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Recommended Books - Updated January 2002

   
     

 


David Wall eds, Crime and the Internet, Paperback - 232 pages (1 November, 2001) 
                        Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd; ISBN: 0415244293. Our Price: £16.99 

Book Description 
The first part briefly identifies the various harmful behaviours that we currently understand as cybercrimes, at how they impact, in what ways and upon whom, in order to suggest a framework for understanding them. The second part identifies some of the problems and pitfalls that criminologists will encounter when they engage with the subject. The third part, outlines the structure of the forthcoming book and locates the chapters within it.

Synopsis 
Is the Internet really powerful enough to enable a sixteen year old to become the biggest threat to world peace since Adolph Hitler? Are we all now susceptible to cyber-criminals who can steal from us without ever having to leave the comfort of their own armchairs? These are fears which have been articulated since the popular development of the Internet, yet criminologists have been slow to respond to them. Consequently, questions about what cybercrimes are, what their impacts will be and how we respond to them remain largely unanswered. Organized into three sections, this book engages with the various criminological debates that are emerging over cybercrime. The first section looks at the general problem of crime and the Internet. It then describes what is understood by the term "cybercrime" by identifying some of the challenges that they present for criminology. The second section explores the different types of cybercrime and their attendant problems. The final section contemplates some of the challenges that cybercrimes give rise to for the criminal justice system. 

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - "Crime and the Internet" - David Wall 
Chapter 2 - "Crime Futures: the challenge of crime in the information age", Ken Pease 
Chapter 3 -"Telecommunication fraud in the digital age: the converging of technologies" - Peter Grabosky and Russell Smith 
Chapter 4 - "'Between the risk and the reality falls the shadow': evidence and urban legends in computer fraud" - Michael Levi 
Chapter 5 - "Hacktivism: in search of lost ethics?" - Paul Taylor 
Chapter 6 - "Last of the Rainmacs? Thinking about pornography in Cyberspace" - Bela Bonita Chatterjee 
Chapter 7 - "Criminalising Online Speech to 'protect' the young: What are the benefits and costs?" - Marjorie Heins 
Chapter 8 - "Controlling Illegal and Harmful Content on the Internet" - Yaman Akdeniz 
Chapter 9 - "Cyber-stalking: Tackling Harassment on the Internet" - Louise Ellison 
Chapter 10 - "The Language of Cybercrime" - Matt Williams 
Chapter 11 - "Maintaining order and law on the internet" - David Wall 
Chapter 12 - "Policing 'hi-tech crime in the global context: the role of transnational policy networks" - Paul Norman 
Chapter 13 - "The Criminal Courts On-Line" - Clive Walker 


Ross Anderson , Security Engineering, Paperback - 640 pages (9 April, 2001), John Wiley and Sons; ISBN: 0471389226
                             List Price: £42.95 BUT NOW 30% OFF - You only pay £30.06 for this bestseller from Ross Anderson.

Bruce Schneier, foreword 
`If you're even thinking of doing any security engineering, you need to read this book' 

Book Description 
The first quick reference guide to the do's and don'ts of creating high quality security systems. 

Ross Anderson, widely recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities on security engineering, presents a comprehensive design tutorial that covers a wide range of applications. Designed for today's programmers who need to build systems that withstand malice as well as error (but have no time to go do a PhD in security), this book illustrates basic concepts through many real-world system design successes and failures. Topics range from firewalls, through phone phreaking and copyright protection, to frauds against e-businesses. Anderson's book shows how to use a wide range of tools, from cryptology through smartcards to applied psychology. As everything from burglar alarms through heart monitors to bus ticket dispensers starts talking IP, the techniques taught in this book will become vital
to everyone who wants to build systems that are secure, dependable and manageable. 

Synopsis 
Security engineering is about building systems to remain dependable in the face of malice, error or mischance. It requires cross-disciplinary expertise, ranging from cryptography and computer security to a knowledge of applied psychology, management and the law. This book brings them together into a comprehensive guide to building complete systems. Written for the working programmer or engineer who needs to learn the subject quickly but has no time to do a PhD in it, there are detailed descriptions of automatic teller machines, burglar alarms, copyright protection mechanisms, de-identified medical record databases, electronic warfare systems, and other critical applications. It also covers a lot of technology such as biometrics, tamper-resistant electronics and the tricks used in phone fraud. Over the next few years it is predicted that: the Internet will grow to include all sorts of things besides PCs; by 2003, there will be more mobile phones connected than computers; and within a few years we'll see many of the world's fridges, heart monitors, bus ticket dispensers and burglar alarms talking IP. Things will be further complicated by the spread of peer-to-peer models of networking. Securing real applications in this sort of environment is one of the biggest engineering challenges to 2010. This book aims to help meet the challenge. 

From the Publisher 
Security engineering is about building systems to remain dependable in the face of malice, error or mischance. It requires cross-disciplinary expertise, ranging from cryptography and computer security to a knowledge of applied psychology, management and the law. Although there are good books on many of these disciplines, this book is the first to bring them together into a comprehensive guide to building complete systems. Written for the working programmer or engineer who needs to learn the subject quickly but has no time to do a PhD in it, the book brings the subject to life with detailed descriptions of automatic teller machines, burglar alarms, copyright protection mechanisms, de-identified medical record databases, electronic warfare systems, and other critical applications. It also covers a lot of technology for which there isn't any good introductory text, such as biometrics, tamper-resistant electronics and the tricks used in phone fraud. 

Over the next few years, the Internet will grow to include all sorts of things besides PCs. By 2003, there will be more mobile phones connected than computers, and within a few years we'll see many of the world's fridges, heart monitors, bus ticket dispensers and burglar alarms talking IP. Things will be further complicated by the spread of peer-to-peer models of networking. Securing real applications in this sort of environment is one of the biggest engineering challenges of the next ten years. This book will help you to meet the challenge. 


Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
                      
Hardcover - 320 pages (October 2001) Random House Trade; ISBN: 0375505784 Our Price: £18.30 
                  You Save: £2.03 (9%) 


  Peter Grabosky, Russell G. Smith, Electronic Theft: Unlawful Acquisition in Cyberspace, 
                          Hardcover - 246 pages (6 September, 2001) Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 052180597X Our Price: £30.00

Synopsis 
The convergence of communicating and computing has begun to transform Western industrial societies. Increasing connectivity is accompanied by unprecedented opportunities for crimes of acquisition. The fundamental principle of criminology is that crime follows opportunity, and opportunities for theft are abound in the digital age. "Electronic Theft" names, describes and analyzes the range of electronic and digital theft, and constitutes a major survey of the field. 


