ORIENTATION

Within a year DarkMarket had taken me a long way from the headquarters of Google to a restaurant in Cihangir, the chic district just below Taksim Square in European Istanbul. Opposite me danced the effervescent smile of Mert Ortaç. After spending several hours in his company, I concluded that the adjective ‘mischievous’ had never fitted anything on this earth as snugly as it did Mert.

During one lazy dinner in Kadıköy, my friend, Şebnem, and I had our iPhones lying on the table. Suddenly, they alerted us to the simultaneous arrival of text messages. My message had been sent from Şebnem’s phone. Şebnem’s from mine. Both read, ‘Greetings from Mert!’ As we read the texts, Mert’s bubbling laughter burst from across the table, along with an explanation that he had successfully hacked the international roaming system. As a result, he continued, he was in a position to send a message from any mobile phone in the world to any other – in the wrong hands (like Mert’s), such a skill could turn life into an endless series of Shakespearean plots based on misunderstandings, both tragic and comic.

I had been corresponding with Mert while he was in jail, from where he had sent me snippets of a tale that outdid all other DarkMarket legends in its sheer invention. Whereas I was conscious, when talking to most other characters involved in DarkMarket, that they were holding things back; Mert was overflowing with information, anecdotes and mind-boggling stories.

It is critical that hackers, cyber criminals and cybercops maintain a full grip on their compartmentalised lives – they must know the boundaries between the real and virtual, and they must be able to disengage