Surveillance
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
'Veldtech sounded so familiar I searched the WikiLeaks Spy Files.' JULIAN ASSANGE
'They called him an info-terrorist and launched a worldwide hunt for the hacker humiliating the Australian government. But by the time they'd caught their man, there was a new superwarrior in the annals of the Cyber War . . .'
The government is spying on everyone. But who is spying on the government?
A ruthless online activist group called Kittehsaurus Rox has hacked into top-secret Cabinet information and gone public with it, creating widespread panic and embarrassing a government that will stop at nothing to hunt down 'KSR'.
Journalist and cyber-expert Kat Sharpe is chosen by KSR to break news of their operations, and overnight she becomes the media sensation she has always longed to be. But as she gets closer to KSR and its circle of supporters, she can't shake the feeling that something doesn't add up.
Cybersecurity company Veldtech Industries is in line to make a fortune out of the carnage created by the hackers. But they have their own desperate secrets to protect - from the government and from each other.
Surveillance is a thrilling, timely novel about the price we pay for our 'security' and the lengths companies - and governments - will go to hide the truth.
'A racy, classy yarn. Bernard Keane's eye for detail is mesmerising. His subject is certainly timely, his insights instructive. But above all this is an entertaining page-turner.' PAUL BONGIORNO, political journalist
www.veldtech.com.au
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Australian author Keane's overlong fiction debut set in what could well be the present, governments seek to preserve their ability to operate in secrecy, corporations strive for any economic advantage they can get away with, and people pursue personal advancement regardless of cost. When Veldtech, an Australian-based software company that originated in South Africa but is now owned by America's Emergency Technology Systems, finds itself in financial difficulty, Veldtech division head Tom Dao comes up with the idea of stealing and releasing sensitive government data to reverse the company's fortunes. Dao enlists a Veldtech employee, Emma Thomas, to release the data in a such a way that the source appears to be a whistle-blower outside the company. The "leak" prompts public outrage and swift Australian government attempts to identify the hacker. Readers may have trouble keeping track of the host of aspiring, often libidinous characters within and outside of Veldtech, all of whom are affected by the leak as Dao's plan spirals out of control. At the end, Keane devotes many pages to detailing the frequently surprising, sometimes amusing fates of the principal players.
