The Cyber Thriller Field Guide

How to write a cyber thriller that holds up

The real cybersecurity, surveillance and digital forensics behind modern fiction, set beside the fiction itself.

A free guide for people who want to write cyber thrillers. It draws a line between the real world and the fictional one: what the genre gets right, what it gets wrong, and how to tell the difference, so your story feels true to readers who know the field.

Written in plain language. It is about understanding, not capability, and it is not an instruction manual.

Get the free guide See what is inside

Length: 62 pages
Format: Free PDF, sent by email
Structure: Six parts, plus a bonus chapter
Author: Dimitrios Zacharopoulos
Price: Free

What is inside.

What cyber thrillers get right and wrongThe myths the genre repeats: instant tracing, government backdoors, unbreakable encryption and untraceable crypto.

The real attack chain behind a cyber thrillerA conceptual map of how attacks unfold, from reconnaissance and phishing through lateral movement and data theft to the cover-up.

Digital forensics for writersHow logs, timestamps, metadata, deleted files, phones and cloud accounts leave traces, and why chain of custody decides whether evidence is believed.

Surveillance, digital identity and financial controlCentralised payments, frozen accounts, location tracking, biometrics, health data, smart cities and behavioural scoring.

The 12 red flags of a digital control systemWarning signs that a system has shifted from serving people to controlling them, framed as questions rather than verdicts.

A cyber thriller reading checklistThe questions a professional would ask of any plot: is the attack possible, who controls the infrastructure, and who benefits?

Who it is for.

Writers

Anyone writing, or planning, a cyber thriller who wants the technology to feel credible without becoming a manual.

Curious readers

Fans of the genre who want to know which parts of their favourite stories are real, and which are not.

A bonus for readers of the trilogy.

Bonus chapter

The File They Were Not Supposed to Find

A short, never-published story set in the world of the OBISEC trilogy. It is included only in the download, as a thank-you for readers of CODENAME: LIB3RTY, PROJECT: SH@D0WS and PROTOCOL: Z3R0.

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The OBISEC Trilogy.

CODENAME: LIB3RTYThe OBISEC Trilogy, Book 1

PROJECT: SH@D0WSThe OBISEC Trilogy, Book 2

PROTOCOL: Z3R0The OBISEC Trilogy, Book 3

See the whole trilogy ›

Questions?

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