“If you can identify a person’s desires, then you can also exploit their weaknesses, both physical and mental, through algorithms that serve up alternatives as subliminal tools for behavioral manipulation.”
Paula Janković is no ordinary hacker. With the ability to access any system at any time, Janković utilizes the principles of the “Selfish Ledger” to profile individuals through their emails, social media accounts, and online activities; unleashing a superstorm of dark data and fake news and manipulating people to do her bidding. But who is really behind such operations? Meet Constantine Petrenko, a seasoned Russian criminal and financial oligarch whose hunger for world domination takes center stage as he enlists a myriad of talented felons, like Janković, to coordinate a series of terrorist attacks intended to bring the international business community to its knees.
Meanwhile, as Janković does her part for Petrenko, ISIS leader Abu al-Badri teams up with the Russian and his minions to devise a plan intended to wreak even greater havoc upon innocent victims throughout the world.
With hopes to thwart the oncoming death and destruction, rookie journalist Rebecca Taft— the only person who might have a lead on al-Badri and Petrenko’s master plan— is working with the CIA. Together they decode an ominous list of dates in efforts to learn where and when the imminent attack will be. Can they solve this puzzle of pandemonium before it’s too late?
“No one is immune from being off social media.”
In his new thriller, DARK DATA: Control, Alt, Delete (Plum Bay Publishing, August 13th, 2019, Original Trade Paperback/Hardback, ISBN 978-1-7335253-1-2/978-1-7335253-2-9, $16.99/$25.99), award-winning author Douglas J. Wood transports readers to a world where privacy is just an illusion and using data for the targeted advertising and marketing we see today is nothing compared to what is truly possible. Experts Wood interviewed while writing DARK DATA warn that the reality of this books’ scenes could be just one “click”, “share,” “tweet,” or “like” away.
DARK DATA is not only a thrilling novel, but also serves as a cautionary tale that sheds light on the dangers of social media and the mystery that is the Selfish Ledger. Involving questionable characters in positions high and low, Wood brilliantly portrays what could happen if the wrong people control information that has the potential to destroy us all.
