Similar to the post published several years ago, I’m sharing a short list of book recommendations for 2026.
This subjective list will be made of two parts – the first one will contain recommendations based on the books I personally read and found worthwhile to share. Each book will have a brief note explaining why I thought it was valuable.
The second list will have on it my own prospective reads for 2026. Again, each position will have a sentence or two on the reasons why I intend to read it.
So here goes – in no particular order:
My reading recommendations for 2026
- Social Engineering by Christopher Hadnagy – a must read by pentesters, cybersecurity professionals and hacking enthusiasts. It explains how attackers exploit human psychology to bypass controls and gain access to information systems. Hadnagy also offers defensive guidance on how organisations can spot, resist, and report social engineering attempts more effectively.
- The Crypto Launderers by David Carlisle – this book provides a lot of historical context to the adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies – from early darkweb markets to NFTs, DeFi, etc. It contains examples of past cases involving cryptocurrencies and money laundering, including the early days of the North Korean thefts and hacks. All this is laid out in a clear and understandable way, ideal for somebody who is only beginning to venture into cryptocurrency investigations. On a personal note, I met the author last year at a conference in the UK – his background as an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing expert reflects his knowledge of this topic.
- There’s No Such Thing as Crypto Crime by Nick Furneaux – from the same author who in 2018 wrote Investigating Cryptocurrencies, a book essentially written by an investigator for other investigators. His new work updates the narrative to present days and deals with topics such as the most prominent current scam methods, coin swap services, mixing, deobfuscation, and so on. A worthwhile read!
- Pegasus by Laurent Richard – this one is about digital privacy. It details the deployment of commercial spyware from the infamous NSO Group against basically innocent and unsuspecting people all over the world. It walks you through the ways in which Pegasus and its “zero‑click” exploits could turn any smartphone into a fully compromised, covert surveillance device.
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff – this book is a hefty brick of a read (over 700 pages!) but might be worth it if you’re interested in the socio-economic side of digital privacy. The author explains how technology platforms turn human experience into harvestable behavioural data and then sell it in “behavioural futures markets.” The book shows how this data extraction and prediction infrastructure works in pretty much every online ecosystem in which cybercrime, fraud, and manipulation now occur.
- The OSINT Handbook by Dale Meredith – this one is a tentative recommendation, since I can’t honestly say this book contains 100% updated and relevant OSINT techniques and tools. It is however suitable for beginners, as you can get a basic grasp on how to use core OSINT stuff across search engines, social media, websites, etc. There are some tips on how to automate collection and analysis to work at scale.
- Full Stack Recruiter by Jan Tegze – previously mentioned during the conversation with the author here. This book contains some good OSINT tips and tricks, since it turns out that sourcing candidates for jobs is not so drastically different to finding suspects and their digital footprint.
My reading TO DO list for 2026
- Tracers in the Dark by Andy Greenberg – apparently it “reads like a thriller” while explaining the techniques & tools that make cryptocurrency tracing possible.
- We Are Bellingcat by Elliot Higgins – who in OSINT hasn’t heard of Bellingcat?!
- Deep Dive by Rae Baker – general & maritime OSINT techniques from the author who previously was a guest on the blog – see here.
- Dark Wire by Joseph Cox – this book is about a certain app called Anom, that was favoured for secure communications by cybercriminals – until it turned out that it was being operated by the FBI.
- Rinsed by Geoff White – focuses on online and offline money laundering methods.
- Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach by Kristie Macrakis – about the CIA, its creation and its various operations around the world, more or less scandalous and morally dubious.
interested in a copy