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12 Jun The Devil Inside the Beltway gets 5 Stars from IndieReader.com

Posted at 12:38h in Blog, Reviews by Michael Daugherty
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Re-blogging a 5 Star review from IndieReader today. For the whole post, click on the link at the bottom of the post.

BlinkingBookCoverSurvellienceIn light of Edward Snowden’s recent revelations about the NSA’s snooping activities, this riveting story of government surveillance is a must-read for anyone who’s concerned about privacy and what information government can and will find out about law-abiding citizens. The book is the true story of the author, the CEO of LabMD (a 25-employee cancer detection laboratory in Atlanta) and how he discovers that more than 9000 of his company’s patients’ billing information, including social security numbers, was surreptitiously acquired by a security surveillance company called Tiversa. Though LabMD had firewalls and servers to protect customer data, one of its employees violated company policy and installed a peer-to-peer file-sharing network on her computer in order to listen to music. The file-sharing network made LabMD’s billing information on her computer available to outsiders, including Tiversa, who then tries to extort money from the author in order to correct the security breach. When Daugherty refuses to pay, Tiversa turns his company over to a very menacing Federal Trade Commission.

Adding insult to injury, the FTC, which Congress had directed to investigate security leaks, decides to punish LabMD, the victim, instead of the overly-aggressive perpetrator, Tiversa. Daugherty then finds himself in the fight of his life to save his company.IR Approved Sticker 2

THE DEVIL INSIDE THE BELTWAY is compelling, well written, superbly researched and extensively documented, including Congressional testimony, letters, press releases, e-mails and FOIA-obtained documents. Though the book is nearly 500 pages long, the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger because the author’s government-initiated Kafkaesque nightmare is still unfolding.

Americans, regardless of political affiliation or creed, need to read this book understand how the overreaching government’s modus operandi and lack of accountability can destroy innocent small businesses and individuals.

Fact is oftentimes stranger than fiction and this real-life political thriller is far more shocking and Orwellian than any work of fiction could ever be.

Reviewed by Robin Carr for IndieReader.

– See more at: http://indiereader.com/2014/06/devil-inside-beltway/#sthash.bqjFYbEP.dpuf

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02 May Latest Book Review of The Devil Inside the Beltway by Josh Kaib

Posted at 10:33h in Blog, News, Reviews by Michael Daugherty
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You may think the government is on your side. You may think they wouldn’t try to destroy a man’s business–his livelihood–for all the wrong reasons. But you’d be wrong. There is a devil inside the beltway, and he could be coming for you next.

The Devil Inside the Beltway is more than just a book. It’s even more than the story of one man’s fight against tyranny.

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The latest review of The Devil inside the Beltway is found posted in the Watchdog Wire. Please find a snippet below and click HERE for the full review.

More than anything, it is a warning: this is what happens when you let government get too big, too powerful, and too involved with our everyday lives.

As someone who investigates government actions on a semi-regular basis, one part of the book particularly stood out to me. In 2012, Daugherty filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to further investigate the connection between Tiversa and the government.

Like many others who have filed FOIAs, he ended up with a disappointing amount of information. It was bad enough that the government was going after LabMD, but at least they could have been transparent about it.

If you have the chance, pick up The Devil Inside the Beltway and give it a read. It’s a thriller, true crime novel, dystopian epic, and political discourse all rolled into one. But above all, watch out for the devil inside the beltway and pray he doesn’t come for you.

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30 Apr Truth IS Stranger Than Fiction–and This Book Proves It – A review by M. Terry Walin

Posted at 20:25h in Blog, Reviews by Michael Daugherty
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W. Terry Walin reviews The Devil Inside the Beltway Here!

BlinkingBookCoverSurvellienceI started Mike Daughtery’s well-told story and with each chapter my disbelief grew. Yes this book is a nonfiction true story about the FTC overreach and interference with his company LabMD, a cancer detection laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia.

The story is a page-turner and reads like a novel but is factual and true and contains extensive end notes and documentation to prove their facts. I loved the seasoned and experienced advice for readers which is woven into the storytelling such as, “If you’re hiring a lawyer, beware. Their engagement letters are one-sided contracts in which another lawyer deals with your lawyer (ironic). The games and pressures their managing partners place on them at your expense (it’s all about the money) is kept from you; silence is their favorite noun. Most won’t be held accountable. Remember, when seeking justice, the web of confusion you must enter can be perilous. Take your time, do your homework, educate yourself.” (page 170)

I found the story gripping and I had to finish the last page to see how it ended.
I highly recommend this book. It’s a compelling read.

WTerryWhalinHeadShotMediumM. Terry Walin is an Author and Acquisitions Editor

W. Terry Whalin understands both sides of the editorial desk–as an editor and a writer. He worked as a magazine editor and his magazine work has appeared in more than 50 publications. A former literary agent, Terry is an Acquisitions Editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 books through traditional publishers in a wide range of topics from children’s books to biographies to co-authored books. Several of Terry’s books have sold over 100,000 copies.  Terry’s newest book, JUMPSTART YOUR PUBLISHING DREAMS, INSIDER SECRETS TO SKYROCKET YOUR SUCCESS is packed with insight. Also Terry has an innovative online training course to help authors effectively connect with literary agents and editors called Write A Book Proposal. Terry is a popular speaker and teacher at numerous writers’ conferences and an active member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