David Lyon, Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life 
                        Hardcover - 200 pages (5 February, 2001) Open University Press; ISBN: 0335205461 Our Price: £15.99

Amazon.co.uk Review 
The walls have ears and the hills have eyes, but who's got the brain? Canadian sociologist David Lyon argues that we are complicit in much of our recent loss of privacy, but that makes it no less sinister. Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life critically examines the nature and potential of monitoring technologies serving governmental and corporate interests. Part of Tim May's very smart Issues in Society series, it features a background check on the context of modern surveillance, an updated view of data-collection techniques and practices, and a projection of new political and social meanings made available through the
panopticon.

Lyon rarely encrypts his work in academese, but this accessibility should not be confused with oversimplification. In just over 150 pages he has compressed countless brain-hours of analysis and speculation--few readers will be able to digest it in one sitting or even one reading. Indeed, he spends a fair amount of time poking at the simplifications of other analysts, winking at the reader with sly passages like this:

Are there really godlike operators who can control the city using a mouse and a keyboard? Such absolute power is scarcely visible in practice. The sheer mass of data would be impossible to handle. Even in SimCity one cannot keep track of everything. 

Crucial reading for anyone concerned with privacy issues, Surveillance Society restages the debate over ubiquitous monitoring and encourages deeper thinking on all sides. --Rob Lightner 


Alan Travis, Bound and Gagged: A Secret History of Obscenity in Britain - Recommended buy
                       New Paperback edition, Profile Books; ISBN: 1861972865, 366 pages (16 July, 2001) . Our Price: £6.39 


Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy, Hardcover - 300 pages,  (October 2001)
                      Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0199241538, Our Price: £11.99

Synopsis
The Internet is becoming the essential communication and information medium in our society, and stands alongside electricity and the printing press as one of the greatest innovations of all time. The author believes that we are "entering, full speed, the Internet galaxy in the midst of informed bewilderment". His aim is to help us to understand how the Internet came into being, and how it is affecting every area of human life - from work, politics, planning and development, media, and privacy, to our social interaction and life in the home. We are at ground zero of the new network society. This guide reveals the Internet's huge capacity to liberate, but also its possibility to marginalize and exclude those who do not have access to it. Castells provides no glib solutions, but asks us all to take responsibility for the future of this new information age.


Stuart Biegel, Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace
                         MIT Press; ISBN: 0262025043, Hardcover - 468 pages (1 October, 2001). Our Price: £21.32

Synopsis 
This work provides a framework for thinking about the law and cyberspace, examining the extent to which the Internet is currently under control and the extent to which it can or should be controlled. It focuses in part on the example of MP3 file-sharing, a file format that enables users to store large audio files with near-CD sound quality on a computer. By 1998, software available for free on the Web enabled users to copy existing digital files from CDs. Later technologies such as Napster and Gnutella allowed users to exchange MP3 files in cyberspace without having to post anything online. This ability of online users to download free music caused an uproar among music executives and many musicians, as well as a range of much-discussed legal action. Regulation strategies identified and discussed
include legislation, policy changes, administrative agency activity, international cooperation, architectural changes, private ordering, and self-regulation. The book also applies major regulatory models to some of the most volatile Internet issues, including cyber-security, consumer fraud, free speech rights, intellectual property rights, and file-sharing programs. 


John Chirillo, Hack Attacks Encyclopedia: A Complete History of Hacks, Cracks, Phreaks, and Spies over Time,
                             Paperback - 960 pages (4 September, 2001), John Wiley and Sons Inc; ISBN: 0471055891, Our Price: £38.25 .

The most complete library ever compiled of the texts, program files, and code snippets used by hackers, crackers, phreaks, and spies.

Network hacking continues to be an alarming problem for computer systems worldwide. From mysterious server crashes to lost data, the results are not only costly to fix but often difficult to recognize. Security expert John Chirillo, author of Hack Attacks Revealed and Hack Attacks Denied, provides another powerful tool in the battle against hacks, cracks, phreaks, and spies.

This book delves into the underground of hacking to offer a detailed look at the program files and code snippets used to get into companies. With files dating as far back as the 1970s all the way through to the present, Chirillo examines every variation-not just primary code modules-of all the hacks ever created. He also provides an in-depth look at the beginning of hacks and how it has evolved over the past three decades, and describes all of the collected hacks, phreak files, cracks, and virus hacks that have occurred during this time.

With close to 2,000 texts, program files, and code snippets (equating to over 11,000 pages of historical documentation on the CD), this comprehensive collection will help you uncover:

JOHN CHIRILLO is Senior Internetworking Engineer at a technology management company in Illinois. His consulting work includes breaking into Fortune 1000 company networks to evaluate their security policies and other award-winning projects assisting security managers. He is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Comdex, participates in IETF security work, and trains Microsoft and Cisco security candidates.

The book includes the following chapters: Introduction, A Historical Synopsis, THE SEVENTIES: The Beginning of Hacks, THE EIGHTIES: The Evolution of Hacks, Collected Hacks, Phreaker Philes, Hacker Spies and Virus Hackers, THE NINETIES: Hacking and Cracking, Phreaking and Virus Hacking, THE MILLENNIUM: Progression of Hacks, Glossary, Appendix A: Exploits, Appendix B: The TigerTools.net Message Board.


Yaman Akdeniz, Clive Walker, and David Wall, The Internet, Law and Society, Longman.
Published in Dec.2000; Price £29 (approx); Pages 400 (approx), ISBN 1 582 35656 3 (Pbk)

The advent of a global information society demands new understandings of the complexities of the architecture of that society and its implications for existing social institutions such as law and government. In addressing these developments, this authoritative and innovative book takes as its theme the Internet within the settings of law, politics and society. It relates and analyses their interactions and seeks to draw out the implications of "cyberspace" for law and society. It therefore has a wider and more critical agenda than existing, more technical expositions of computer or Internet law. It is about the "law in action" and not just the "law in books". It comprehends situations where action takes place in the shadow of law and where there exists a fascinating range of regulatory responses and strategies of governance. 

Based on original research and experience of involvement in legal and policy processes in relation to the Internet, the authors provide essential reading both as an authoritative source-book and as a critical and discursive text for anyone studying or working within the Internet’s impacts on law and society. This book comprises an ideal scholarly text for academics and students, policy-makers and practitioners.

