We are pleased to announce that Elliott & Thompson have acquired World English rights for Joe Tidy’s Ctrl+Alt+Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijacked the Internet. Publisher Katie Bond bought rights from Caroline Hardman.
Ctrl+Alt+Chaos will be published in print and digital formats on 5th June 2025, with simultaneous audiobook publication by W.F.Howes in the UK & Commonwealth. Bazar Kustannus have pre-empted Finnish rights.
Ctrl+Alt+Chaos is a gripping true crime narrative about the life and crimes of Julius Kivimaki, aka Zeekill, arguably the most hated hacker in history. Kivimaki’s journey from 12-year-old nuisance hacker to a Most Wanted cybercriminal culminated in his 2023 capture for the cruellest hack in history – where he blackmailed 30,000 Finnish psychotherapy patients with their stolen notes. Kivimaki’s journey gives us vital insights into how hackers are created online.
Joe Tidy is the BBC’s first ever Cyber Correspondent and the foremost voice in the corporation on cybercrime and hacking. Tidy said: “I’ve reported on some of the most devastating cyber attacks in history, but nothing comes close to the callous cruelty of the Vastaamo hack. What drove the 12-year-old Julius Kivimaki AKA Zeekill to become the most wanted and hated cybercriminal? Zeekill wasn’t created in a vacuum and in Ctrl+Alt+Chaos we’ll dive deep into the subculture of teenage hacking to find out how he and so many other boys hone their skills in secret online communities to emerge and wreak havoc on our modern digitised worlds.”
Katie Bond, Publisher at Elliott & Thompson, commented: “Joe Tidy’s unparalleled access to the world of teenage hackers is timely, thought-provoking and terrifying. Ctrl+Alt+Chaos reads like a techno-thriller, combining expert knowledge with storytelling prowess, but it offers crucial insights into the power dynamics of our digital world and asks urgent questions about its future.”
You can read the full Bookseller article here.