Bit of a different one. I have some credits for audible and I am looking for your favourite books on the subject. Fiction or non fiction it doesn’t really matter.

Normally I’d google it and slap “reddit” on the end, but I thought I’d give lemmy a chance to show me some answers

  • _zi@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    These are in no particular order, just thinking back over some that I’ve read in recent years.

    • The Cuckoo’s Egg - Really interesting book about running a honeypot and trying to tracking down a hacker who was stealing resources from Lawrence Berkeley Lab machines. Its based on actual events has some fun insights into the tech of the time and it had a fairly gripping plot despite the age.

    • Cult of the Dead Cow - First while of this book was just history and stories about the cDc from its members. From the joining of key members and becoming a hacking group, then into its hacktivism and more professional work. The later parts of the book tie into Beto O’Rourke (who was part of the cDc) political campaign and the tone kinda shifts a bit. Wasn’t like it ruined the book or something, but it was a distinct shift in tone different from the parts that hooked me into it.

    • The Hacker and the State - This was a look at effectively cyberwar through the years and how/why it hasn’t really turned out how people predicted being less destructive but more pervasive. Kinda gave a good, as far as I can tell fact-based perspective on the geopolitics of cyberattacks and how its developed.

    • Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War - Similar concept to The Hacker and the State but more narrow focus. Just looking at the development of cyber-capabilities and use in the US.

    • No Place to Hide - Okay, maybe not exactly computer security related. Its more the behind the scenes of the Snowden leaks. Obviously the leaks do touch on security and they talk about their opsec in communicating before actually meeting. That behind the scenes aspect was most interesting to me, but it did go into what was leaked and such also. I’ll also shout out Permanent Record which just ties in nicely with No Place to Hide. Its Snowden’s memoir.

    • Little Brother - So this one isn’t on audible as the author Cory Doctorow is outspoken against the DRM systems. Its a fictional book following a high-school student who becomes a reluctant hacker for civil liberties and privacy. The cool thing about the book is that it accurately represents technology, and explains things like how TOR works, about public key crypto, VPNs, etc; and it does so accurately, albeit sometimes superficially. I’ve done a poor job summarizing but Mudge at DefCon 21 mentioned the book is used as training material at the NSA to give recruits a different point of view. Bruce Schneier and Andrew “bunnie” Huang both have essays included as afterwords in the book which you wouldn’t usually find in a fictional hacking book. It definitely captures some of the counter-cultural ideals that existed in the hacking community in the mid-00s and earlier. Even though its not on audible I’d still recommend it.

    • PersonalDevKitOP
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      1 year ago

      Amazing thanks for the recommendations and the summaries. Added the ones I couldn’t get to my wish list.

      I’ll be sure to checkout Little Brother as well, sounds interesting even more so with the authors dislike of audible.