 


Philip Jenkins, Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography Online, Hardcover - 290 pages (August 2001), 
                          New York University Press; ISBN: 0814742629, Our Price: £17.17 

Synopsis 
This text delves into the myths and realities of child pornography and the complex process to stamp out criminal activity over the web, including the debates over trade regulation, users' privacy, and individual rights. This sobering look at a criminal community contains lessons about human behaviour and the law that should be of interest to those involved in media and new technology. 


  Marjorie Heins, Not in Front of the Children : Indecency, Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth, Hardcover 
                        - 356 pages (May 2001), Hill & Wang; ISBN: 0374175454 

Every day the news is filled with major stories that touch on censorship in one form or another. The controversy over such issues as sex education, violence on TV, and "obscenity" in literature and the arts shows no signs of abating. Clearly, more serious and dispassionate conversation is needed. Now, a new book—NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN (Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux; May 22, 2001; $30.00) by Marjorie Heins—tackles these difficult issues and asks some important questions about censorship and the "harm-to-minors" argument at its core.

Censorship exercised on behalf of children and adolescents is based on the assumption that they must be protected from information that might be psychologically damaging. But, where did this assumption come from? And is it true?

In this fascinating history of "indecency" laws and other restrictions aimed at protecting youth, Marjorie Heins suggests that the "harm-to-minors" argument at the heart of the debate rests on shaky foundations.

Among the controversial topics tackled in her book, Marjorie Heins addresses:

NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN is a must on the bookshelf of legislators, journalists, policy makers, concerned parents, educators, child psychologists, and all who are lovers of words, pictures, and ideas.

Reviews:

Heins argues potently that the age-old idea of protecting children from "corrupting" influences has reached dangerous proportions in the U.S. . . . [Her] historical argument makes an important contribution to the literature of civil liberties and child psychology.

Publishers Weekly

A well-reasoned argument that censorship in the name of children harms them more than it helps.

Library Journal

About the Author:

MARJORIE HEINS has many years experience as a First Amendment lawyer, and is currently director of the Free Expression Policy Project. She is the author of three previous books and numerous articles about civil liberties, and was one of the attorneys in the watershed ACLU v. Reno case, which challenged the 1996 Communications Decency Act, or CDA. Ms. Heins lives in New York City.


Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World, Bruce Schneier
List Price:
£19.50 Our Price: £15.60 You Save: £3.90 (20%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Hardcover - 432 pages ( 1 September, 2000) John Wiley and Sons; ISBN: 0471253111

Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
At the moment, it seems that hardly a day passes without fresh news of some glaring Internet security breach; online banks, of all things, seem to be particularly vulnerable at the moment. All of which will come as no great surprise to network security cum cryptography guru, Bruce Schnier. His latest book, Secrets and Lies, paints a very gloomy overview of the true state of network security. Schnier, founder of Counterpane Internet Security, has some harsh words to say about the state of network security, though, to be fair, his criticisms are directed far and wide; not one scapegoat, (not even Microsoft) is singled out for special attention. Depressingly, the words "fundamentally flawed" crop up time and time again in this absorbing book.

Secrets and Lies is a thorough backgrounder in all aspects of network security, an extremely wide remit that stretches from passwords to encryption, passing through authentication and attack trees along the way. The book is divided in to three broad categories, The Landscape, which covers attacks, adversaries and the need for security; Technologies, which discusses cryptography, authentication, network security, secure hardware and security tricks; and concludes with Strategies, which looks at vulnerabilities, risk assessment, security policies and the future of security. Mercifully there's a dim light at the end of this tunnel and Schnier ultimately remains upbeat about maintaining computer security and details a way forward in his conclusion.

Although working in a necessarily techie environment, Schnier's book is surprisingly jargon-free and easy to understand, even if you're not au fait with the inner workings of TCP/IP--it's common-sense, practical style makes a potentially dense and arcane subject accessible by just about anybody. It's also bang up to date, which makes for a pleasant change. Secrets and Lies is never less than thought-provoking and should be essential reading for every network administrator in the land. Be afraid, be very afraid! --Roger Gann

New Scientist, 2nd September 2000
"Secrets and Lies should begin to dispel the fog of deception and special pleading around security, and it's fun.."

Economist, 9th September 2000
"...a primer in practical computer security aimed as those shopping, communicating or doing business online - almost everyone, in other words." "Mr Schneier is an engaging guide to the computer-security underworld."

Book Description
Best-selling author Bruce Schneier offers his expert guidance on achieving security on a network.

With recent headlines regarding the increase in hacker attacks on today's top e-commerce Web sites, it is more critical than ever before to fully comprehend the technology needed to build a secure system. Best-selling author Bruce Schneier offers his expert guidance on achieving security on a network. Internationally recognised computer security expert Bruce Schneier offers a practical, straightforward guide to achieving security throughout computer networks. Schneier uses his extensive field experience with his own clients to dispel the myths that often mislead IT managers as they try to build secure systems.

This practical guide provides readers with a better understanding of why protecting information is harder in the digital world, what they need to know to protect digital information, how to assess business and corporate security needs, and much more.

The book has a special chapter on the "Love-Bug" that hit the headlines in May 2000.

Walks the reader through the real choices they have now for digital security and how to pick and choose the right one to meet their business needs.

Explains what cryptography can and cannot do in achieving digital security.

Of great interest to IT managers and Computer security professionals, but due to the topical nature of the subject, this book will appeal to a general audience.

Synopsis
With recent headlines regarding the increase in computer hacking of today's top e-commerce Web sites, it is more critical than ever to fully comprehend the technology needed to build a secure system. This work offers practical advice on achieving security throughout computer networks. Schneier uses his field experience with his own clients to dispel the myths that often mislead IT managers as they try to build secure systems. It explains why protecting information is harder in the digital world, what knowledge is necessary to protect digital information, and how to assess business and corporate security needs. This book has a special chapter on the "Love-Bug" that hit the headlines in May 2000.

About the Author
Bruce Schneier is CTO and co-founder of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc, the first Managed Security Monitoring services firm. He is the best-selling author of applied cryptography.

Also by Bruce Schneier is

Applied Cryptography, Paperback - 784 pages 2nd Ed (March 1995), John Wiley and Sons; ISBN: 0471117099

"…the best introduction to cryptography I’ve ever seen … The book the national Security Agency wanted never to be published…" Wired Magazine.

