Kate Fazzini

KINGDOM OF LIES, by Kate Fazzini, jumps deep into the world of cybersecurity. Fazzini follows characters not just on the lawful side and the unlawful side, but many who allegiance to right and/or wrong is irrelevant; people who are most concerned with what project stimulates them and pays them enough to life the life they want (which is often far from extravagant).
Many people whose careers circle around cybercrime are not clearly defined on the good side or the bad side and Fazzini writes this book with that in mind. The design of the book not only constantly bounces between solving cybercrime and committing cybercrime, but Fazzini at times even turns the table and has the reader pulling for the criminals and condemning the victims, as if they deserve it. Fazzini keeps allegiances spins around to keep the book entertaining, but also to mirror how people in the cybersecurity/cybercrime business feel everyday. Fazzini introduces several different groups of people and slowly brings all of there stories together into a climax and resolution that is both complete and satisfying. Fazzini even makes the cybercrime world seem sexy and inviting; making this reader look into taking a cybersecurity class in the future.
Entertaining and immensely educational, KINGDOM OF LIES is an eye opener to the industry that is constantly growing and evolving. By creating fascinating individuals and multiple compelling events layered on top of each other, Fazzini's book kept me engaged from beginning to end.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Kate Fazzini, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (más)

Kingdom of Lies is an unfinished proposal of a book. Kate Fazzini has fashioned her digging into the world of hacking into a story that is at once fascinating and rich, and also disjointed and pointless.

Fazzini has molded numerous stereotypes into real characters, leading real lives and suffering real frustrations and setbacks. They may even be real people; readers don’t know. She draws her characters really well, so that readers are right there with them. She keeps adding new characters as she goes, right up to the end. It becomes difficult to keep track of them all, and guessing how they fit into the overall scheme of things turns out to be a futile task. Because suddenly and without warning, the book ends. There is no scheme of things. No conflicts get resolved. The good guys don’t catch up to the bad guys, or even give chase. No one suffers any kind of direct penalty because of their hacking actions. The stories don’t ever merge or even connect. Anything or anyone. There are single, isolated characters who don’t connect to anyone at all. They just pop up from times to time. Perhaps the message is that hacking is a disjointed, decentralized enterprise, for both the white hats and the black hats. But we knew that.

The two longest, deepest stories run separately and never cross. One is the cybersecurity unit of an international bank. It is plagued not merely by hackers, but by internal politics and bureaucracy where no good deed goes unpunished, and a loyal cohesive team disintegrates because of a narcissistic celebrity ex-military who is parachuted in to lead it. The other is a tiny Romanian ransomware shop, which runs its course, makes its millions and disintegrates. No one is ever in any danger. Risks are minimal. The ransomware operation and its players are never connected to the bank.

Hackers are loners who don’t do well playing with others. This career choice gives them satisfaction and a living. As long as no one trusts anyone else and covers themselves from potential outcomes, everyone gets away with everything. So lies prevail, both as told to others and to themselves.

Fazzini says she hopes readers will take away a better appreciation of privacy. But the book as a book is at best unsatisfying. Maybe it’s a koan and readers should just let it flow over them and not analyze it. Because trying to put it together as a single book with a story, a backbone, a conclusion and/or a message did not work.

David Wineberg… (más)