Dark Side of the Boom - by Patrick Coughlin (Paperback)

About the Book

Defending against deception, deepfakes, and digital fraud

Book Synopsis

A Fast Company Press book.

Defending against deception, deepfakes, and digital fraud

No technology wave in history has moved as quickly or proposes to reshape our lives as profoundly as the recent advances in artificial intelligence. Scammers and cybercriminals are actively leveraging AI advances to turbocharge their deceit, catapulting digital fraud to the fastest growing crime in countries worldwide.Through deepfake voices and images, customer service cons, and socially engineer exploitation, AI is driving the equivalent of an industrial revolution for digital fraud.

Dark Side of the Boom is a wake-up call to this immediate and sinister side of the AI revolution that is lost amidst the headline-grabbing futurist debates about whether AI will save us or destroy us. Author Patrick Coughlin draws on decades of experience in cybersecurity alongside real-world examples to shed a new light on today's AI-powered scammers, who they target, and why they succeed. The result is an engaging and compelling guide to deception in the AI era and how we protect and secure what matters most to us all.

Review Quotes

"As Patrick Coughlin says in his incisive and elegant book, there are only two kinds of people in the world today: those who have been scammed and those who will soon be scammed. Read him for a compelling history of how we got to this terrifying place, and to defend yourself properly for the inevitability."

-Vanessa Grigoriadis, contributing writer at Vanity Fair and the New York Times

"Cyber crime pays, and powered by AI, it can make a victim of any of us. Coughlin's timely guide to the dark side can teach you how to stay safe."

-Richard A. Clarke, author of bestseller Cyber War and first US Special Advisor to the President for Cyber Space Security

"As more older adults become vulnerable to the new types of financial scammers armed with sophisticated AI tools, caregivers must learn how to protect them. Dark Side of the Boom provides an essential guide on how to recognize the different types of scams, and important ways to prevent them from harming those you care about.:

-Susan Golden, Stanford University Lecturer and author of Stage (Not Age)

"I have been inside the scam compounds in Cambodia where this misery gets manufactured. Patrick Coughlin gets it right. Dark Side of the Boom is a thriller, an investigation, and a survival guide rolled into one. Read it. Then hand it to everyone you love."

-Erin West, founder of Operation Shamrock, former deputy district attorney, and one of the nation's leading prosecutors of AI-enabled financial fraud