Honan wasn’t especially worried: he backed up his iPhone every night. Rather than the usual start-up screen and apps, he saw a large white Apple logo and a mul- tilingual welcome screen inviting him to set up his new phone. He was expecting an important call, so he plugged the phone into the outlet and rebooted. He was play- ing on the floor with his infant daughter when suddenly his iPhone pow- ered down. Honan recalls the afternoon when everything fell apart. Stolen in just minutes by a teenager halfway around the world. His photographs, e-mails, and much more all fell into the hands of a hacker. Still, he had no idea his entire digital world could be erased in just a few keystrokes.

As a reporter for Wired magazine in San Francisco, he was living an urbane and connected life and was as up-to-date on technology as anyone. Mat Honan’s life looked pretty good on-screen: in one tab of his browser were pictures of his new baby girl in another streamed the tweets from his thousands of Twitter followers. Technology…is a queer thing it brings you great gifts with one hand and it stabs you in the back with the other. About the Author: Marc Goodman has spent a career in law enforcement and technology. He was appointed futurist-in-residence with the FBI, worked as a senior adviser to Interpol, and served as a street police officer. As the founder of the Future Crimes Institute and the Chair for Policy, Law, and Ethics at Silicon Valley’s Singularity University, he continues to investigate the intriguing and often terrifying intersection of science and security, uncovering nascent threats and combating the darker sides of technology.

Future Crimes by Marc Goodman