Book Description 
Completely revised and updated to provide the successful programmer and systems designer with superlative guidelines regarding practical applications of contemporary cryptography. New features include in-depth treatment, fresh encryption algorithms, including the formerly secret GOST algorithm designed in Russia, more detailed material on incorporating algorithms, and programming fragments into working software, and the latest developments in the areas of message authentications and digital cash. 

Book Description 
Completely revised and updated to provide the successful programmer and systems designer with superlative guidelines regarding practical applications of contemporary cryptography. New features include in-depth treatment, fresh encryption algorithms, including the formerly secret GOST algorithm designed in Russia, more detailed material on incorporating algorithms, and programming fragments into working software, and the latest developments in the areas of message authentications and digital cash. 

Synopsis 
This revised text offers programmers and systems designers a guide to the practical applications of modern cryptography. New features of this edition include details of the Clipper Chip encryption program, new encryption algorithms and research on message authentication and digital cash. 

From the Back Cover 
This new edition of the cryptography classic provides you with a comprehensive survey of modern cryptography. The book details how programmers and electronic communications professionals can use cryptography - the technique of enciphering and deciphering messages - to maintain the privacy of computer data. It describes dozens of cryptography algorithms, gives practical advice on how to implement them in cryptographic software, and shows how they can be used to solve security problems. Covering the latest developments in practical cryptographic techniques, this new edition shows programmers who design computer applications, networks and storage systems how they can build security into their software and systems. 

What's new in the Second Edition? * New information on the Clipper Chip, including ways to defeat the key escrow mechanism * New encryption algorithms, including algorithms from the former Soviet Union and South Africa, and the RC4 stream cipher * The latest protocols for digital signatures, authentication, secure elections, digital cash, and more * More detailed information on key management and cryptographic implementations 


Philip D. Harvey, Nadine Strossen, The Government Vs. Erotica : The Siege of Adam & Eve
                        Hardcover - 250 pages (April 2001) Prometheus Books; ISBN: 157392881X, Our Price: £15.21

Dramatic first-person story of an 8-year battle between big government on the rampage against sexually explicit material and the founder of a small business who refused to let them destroy his company-or our civil liberties. The case began in 1986 when 37 armed officials invaded his company and launched a succession of court actions including RICO. The number and viciousness of the government's attacks are shocking, even though we know this stuff goes on all the time. The author, a libertarian, defends the right of private individuals go about their lives in peace. 


Cass Sunstein, Republic.Com, Hardcover - 232 pages (8 March, 2001), Princeton University Press; 
                          ISBN: 0691070253, Our Price: £10.36 

Book Description
See only what you want to see, hear only what you want to hear, read only what you want to read. In cyberspace, we already have the ability to filter out everything but what we wish to see, hear, and read. Tomorrow, our power to filter promises to increase exponentially. With the advent of the Daily Me, you see only the sports highlights that concern your teams, read about only the issues that interest you, encounter in the op-ed pages only the opinions with which you agree. In all of the applause for this remarkable ascendance of personalized information, Cass Sunstein asks the questions, Is it good for democracy? Is it healthy for the republic? What does this mean for freedom of speech?

Republic.com exposes the drawbacks of egocentric Internet use, while showing us how to approach the Internet as responsible citizens, not just concerned consumers. Democracy, Sunstein maintains, depends on shared experiences and requires citizens to be exposed to topics and ideas that they would not have chosen in advance. Newspapers and broadcasters helped create a shared culture, but as their role diminishes and the customization of our communications universe increases, society is in danger of fragmenting, shared communities in danger of dissolving. In their place will arise only louder and ever more extreme echoes of our own voices, our own opinions.

In evaluating the consequences of new communications technologies for democracy and free speech, Sunstein argues the question is not whether to regulate the Net (it's already regulated), but how; proves that freedom of speech is not an absolute; and underscores the enormous potential of the Internet to promote freedom as well as its potential to promote "cybercascades" of like-minded opinions that foster and enflame hate groups. The book ends by suggesting a range of potential reforms to correct current misconceptions and to improve deliberative democracy and the health of the American republic.

Synopsis
Exposing the drawbacks of egocentric Internet use, this text shows us how to approach the Internet as responsible citizens. Democracy, it maintains, depends on shared experiences and requires citizens to be exposed to topics and ideas that they would not have chosen in advance.

About the Author
Cass Sunstein has written extensively on constitutional law, the First Amendment, and jurisprudence. He is the Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and Department of Political Science and is the author of numerous books, including Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech, The Partial Constitution, After the Rights Revolution, Free Markets and Social Justice, One Case at a Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court, and, with Stephen Holmes, The Cost of Rights.


Jon C. Graff, Cryptography and E-commerce, Paperback - 240 pages (18 January, 2001), 
                             John Wiley and Sons; ISBN: 0471405744

Book Description 
Cryptography basics for non-technical managers working with e-business products and services.

With more and more companies vying for e-commerce market share, the competitive edge belongs to those who can offer the best and most secure services over the Internet. This book offers a handy, quick reference guide to cryptography--the enabling technology for secure Internet-based transactions. The author takes the mystery out of the math, injects humor, and provides clear, easy-to-understand explanations and case studies. Graff responds to the growing need among managerial and sales and marketing staff for a brief, non-technical version of Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography (John Wiley & Sons). 

The author draws on a successful presentations given at Cylink, Amdahl, Wells Fargo, KPMG Peat Marwick, Deliotte & Touche, and NetReliance.Topics covered include keys & management, Kerberos, Window 2000 security, public key infrastructure (PKI), cryptography protocols, certificates, digital signatures, and government policy. 

Synopsis 
With more and more companies vying for e-commerce market share, the competitive edge belongs to those who can offer the best and most secure services over the Internet. This book offers a handy, quick reference guide to cryptography - the enabling technology for secure Internet-based transactions. Graff responds to the growing need among managerial and sales and marketing staff for a brief, non-technical version of Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography (Schneier has also written the foreword for the book). He draws on a successful manager's training program he has developed for the "Big Eight" accounting firm, KPMG Peat Marwick. The author provides clear, easy-to-understand explanations on a variety of topics, including keys & management, Kerberos, Windows 2000 security, public key infrastructure (PKI), cryptography protocols, certificates, digital signatures, and government policy. 

