sinuous, eminently readable story of the darker corners of cyberspace.
Who would have thought an IRS agent could become a legal superhero? That’s just the case with a criminal investigator named Tigran Gambaryan, who had been assigned to “busting gangs in Oakland who had graduated from dealing drugs to filing fraudulent tax returns with stolen identities,” a switch that had the benefit of bringing in more money while carrying less jail time. Fearing that he’d spend his career chasing down small fry, Gambaryan turned his attention to cybercrimes, which in turn led him to Bitcoin. Then at Forbes and now at Wired, technology journalist Greenberg was exploring cryptocurrency himself and trying to land an interview with the legendary Silk Road mastermind known as the Dread Pirate Roberts, who was “making millions of dollars in highly illegal narcotics sales…while evading every global law enforcement agency.” DPR assumed that cryptocurrency was an impregnable fortress that couldn’t be “de-anonymized.” Not so, and he was finally taken down after e-chatting for months with a supposed online moderator who was in reality a Homeland Security agent. With sometimes competitive agencies working together—even the IRS, which one judge called “the redheaded stepchild of law enforcement”—and spreading the net to include both criminals and police agencies abroad, the chase quickened after DPR fell. Greenberg tells the stories of demolishing crime empires like AlphaBay and Hansa and their bosses with verve that’s refreshing for a book full of computers, code-breaking, and electronic cat-and-mouse games, including one memorable moment in which the object of an international police hunt “had, entirely by chance, arrived at a meeting at the exact hotel where they were staying and sat down at the table next to them.” Greenberg’s book is reminiscent in all the best ways of Clifford Stoll’s Cuckoo’s Egg, smoothly blending crime writing with matters of the deepest techno-geekery.
An absorbing work of true crime—and, as the bad guys will tell you, true punishment.
