Ctrl+Alt+Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijack the Internet

(Hardback)

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Ctrl+Alt+Chaos is a gripping true crime narrative about the life and crimes of Julius Kivimaki, aka Zeekill, arguably the most hated hacker in history. Cyber correspondent Joe Tidy has investigated and interviewed the most infamous teenage hacker gangs of the past decade for the BBC, and previously for Sky News.

Now he unveils the dark digital underbelly where teenage boys are reshaping cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and organised crime under the noses of their parents. Kivimaki's journey from 12-year-old nuisance hacker to a Most Wanted cybercriminal culminated in his 2023 capture. In the cruellest hack in history, he blackmailed 30,000 Finnish psychotherapy patients with their stolen notes. Kivimaki's journey gives us vital insights into how hackers are created online. Joe tracks the rise and fall of groups LulzSec, HTP, UG Nazi, and Lizard Squad with exclusive interviews with the hackers who were there and the police officers trying to stop them. He also draws parallels with recent high-profile attacks from other teenage gangs and ask the question - how can we stop the cycle of teenage boys hijacking life online

Author Bio

Joe Tidy is the BBCs first ever Cyber Correspondent and the foremost voice in the corporation on cybercrime and hacking. Over the past six years he has covered all major cyber-attacks for BBC TV, Radio, social media and website. He has made documentaries about cyber security travelling to the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Germany and Ukraine to track down stories and characters. Joes most high-profile news feature and documentary saw him travel to Russia in November 2021 in search of the worlds most wanted cyber-criminal. This hunt was read by 1m people, viewed across social media more than 2.4m times and translated into 30 different languages across the BBC network. His top six BBC News documentaries have garnered more than 7 million views including 2.2m for The Teenage Millionaire Hacker and 1.4m for The Russian Hackers. Before joining the BBC, he was a correspondent at Sky News where he regularly reported on technology and began his decade-long obsession with cybercrime after reporting on the infamous 2014 Christmas day Lizard Squad attack.