From the Author 
I wrote the first and second sections book to fill a gap I have perceived in the literature on cryptography. Many of the current books are written by and for technical people, computer programmers, mathematicians, and cryptographers. They are intimidating to the nontechnical person, because they confront and challenge the reader with the need to understand the underlying mathematics of the field. Others are accessible to the nontechnical reader and explain cryptography in a historical context, but none explain in simple terms how cryptography can and is currently being applied in the real world, especially in e-commerce. 

The first and second sections book will serve as the foundation for the reader who will use these first two sections to fulfill his or her need to understand and appreciate the concepts in the field, and as a launching pad for understanding the more complicated books and the third section of this book. 

I wrote the third section to provide detailed case studies of two cryptographic architectures. In these case studies I present the problems I encountered, the potential solutions I evaluated and my reasoning for selecting a given solution. These case studies will provide the reader with detailed examples they can use to evaluate other cryptographic architectures and the through process in creating them. 

From the Back Cover 
A clear and easy guide on how to use cryptography to secure e-commerce transactions To be on the cutting edge of e-commerce, you need to understand how to best utilize cryptography to offer secure services for your customers over the Internet. But if you reach for most of the available books on the subject, you'll find that they are far too technical for most business needs. If you need a quick and lucid managerial summary to help you develop effective e-commerce strategies, this is the book for you. Geared to non-technical managers who would like to explore the underlying concepts of modern cryptography, this book features an easily accessible, logical explanation of how cryptography works to solve real-world e-commerce problems, a tutorial on the underlying mathematics, and two
case studies of PKI cryptographic architectures, showing how Kerberos and PKC can be wedded to protect a company's intranet and how a full-blown working PKI provides security to a company's Internet communications. 

Divided into three major parts tailored to readers' needs; Introduction to Modern Cryptography, Tutorial on the Mathematics of Cryptography, and case studies. The book covers: 

About the Author 
Jon C. Graff, PhD, is Vice President and Chief Cryptographic Architect at NetReliance. An internationally known speaker and author,
he has architected cryptographic systems for companies such as Tracor Ultron, Wells Fargo Bank, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, the
California Independent System Operator (Cal ISO), and NetReliance. 


James Bamford, Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency : From the Cold War Through 
                         the Dawn of a New Century, Hardcover - 400 pages (April 2001), Doubleday Books; ISBN: 0385499078, Our Price: £16.00


Bamford is the best selling author of  The Puzzle Place: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency.

For the book's website visit http://www.randomhouse.com/features/bamford/ 

From the book website: To outsiders, its initials once stood for No Such Agency. To its employees, they stood for Never Say Anything. Today the NSA, which is responsible for eavesdropping on the rest of the world and breaking foreign crypto systems, is the nation's largest, most hidden, and most important intelligence agency. While hundreds of books have been written on the far smaller and more familiar CIA, only one previous book—James Bamford's The Puzzle Palace—has ever penetrated the National Security Agency. With the publication of his new book, Body of Secrets, many are saying that the agency's initials now stand for Not Secret Anymore.

Body of Secrets takes the reader into a world few have ever seen. It is a world where computer systems are measured by the acre. Where massive listening posts, like moon-bases, eavesdrop on foreign governments and terrorists—including suspected bomber Osama bin Ladin talking over the telephone to his mother. Where crewmembers on risky eavesdropping missions fly close to hostile lands, and sometimes never return. In his new book, James Bamford, for the first time, explores the vital role played by America's eavesdroppers and codebreakers during the tension-filled years of the Cold War. He also looks into whether the new telecommunications revolution is causing NSA to suddenly go deaf. And he addresses the issue of Echelon, the worldwide NSA operation that, many charge, is illegally eavesdropping on innocent citizens. Finally, he takes his readers on the first tour of the NSA's hidden, city-size complex, nicknamed Crypto City, and introduces them to the unique men and women who occupy that shadowy land.  


John Chirillo, Hack Attacks Revealed, Paperback - 960 pages (3 May, 2001), John Wiley and Sons; ISBN: 047141624X

Amazon.co.uk Review 
The path to pro hackerdom is Hack Attacks Revealed, but be warned, the mark of a real hacker is serious technical expertise. Author, John Chirillo, starts with the internal details of IP, TCP, ethernet packets and the care and feeding of subnets even network sysadmins don't need to know but which anyone aiming to spoof a connection or fingerprint the hidden details of a network can't live without.

For the first third of Hack Attacks Revealed you might be forgiven for thinking you're training as a network design engineer. Even network cable types are covered. Then it gets complicated. Real hackers are real programmers. There's most of a C programming course built into the book, and you need it--and preferably Perl as well--to understand the wide range of included listings.

Much of the book is straightforward lists: port assignments, packet structures, handshaking protocols and other low level network engineering detail. Only by understanding can you hope to subvert systems--prevent others usurping them. To help there's a CD full of hacker utilities used to create and check for holes in your own security, though the demo TigerTools suite is too crippled to be useful. The lists of hardware (routers, switches), software and operating system vulnerabilities covered is awesome. The fact that fixes for most of them are available but often unimplemented is depressing. 

You'll laugh, you'll cry but you'll keep reading. As a commentary on a clearly immature technology Hack Attacks Revealed is fascinating. As a wake-up call to sysadmins everywhere it should be compulsory reading. --Steve Patient 

Book Description 
Beat hackers at their own game - The world of a hacker revealed by a corporate hack master. 

Take a technogothic journey inside the world of a hacker as seen by security expert John Chirillo. Drawing on his own experience as a hacking consultant for Fortune 1000 companies, Chirillo shows how hackers can exploit network security holes and how you can recognize an oncoming threat to your security. The book features details of the powerful Tiger Box(r) system, used by hackers to penetrate vulnerable networks, and teaches you how to use that same tool to your advantage. 

In this highly provocative work, you'll discover: 


Synopsis 
Network hacking can result in mysterious server crashes, data loss, and other problems that are not only costly to fix but difficult to recognize. This book describes in detail the tools and techniques used by network hackers and how they work to exploit security
loopholes. 

From the Author 
Step Inside the Real World-A Glimpse into the Hacker's Underground 
I know of a reality where computer crime is a lifestyle. Places where your social security and credit card numbers are traded with pokerfaced anonymity. Places where even the most guarded computers are vulnerable to sophisticated hack attacks. These places share a common name-a name composed of alternative vocations such as computer hacking and cracking, software pirating, phone system phreaking, information sniffing, identity spoofing, communication spying, and corporate espionage. The name is the Underground-a virtual locality that hackers call home. 

