Kindle Price: $11.99

Save $5.01 (29%)

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

eBook features:
  • Highlight, take notes, and search in the book
  • In this edition, page numbers are just like the physical edition
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Select quantity
Buy and send eBooks
Recipients can read on any device

Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time.  Learn more

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground by [Kevin Poulsen]

Follow the Author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,117 ratings

Price
New from Used from
Kindle
$11.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] brisk and entertaining tale."--The New York Times

"Even though he has done jail time for his cyber crimes and credit card hacking, it’s hard not to like Max "Max Vision" Butler...
. The capers of this misfit genius, and the FBI’s attempts to infiltrate credit card hacking rings, combine to make this a fast, fun read."--Newark Star-Ledger

“Hello, Hollywood, Kevin Poulsen has a tale for you. Deftly told.”—
San Francisco Chronicle

"What will make this book endure is Poulsen's elegant elucidation of how the hacking world evolved from its pimply, ideological beginnings into a global criminal enterprise"--
Atlantic.com

“Poulsen renders the hacker world with such virtual reality that readers will have difficulty logging off until the very end.”—
Publishers Weekly
 
“The lead figures of KINGPIN are brilliant, crooked geeks and the sleazy women who love to help them steal. Their mortal enemies are a cyber-savvy swarm of undercover cops.  Kevin Poulsen gets so close to these paranoid, shadowy people that you can smell the sweat on the keyboards and hear the handcuffs clack shut. No other book can match this intimate, expert portrait of a truly modern criminal underworld.”--Bruce Sterling, Hugo Award-winning novelist and futurist
 
“An exciting crime thriller, a compelling psychological study, and one of the most accurate stories of hacker culture that I’ve ever read…Poulsen deftly explains the technology behind these ultramodern computer crimes and shows how they’re committed.”--Annalee Newitz, Editor in Chief of io9.com
 
“With the tense drama and future shock of a William Gibson novel, Kevin Poulsen spins a scary-true tale of the dark-side hacker underground and its most adept sorcerer.”--Steven Levy, author of
Hackers and Crypto
 
"The most thorough portrait to date of a top modern U.S. cyber criminal and an engaging tale of cops against robbers against other robbers. No one writes with more authority than Kevin Poulsen about how hackers actually go about their business."--Joseph Menn, author of
All the Rave and Fatal System Error
 
“Building on the best of the police procedural tradition, Kevin Poulsen lays out in clear language the technologies and methods employed by the criminals and crime fighters alike, all the while crafting a sympathetic character study of the conflicted gray hat, Max Vision, at the heart of it all.”--Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard professor and author of
The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It
 
“A superb, insider tour of the dark Internet that lies below "the whitewashed, commercialized" world of the Web. Kevin Poulsen is one of the very few people who understands the territory: the scammers, the scammers of the scammers, and the law enforcement officers trying to catch them. KINGPIN describes a parallel business world, including "the underground's first hostile takeover," where characters who call themselves names like DarkCyd and Matrix and Ghost23 battle for control of digital scams. It is a fascinating, scary ride.”--Ellen Ullman, author of
Close to the Machine and The Bug

From Publishers Weekly

In a previous life, Poulsen served five years in prison for hacking. So the Wired senior editor and "Threat Level" blogger knows intimately the terrain he explores in this page-turning tale of the criminal exploits of a hacker of breathtaking ambition, Max Butler, who stole access to 1.8 million credit card accounts. Poulsen understands both the hows of hacking, which he explains clearly, as well as the whys, which include, but also can transcend, mere profit. Accordingly, his understanding of the hacking culture, and his extensive interviews with Butler, translates into a fascinating depiction of a cybercriminal underworld frightening in its complexity and its potential for harm, and a society shockingly vulnerable to cybercrime. The personalities, feuds, double dealing, and scams of the hackers are just one half of this lively story. The other half, told with equal verve, is law enforcement's efforts to find and convict Butler and his accomplices. (Butler is now serving a 13-year sentence and owes .5 million in restitution.) Poulsen renders the hacker world with such virtual reality that readers will have difficulty logging off until the very end. (Feb.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004IK8Q2M
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown (February 22, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 22, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2029 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 289 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,117 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

An award-winning investigative journalist, Kevin Poulsen oversees news and feature reporting at the technology news site Wired.com. Poulsen joined Wired.com in 2005, and for five years served as editor of the Threat Level blog, which under his tenure won the 2008 Knight-Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism, the 2010 MIN award for best blog and both Webby and People’s Voice awards in 2011. In 2006, Poulsen conducted a computer-assisted investigation into the presence of registered sex offenders on MySpace, which spawned federal legislation. In June 2010, Poulsen and a co-writer broke the news that the government had secretly arrested a young Army intelligence analyst on suspicion of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. He is the author of Kingpin — How One Hacker Took Over the Billion Dollar Cyber Crime Underground (Crown, 2011).

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
1,117 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 16, 2023
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2013
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 7, 2011
2 people found this helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

Edson Ma
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! :)
Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on February 18, 2016
Laogeodritt
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, compelling overview of the criminal hacking and carding scene.
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 29, 2012
匿名希望
5.0 out of 5 stars 仰天ニュースで紹介されたマックス・バトラー
Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on December 3, 2013
The Old Railfan
4.0 out of 5 stars Provides a good look at ...
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 8, 2019
Ryan Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 27, 2017
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?