// Prerequisites
What to read before Extreme Privacy
If Extreme Privacy feels too steep at intermediate level, here is what to read first. Lighter books in the same topics that build the prerequisites this one assumes.
01 · 2014
Anonymat sur Internet
A practical French guide to online anonymity and privacy — proxies, VPNs, Tor, secure messaging and mobile — by a Le Monde cybersecurity journalist (later one of the Pegasus reporters).
Beginner3/5Martin Untersinger02 · 2017
The Art of Invisibility
Mitnick's accessible tour of personal privacy and anonymity, from passwords and Wi-Fi to layered operational tradecraft, told through anecdotes and step-by-step advice.
Beginner3/5Kevin Mitnick, Robert Vamosi03 · 2024
Hacks, Leaks, and Revelations
Micah Lee on the operational craft of working with leaked datasets: authentication, OPSEC for sources and journalists, and the Python tooling to actually parse what arrives in your dropbox.
Beginner4/5Micah Lee04 · 2018
Open Source Intelligence Techniques and Tools
Hassan and Hijazi's pedagogical introduction to OSINT framed inside the broader intelligence cycle (collection → processing → analysis → dissemination) rather than around a specific toolchain.
Beginner3/5Nihad A. Hassan, Rami Hijazi05 · 2024
OSINT Techniques
Michael Bazzell's relentlessly updated technical manual for finding people, accounts, breach data, geolocation evidence, and online identifiers — the de facto reference of the modern OSINT field.
Intermediate5/5Michael Bazzell06 · 2020
À la trace
An investigative map of modern surveillance — from data brokers and facial recognition to contact-tracing — charting how continuous digital tracking became normal, by a French tech journalist.
Beginner4/5Olivier Tesquet07 · 2024
Dark Wire
Journalist Joseph Cox's account of Anom, the encrypted phone company secretly run by the FBI from 2018 to 2021, and of the global wave of arrests that followed Operation Trojan Shield.
Beginner4/5Joseph Cox08 · 2017
La face cachée d'internet
A lively, expert tour of the Internet's hidden layers — hackers, the dark web, Tor, Anonymous, WikiLeaks, Bitcoin — that demystifies the jargon without dumbing it down.
Beginner4/5Rayna Stamboliyska