Did you know you could unintentionally download malicious programs that can make the most threatening virus seem harmless? These programs are designed to allow a remote attacker the ability to secretly control your network server or personal computer. Hackers can collect passwords, access accounts (including e-mail), modify documents, share hard drive volumes, record keystrokes, capture screen shots, and even listen to conversations from your computer's microphone. 

Did you know by simply browsing the Internet, wherever you go and whatever you do, almost anyone can track your movements while collecting personal information about you? Hackers can easily exploit this critical information leak, and collect data right from your web browser. 

As the world becomes increasingly networked through the Internet, competitors, spies, disgruntled employees, bored teens, and hackers more frequently invade others' computers to steal information, sabotage careers, and just to make trouble. Together, the Internet and the World Wide Web have opened a new backdoor, through which a remote attacker can invade home computers or company networks and electronically snoop through the data therein. The continued growth of the Internet, along with advances in technology, mean these intrusions will become increasingly prevalent. Today, external threats are a real-world problem for any company or home with connectivity. To ensure that remote access is safe, that systems are secure, and that security policies are sound, users in all walks of life
need to understand the hacker, know how the hacker thinks-in short, become the hacker. 

Most people hardly realize the threats they face from within their company networks to their home computers. More than likely, there have been hack attacks unbeknownst to you-in your neighborhood, down your block, next door, even in your home. If you think you're safe, you're probably not. Join me through the maelstrom of chaos, from where malicious hackers attack. Follow me through the Hack Attacks series, to the very core of the Underground, as we expose these attacks, and lockdown our networks, our personal computers, and our privacy. You are faced with a challenging technogothic journey, and I'll be your guide. Malicious individuals are infesting the world of technology. My goal is to help mold you into something better I'm going to make a virtuous hacker guru out of you. 

About the Author 
JOHN CHIRILLO is Senior Internetworking Engineer at a technology management company in Illinois. His consulting work includes breaking into Fortune 1000 company networks to evaluate their security policies and other award-winning projects assisting security managers. He is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Comdex, participates in IETF security work, and trains Microsoft and Cisco security candidates. 


John Chirillo, Hack Attacks Denied, Paperback - 512 pages (20 April, 2001), John Wiley and Sons; ISBN: 0471416258

Amazon.co.uk Review 
Access to networked computers is via a logical port. Hack Attacks Denied explains how to protect those you aren't using and control what goes in and out of those you do use. This forms the basis of all network computer lockdowns. 

Unfortunately, implementing this simple sounding security remedy for operating systems and applications is technically difficult and complex to track. Author, John Chirillo first talks of disabling unnecessary--and potentially insecure--services such as chargen, echo and finger and then how to reduce the risks presented by those you do run. Much of Chirillo's improved security comes from replacing standard servers with limited versions supplied on the accompanying CD--complete with listings so you can see how they work.

The sections on discovery and penetration countermeasures is interesting--it even includes sample Cisco router filter scripts--but the most successful exploits are inside jobs or rely on social engineering (unwitting user co-operation). People are always the weakest security link--including sysadmins who don't apply security patches let alone lock down systems. 

The emphasis on formulating and implementing a security policy is excellent, as is the advice to regularly test your security instead of just assuming it works.  

Chirillo necessarily reprises much of the information in his wide ranging Hack Attacks Revealed, but the relentlessly practical approach taken to implementing network security by Hack Attacks Denied makes it an excellent network security cookbook. Read it, raise your game, and watch the black hats target someone who didn't. --Steve Patient 

Book Description 
Learn how to beat hackers at their own game Hack Attacks Denied 

If you've read John Chirillo's provocative work,Hack Attacks Revealed, you're well on your way to understanding how hackers view internetworking technologies, the techniques they use to exploit network security holes, and what you can do to recognize oncoming attacks. 

Chirillo gives you step-by-step guidance on how to keep the hacks out of your network using the same powerful Tiger Box(r) tools that hackers use todetect and penetrate network vulnerabilities. Drawing on his experience as a consultant hired by Fortune 1000 companies to break into their corporate networks, Chirillo covers all the necessary security steps-from system to daemon-and helps you tie the information together to create a highly effective security policy. 

Correlating each phase of this book to one described in Hack Attacks Revealed, Chirillo explains: 

Synopsis 
This title teaches specific methods for protecting all parts of a network against security breaches. It shows how to develop a security policy that has high alert capability for incoming attacks and a turnkey prevention system to keep them out. Network professionals will find expert guidance on securing ports and services, intrusion detection mechanisms, gateways and routers, Tiger Team secrets, Internet server daemons, operating systems, proxies and firewalls, and more. 

From the Author 
Step Inside the Real World-A Glimpse into the Hacker's Underground 

I know of a reality where computer crime is a lifestyle. Places where your social security and credit card numbers are traded with pokerfaced anonymity. Places where even the most guarded computers are vulnerable to sophisticated hack attacks. These places share a common name-a name composed of alternative vocations such as computer hacking and cracking, software pirating, phone system phreaking, information sniffing, identity spoofing, communication spying, and corporate espionage. The name is the Underground-a virtual locality that hackers call home. 

Did you know you could unintentionally download malicious programs that can make the most threatening virus seem harmless? These programs are designed to allow a remote attacker the ability to secretly control your network server or personal computer. Hackers can collect passwords, access accounts (including e-mail), modify documents, share hard drive volumes, record keystrokes, capture screen shots, and even listen to conversations from your computer's microphone. 

Did you know by simply browsing the Internet, wherever you go and whatever you do, almost anyone can track your movements while collecting personal information about you? Hackers can easily exploit this critical information leak, and collect data right from your web browser. 

As the world becomes increasingly networked through the Internet, competitors, spies, disgruntled employees, bored teens, and hackers more frequently invade others' computers to steal information, sabotage careers, and just to make trouble. Together, the Internet and the World Wide Web have opened a new backdoor, through which a remote attacker can invade home computers or company networks and electronically snoop through the data therein. The continued growth of the Internet, along with advances in technology, mean these intrusions will become increasingly prevalent. Today, external threats are a real-world problem for any company or home with connectivity. To ensure that remote access is safe, that systems are secure, and that security policies are sound, users in all walks of life
need to understand the hacker, know how the hacker thinks-in short, become the hacker. 