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11 Feb More thoughts from The San Francisco Book Review

Posted at 18:19h in Blog, Reviews, Writing by Michael Daugherty
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“In 2008, Michael Daugherty, CEO of LabMD, a private Atlanta-based cancer detection facility, received a call from Tiversa, a Pittsburgh-based data security firm, stating that they had obtained a 1,718-page patient health information file belonging to LabMD through a peer-2-peer (P2P) network. Tiversa wasn’t about to divulge any further information about its acquisition until LabMD bought into their unsolicited lawyer-fee services. Daugherty had no idea that his polite refusal to Tiversa’s assistance would lead to an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and thereby thrusting him into a nightmarish four-year journey Inside the Beltway – “an idiom used to characterize matters that seem to be important primarily to U.S. federal government officials, its contractors, lobbyists, and the corporate media who cover them, as opposed to the interests and priorities of the general U.S. population.” (Edited from Wikipedia)…”

Click here to read the full review by Anita Lock.

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10 Feb San Francisco Book Review reviews The Devil Inside the Beltway

Posted at 05:32h in Blog, Reviews by Michael Daugherty
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Read the latest review of my book! The San Francisco Book Review has shared their thoughts about The Devil Inside the Beltway.

The Devil Inside the Beltway: The Shocking Expose of the US Government’s Surveillance and Overreach Into Cybersecurity, Medicine and Small Business
By Michael Daugherty
Broadland Press, $29.95, 504 pages, Format:Star Rating: 5 out of 5

In 2008, Michael Daugherty, CEO of LabMD, a private Atlanta-based cancer detection facility, received a call from Tiversa, a Pittsburgh-based data security firm, stating that they had obtained a 1,718-page patient health information file belonging to LabMD through a peer-2-peer (P2P) network. Tiversa wasn’t about to divulge any further information about its acquisition until LabMD bought into their unsolicited lawyer-fee services. Daugherty had no idea that his polite refusal to Tiversa’s assistance would lead to an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and thereby thrusting him into a nightmarish four-year journey Inside the Beltway – “an idiom used to characterize matters that seem to be important primarily to U.S. federal government officials, its contractors, lobbyists, and the corporate media who cover them, as opposed to the interests and priorities of the general U.S. population.” (Edited from Wikipedia).

Written with a “Jon Stewart flair” minus the colorful metaphors, Daugherty’s satirical humor isn’t simply for the sake of satire. He narrates a story that could easily be mistaken for conspiracy theory. If it wasn’t for the copious amounts of well-documented information directly connected with the ridiculously superfluous process that he had to undergo with the FTC, as well as the company’s development funds that were drained to cover traveling expenses, court costs, and the myriad of lawyers hired in an effort to, as Daugherty puts it, “make them (the FTC) go away,” Daugherty could quickly be labeled a nut case.

//The Devil Inside the Beltway// is not limited to Daugherty’s harrowing story. It is replete with enough factual information about the FTC that would make our Founding Fathers voluntarily turn in their graves just to hide their utter shame over a system they painstakingly sculpted that has gone awry. As of January 29, 2014, Daugherty announced on his blog (http://michaeljdaugherty.com/) that “the debilitating effects of the FTC investigative practices and litigation have forced him to wind down operations” at LabMd. His story, which has “transcended” his own personal troubles and now turned him into a whistleblower, is not over. “What started with a phone call from Pennsylvania has turned into a call for action.” We will have to see what form that action takes.

Sponsored Review

To read the entire review, click HERE

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25 Nov Kirkus Review

Posted at 18:02h in Blog, Reviews by Michael Daugherty
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So happy to share my Kirkus Review!

 

TITLE INFORMATION

THE DEVIL INSIDE THE BELTWAY

The Shocking Exposé of the US Government’s Surveillance and Overreach into Cybersecurity, Medicine and Small Business Daugherty, Michael J. Broadland Press (504 pp.)

$29.95 hardcover, $19.95 paperback, $9.99 e-book ISBN: 978-0985742201; September 17, 2013

BOOK REVIEW

Small-business owner Daugherty, in his debut, recounts how he uncovered shady practices going on behind closed government doors.

In May 2008, several years before government surveillance became an explosive issue in America, everything was going well at an Atlanta cancer-detection facility that the author started 12 years before. Then he received a call from someone at a data security firm who claimed to have his patients’ confidential medical data. What initially seemed like extortion turned out to be part of an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission—and Daugherty began to realize that there were forces at work beyond his control. Using emails, letters, cited sources, extensive research and data, the author explains how he eventually uncovered a relationship between the FTC and various private security firms, who, instead of trying to stop malware that preys on private information, instead attack small businesses—the malware’s victims—for security failures. Daugherty’s story is harrowing and hard to ignore: Orwellian in its exploration of government overreach and lawyer doublespeak and Kafkaesque in its nightmarish depiction of innocent citizens falsely accused. Daugherty has clearly done his research, and he skillfully explains the political processes that he believes lie at the heart of the FTC’s questionable practices. At times, the book reads like an engaging thriller, but it also drags at points and, overall, may be too long for its own good. Some readers may wish that the author were less concerned with minutiae, or eased up on some of the more hard-line anti-establishment rhetoric; if the book were tighter and more streamlined, it might have been far greater. That said, as it stands, it’s an effective and frightening cautionary tale.

A true story of a businessman’s struggle in the digital information age.

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