The Moral Future of the Internet

By Joe Menn

Joseph Menn is the author of the new bestseller "Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World," which among other things revealed that presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke belonged to the oldest surviving group of US hackers. The New York Times Book Review said: “The tale of this small but influential group is a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the internet age.” He is an investigative reporter specializing in technology issues for Reuters, having previously worked at the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times. Menn also wrote the 2010 bestseller "Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet," a real-life thriller that brought the modern face of cybercrime to a mainstream audience. Fatal System Error revealed collaboration between major governments and organized crime and was placed on the official reading list of the US Strategic Command. It was named one of the 10 best nonfiction works of the year by Hudson Booksellers and was compared by the New Yorker to the novels of Stieg Larsson. Menn has presented at RSA, Def Con and Black Hat. He is on Twitter as @JosephMenn.

Investigative journalist Joseph Menn, author of the recently released Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World has a history of writing books to explain the often-complicated intersection of history, technology and moral decision-making.

His latest book traces the origins of a once obscure Texas-based group of hackers that called themselves ‘Cult of the Dead Cow’, named for a cattle slaughterhouse.  While many of the group’s hackers prefer to remain unknown, at least one of them is running for President.  Beto O’Rourke’s one-time affiliation with the group was a headline-grabbing factoid that emerged with the book’s release.

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