Most people hardly realize the threats they face from within their company networks to their home computers. More than likely, there have been hack attacks unbeknownst to you-in your neighborhood, down your block, next door, even in your home. If you think you're safe, you're probably not. Join me through the maelstrom of chaos, from where malicious hackers attack. Follow me through the Hack Attacks series, to the very core of the Underground, as we expose these attacks, and lockdown our networks, our personal computers, and our privacy. You are faced with a challenging technogothic journey, and I'll be your guide. Malicious individuals are infesting the world of technology. My goal is to help mold you into something better I'm going to make a virtuous hacker guru out of you. 


Lilian Edwards (Editor), Charlotte Waelde (Editor), Law and the Internet: A Framework for Electronic Commerce
                               Paperback - 320 pages 2nd Ed (1 December, 2000), Hart Publishing; ISBN: 1841131415 - Our Price: £25.00

Synopsis 
The second edition of this title concentrates on aspects of law which are of special importance to the burgeoning arena of electronic commerce. These issues can be grouped into three main sections, reflected in the organisation of this book: intellectual property; e-commerce; and content liability. Within these sections, each author provides an analysis of the underlying principles governing the law, an account of recent case law and policy developments, and a practical guide to the way the current law operates. 


Yaman Akdeniz, Sex on the Net: The Dilemma of Policing Cyberspace - Order this book by clicking on the title
                         List Price: £3.50 Our Price: £2.80 Paperback - 72 pages (July 1999) - South Street Press; ISBN: 1902932005

Synopsis from the publisher's press release: As sexually explicit content is increasingly finding its way onto the Internet, governments and law enforcement bodies are being faced with new and difficult challenges. How can there be effective legislation to regulate obscene and offensive websites when the content produced is perfectly legal in the country of origin and such legislation may be an infringement of human rights? How are the police to deal effectively with so-called cyber-crimes, including the distribution of child pornography, when perpetrators may be located anywhere in the world? While it is agreed globally that efforts must be taken to prevent the production and circulation of child pornography, the debate surrounding explicit content is a complex one which differs from country to country.

In this book Yaman Akdeniz introduces the reader to various aspects of the cyberporn debates in America, Britain, and Europe. The book covers such topics as the issues of civil rights, accessibility of sexually explicit content, the effectiveness of filtering and rating systems in protecting children from sexually explicit content, the extent of child pornography over the Net and global policing initiatives to tackle such material. It presents specific case studies to demonstrate the failure and successes of Internet policing and government attempts to restrict obscene content, and considers the logistics and ethics involved in censoring the World Wide Web.


Chris Reed, Internet Law - Text and Materials, Paperback - 291 pages (July 2000), 
                         Butterworths Law; ISBN: 0406981418. Our Price: £24.95

Synopsis 
This work takes a global view of the fundamental legal issues raised by the advent of the Internet as a global communications mechanism. It includes extensive legal and other materials which support the discussion of how technological, economic and political factors are shaping the law governing the Internet. Trends in the development of these legal issues are addressed and the effectiveness of potential mechanisms for legal change which are applicable to Internet law are also examined. 


  James Slevin, The Internet and Society, Paperback - 277 pages (February 2000), 
                        Polity Press; ISBN: 0745620876, Our Price: £14.99.

Reviews - Amazon.co.uk 
Writing a book about the Internet and Society is a bit like taking on a subject like God and the Universe. Where do you start? Slevin opts for "the acceleration of manufactured uncertainty in our late modern world"--which is a pity, because this book has short pieces on all the important issues that arise from Internet use, only they're linked together by opaque academic argument.

The reader is given an introduction to the theories of Howard Rheingold, Anthony Giddens and John B Thompson and Slevin punctuates his thesis with their ideas. The academic theory tends to burden thought-provoking discussion of the practical, like how the BP Amoco Web site affects the world of work, an analysis of how the 10 Downing Street site might change politics, and questions such as, what does having your own homepage do to your personal sense of identity? 

Regulation, globalization, new forms of human association: all the thorny issues are examined and illustrated by random vignettes about people who have had long distance e-mail relationships or governments anticipating political problems with the Web. (For example, having fought off the influence of the baleful English-speaking film industry, how are the French going to deal with the Internet?) Slevin has written a book which begins to define the academic terrain for discussion of the impact of the Internet, but cyber library dust may gather quickly on this particular tome.--Brian Jenner 

Synopsis 
This work explores the impact of the Internet on modern culture beyond the fashionable celebration of "anything goes" online culture or the overly pessimistic conceptions tainted by the logic of domination. In this work, James Slevin develops an account of the Internet and relates it to the analysis of culture and communication in late modern societies. Slevin offers a critical appraisal of contributions to the study of the Internet and its related networks such as intranets and extranets. He argues that these studies fail to deal adequately with the nature of communication and its role in an increasingly uncertain world. Slevin addresses this deficiency by elaborating a distinctive social theory of the Internet and its impact. He develops his argument by offering an in-depth examination of the connections between the rise of the Internet and new issues concerning the state, political and economic organization, the process of self-formation, globalization, publicness, regulation and, above all the management of risk and uncertainty. Throughout the book, James Slevin relates his analysis of the Internet to a variety of substantive examples of Internet use from around the world and sets out and redefines the tasks for further study. This book should be of interest to second-year undergraduates and above in media and communications studies, cultural studies, sociology and social theory and students and academics across the social sciences who are interested in the impact of new communication technologies. 

The author, James Slevin , 21 March, 2000 
Some friends of mine in Amsterdam recently decided to buy a new computer and get connected up to the internet. The day the computer arrived, they rearranged the chairs in their home so that they could all sit and watch. One of the first connections they made was with an elderly relative in an internet café in Vancouver. Such events reveal something about the way we live now. Getting a computer and getting online isn't just a matter of adding on more communication technology to the ones we already have. We are living in a world of transformation, affecting almost every aspect of who we are, what we want to be, and the way we do things together. Whether we like it or not, we are being propelled into a new information environment. One in which traditional certainties can no longer be assumed. If
we wish to understand the changes taking place in modern societies and in our own inner consciousness and identity, then we must recognize the central role media like the internet play in our lives and be aware of the impact they have.

Yet as internet use reshapes mediated experience for many millions of individuals and many thousands of organizations around the world, the new opportunities and burdens it helps to create remain only poorly understood. Different thinkers have taken almost completely opposite views. Sometimes rather contradictory thoughts are voiced by one and the same person. On the one hand, the internet sceptics question the exciting prospects the internet might offer and express dismal ideas about the way our world is taking shape. On the other, the internet radicals tend to be somewhat naively optimistic about the opportunities the internet brings.

