Psychology and sociology may be surpassing technology as the key to online deception. This book reminds me of the old adage that access through personal interaction is often more effective than other techniques in espionage. While not always true, there is a strong argument to be made in that direction--and that is where this book is headed.

Chapter 1 is an interesting introduction to “The Psychology of Deception,” followed by a review of “Virtual Myths: Urban Legend, Chain Letters and Warnings” (chapter 2), “Virtual Influence: Deceptive Computing Attacks Through Persuasion” (chapter 3), and “Social Dynamics of Deceptions: Cyber Underground Markets and Cultures” (chapter 4). Chapters 5 and 6, “Phishing, Watering Holes, and Scareware” and “Seeing is Not Believing: Deceptive Internet Video Communications,” are interesting from a mental and user perspective, but have no technical content.

Perhaps the weakest portions, from perspectives both technical and anthropological, are the chapters on cyber jihad (chapter 7) and nation-sponsored cyberattacks (chapter 8). They are long on macro scares and short on specifics, perhaps a textual mini-example of what is being written about. A short chapter (9) on honeypots is an interesting antidote to problems, while the concluding “Looking Forward: Deception in the Future” (chapter 10) adds little to the analysis.

The index is sufficient but lacks names well known in the field, and end-of-chapter references are also sufficient but not much more. “The Cyberanthropology of Deception” is the title of the introduction, which sets the tone for the book with an interesting explanation of the term and novel perspectives. There is some material for those in the fields of policy, psychology, and anthropology (including the cyber kind) here, but little for computer scientists.

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