Joseph Menn’s fourth book, "Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World," was published in June 2019 by PublicAffairs and in paperback in June 2020. It tells the story of the oldest, most respected and most famous American hacking group of all time. Its members invented the concept of hacktivism, released both the top tool for cracking passwords and the reigning technique for controlling computers from afar, and spurred development of Edward Snowden’s anonymity tool of choice. With its origins in the earliest days of the Internet, the cDc is full of oddball characters-activists, artists, and musicians-who are now woven into the top ranks of the American establishment.
Hudson Booksellers named "Cult of the Dead Cow" one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year, and the Wall Street Journal called it one of the five cybersecurity books everyone should read. The New York Times Book Review called it "an invaluable resource...The tale of this small but influential group is a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the internet age.”
Menn's "Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet," was published in 2010. Part true-life thriller and part expose, it became an immediate bestseller, with Menn interviewed on national television and radio programs in the US, Canada and elsewhere. Menn has spoken at major security conferences on his findings, which include hard evidence that the governments of Russia and China are protecting and directing the behavior of some of the world’s worst cyber-criminals.
“Fatal System Error accurately reveals the secretive global cyber cartels and their hidden multibillion-dollar business, proving cybercrime does pay and pays well,” said Richard A. Clarke, special advisor to President George W. Bush for cyber security and author of Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror. The New Yorker magazine said it was “riveted” by the tale, comparing it to the novels of Stieg Larsson.
Menn is an investigative reporter on cybersecurity at Reuters and formerly worked at the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times, He is a three-time finalist for the Loeb Award, the most prestigious in financial journalism, and a ghree-time winner of a "Best in Business" award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
His previous books include "All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster," the definitive 2003 work selected as a book-of-the-year finalist by the trade group Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc. All the Rave reversed the conventional wisdom on what had been the most exhaustively covered start-up of the era. The New York Times wrote that All the Rave "provides a well-documented history of one of the most celebrated collapses of the Internet. But it goes far deeper, giving an inside account of the creation of Napster, the battle for its control and the maneuvering by big Silicon Valley names to try to turn music piracy into gold."

Menn is also co-author of The People vs. Big Tobacco: How the States Took on the Cigarette Giants (1998) and a principal editor of The Chronology: The Documented Day-by-Day Account of the Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Contras (1987). He was taught advanced technology and business writing at the University of California at Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism and lectured at other universities and conferences.

Menn began his professional career at The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. He grew up in the Boston area and graduated with honors from Harvard College, where he was executive editor of The Harvard Crimson.