Kingpin, Kevin Poulsen
17 Oct 2024 - Nic Ho Chee
The story of a hacker, Max Vision, who takes over a criminal credit card fraud network, whilst attempting to exist as a White Hat Hacker, and consultant to the FBI, who were simultaenously searching for his criminal alter-ego. Poulsen does well to contruct the environmental edifice around Max, which saw him make such terrible decisions, ultimately leading to his capture. Intelligence, with a lack of impulse control and boundary setting are a recipe for a gripping slow motion car crash.
There is a trope in there which very much reminded me of Heisenberg, and the ultimately fatal interactions with his brother-in-law. At least Max's weren't fatal for him, but were ultimately destructive.
Poulson started out as a Black Hat Hacker, with interviews in 2600 and Phrack in the 90s... he used his background to write about computer security news and issues and has some great content over at Wired which is worth communing with.