A review of Robert Farr's 1975 book 'The Electronic Criminals', which explored computer crime at the dawn of mainstream computing. The book covers early forms of fraud, ransomware-like tape manipulation, password theft, mainframe hacking, phone tapping, and even proto-deepfakes. While it starts strong, it runs thin on true electronic crimes due to their scarcity in the mid-1970s, padding out with conventional fraud cases. Notable highlights include legal systems unprepared for digital crime, physical security failures, and eerily prescient predictions about drone surveillance and media piracy. The review draws parallels to modern cybersecurity concerns, noting how foundational assumptions in security practices trace back decades.
Sort: