In Seth's world, everything is a game. He teams up with his good friends Kerstin and Gabriel, in an attempt to put a bit more sparkle into his university life. They play an escalating game of one-up-manship together, based on computer and phone stunts.
When the friends accidently stumble into a nefarious botnet scheme, their fun is cut short. The scheme is controlled by a ruthless criminal, who frames the trio for a wave of computer infections, resulting in them becoming the focus of a police investigation. Chased by the authorities and barely avoiding arrest they go underground in an attempt to prove their innocence. What follows is an exciting journey through the world of computer crime.
This book is based on true events.
Excerpt:
The hacker turned off his speakers and focused all of his attention to the other screen, where a terminal window was beckoning for his intervention. He issued commands to the machine, the green text of his typed words materializing in front of his eyes.
The monitors and speakers were placed in perfect symmetry on the hacker's impeccably clean desk. That attention to tidiness was an anomaly in this basement room: clothes were strewn all over, posters on the walls were peeling down, and used cans of caffeinated energy drinks peppered the floor. In this mess were also various technical books riddled with makeshift bookmarks on topics such as assembly programming and the TCP/IP protocol.
The hacker entered a few final commands in the terminal window. He sat back and smiled in relief as the computer responded by spurting back copious amounts of text. He opened a can of pop that had been to his side and slowly took a sip. It was working, he thought to himself, and on the first try. This black hat hacker had succeeded.