// Prerequisites
What to read before Permanent Record
If Permanent Record feels too steep at beginner level, here is what to read first. Lighter books in the same topics that build the prerequisites this one assumes.
01 · 2023
Pegasus
The inside story of the Forbidden Stories investigation into NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, told by the journalists who ran it. The best narrative account of what commercial zero-click surveillance actually does to its targets.
Beginner4/5Laurent Richard, Sandrine Rigaud02 · 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 Tesquet03 · 2016
Surveillance://
A lucid, accessible case for digital privacy — how mass surveillance works, why it matters, and concrete ways to take back control — by the founder of Mozilla Europe.
Beginner4/5Tristan Nitot04 · 2010
La vie privée, un problème de vieux cons ?
A provocative, well-reported take on privacy in the digital age — answering the cliché that 'young people don't care about privacy' — by an investigative journalist specialised in surveillance.
Beginner3/5Jean-Marc Manach05 · 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 Untersinger06 · 2017
American Kingpin
A propulsive account of how Ross Ulbricht built the Silk Road dark-web drug empire as Dread Pirate Roberts, and how a handful of investigators across rival agencies finally unmasked him.
Beginner5/5Nick Bilton07 · 2011
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen's reconstruction of Max Butler's career — from white-hat consultant to running CardersMarket, the carding forum that consolidated the early-2000s underground — and the FBI investigation that finally took him down.
Beginner5/5Kevin Poulsen08 · 2019
Sandworm
Long-form journalism on the GRU's hacking operations, the best non-technical book on what state-level cyber actually looks like.
Beginner5/5Andy Greenberg