I don't believe that either the sceptics or the radicals have properly understood what the internet is and how it ties in with our prospects at the beginning of a new century. In 'The Internet and Society', I develop a new way of understanding the internet and demonstrate how it might help us cope with the challenges of late modernity.

Most existing studies of internet culture are confined to the study of online culture, quite divorced from the real people who produced it and from the social contexts in which they are situated. The impact of the internet on modern culture, however, involves a complex set of processes. When we are online we have a foot in both worlds. Without real people and real organizations, 'virtual communities', 'e-commerce', 'e-government', 'cyberspace', etc., would simply not exist. The use of the internet is thus changing what we do and how we relate to others, both online and offline, and reordering the way in which we interpret and respond to our social world.

The most pressing challenge we all face in late modernity is how to cope with risk and uncertainty. The internet has not come about by accident at this moment time. For better or worse, the internet is deeply associated with the introduction of new sources of risk and uncertainty into our lives. First, it allows distant and local happenings to interlace with each other on an unprecedented scale. Second, it allows us to gather and circulate knowledge that challenges the continuity of our ideas and the way we go about doing things. Third, it gives many of us access to vasts amount of information which we cannot always relate to the practical contexts in which we live. Moreover, a great deal of the world population is excluded from the internet altogether.

Existing studies of internet culture do little to help us embrace such risk and uncertainty positively. The consequences of the internet are often seen either as the result of individual choices or as preceding all choice. However, when we use the internet, we cannot make whatever we wish of it, nor are we subject to forces that operate exclusively behind our backs. The impact of the internet comes about as a result of the tensionful pushing and pulling of real people and real organizations often situated in very different technical and social conditions. When we use the internet we do so as intelligent agents and are capable of knowing a great deal about the properties of this medium and about the limitations and opportunities created by the contexts in which we deploy it. 

The internet may well impoverish certain aspects of our lives and contribute to the riskiness of our world and it is important to draw attention to this. But internet use also interacts with attempts at furthering an alternative approach to the management of risk. Both on the level of world society, organizations and institutions, and on the level of personal life we are using the internet to negotiate the transformations of our time. Throughout the book I relate my analysis of the internet to a variety of substantive examples of internet use from around the world. I set out and redefine the tasks for further study. 

James Slevin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands


Linus Torvalds, Pekka Himanen, Manuel Castells, The Hacker Ethic, Hardcover - 243 pages (1 February, 2001), 
Secker & Warburg; ISBN: 0436205505
List Price: £12.00, Our Price: £9.60, You Save: £2.40 (20%)

Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
Despite the title The Hacker Ethic is a philosophical essay contrasting the Western capitalist world view with those of hackers. In this context, hackers are those passionate about any subject, not just computers.

The book starts with an essay by Linus Torvalds and finishes with a thoughtful 75-page essay by Manual Cassels called "Informationalism and the Network Society". At its heart though, is the paradox summed up on page 60, "Present capitalism is based on the exploitation of scientific communism". This simply means companies make money based on information provided by scientists for free. This results in an ethical quandary. Companies eagerly seize information freely provided by hackers yet withhold information discovered by themselves. An indefensible position.

Himamen claims hackers work because what they're doing interests them and disseminating what they learn brings the respect of their peers while others work for money and enjoy the envy of their peers. His arguments are well illustrated with ideas from Plato, through medieval village life, protestantism, academia, the industrial revolution and more. He concludes the information revolution makes work central to our lives, soaking up the time and energy necessary for play, for the pursuit of personal passions.

He isn't whistling "Dixie". Who do you know with a hobby? How many talk to their families? Most spend their free time watching actors pretend to be members of passionate families. This is essential reading for anyone who wonders what their life is about. Hackers don't need to read it. --Steve Patient

Synopsis
Nearly a century ago, Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism articulated the animating spirit of the industrial age, the Protestant ethic. Now, Pekka Himanen-together with Linus Torvalds and Manuel Castells-articulates how hackers represent a new, opposing ethos for the information age. Underlying hackers' technical creations - such as the Internet and the personal computer, which have become symbols of our time - are the hacker values that produced them and that challenge us all. These values promote passionate and freely-rhythmed work; the belief that individuals can create great things by joining forces in imaginative ways; and the need to maintain our existing ethical ideals, such as privacy and equality, in our new, increasingly technologized society. The Hacker Ethic takes us on a journey through fundamental questions about life in the information age - a trip of constant surprises, after which our time and our lives can be seen from unexpected perspectives. *In the original meaning of the word, hackers are enthusiastic computer programmers who share their work with others, not computer criminals.

The publisher, HTelfer@randomhouse.co.uk , 14 December, 2000
Nearly a century ago, Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism articulated the animating spirit of the industrial age, the Protestant ethic. Now, Pekka Himanen-together with Linus Torvalds and Manuel Castells-articulates how hackers* represent a new, opposing ethos for the information age. Underlying hackers' technical creations - such as the Internet and the personal computer, which have become symbols of our time - are the hacker values that produced them and that challenge us all. These values promote passionate and freely-rhythmed work; the belief that individuals can create great things by joining forces in imaginative ways; and the need to maintain our existing ethical ideals, such as privacy and equality, in our new, increasingly technologized society. The Hacker Ethic takes us on a journey through fundamental questions about life in the information age - a trip of constant surprises, after which our time and our lives can be seen from unexpected perspectives.

*In the original meaning of the word, hackers are enthusiastic computer programmers who share their work with others, not computer criminals.


David Kerekes, David Slater, See No Evil: Banned Films and Video Controversy, Paperback - 415 pages (17 August, 2000), 
                          Critical Vision; ISBN: 1900486105. Our Price: £15.95.  

Book Description 
A means to improve home entertainment domesticates the cinema. Big budget film titles from major companies - initially reticent about home-viewing and video hire - compete with independent releases on small labels, quickly saturating the market with all manner of diverse product. The glut and ready accessibility of sex and violence leads quickly to condemnation, 'concern for the children,' and ultimately the Video Recordings Act and the 'banning' of films. SEE NO EVIL chronicles the phenomenal rise of video culture and examines its alleged associations with criminal activity. Containing interviews with the 'video underground,' insightful commentary on contentious movies, analysis of anti-film propaganda and studies of murder cases supposedly influenced by films, SEE NO EVIL is an exhaustive and startling overview of Britain's 'video nasty' culture. 


Robert Ellis Smith, Ben Franklin's Web Site : Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet
                        Paperback (June 2000)  Privacy Journal; ISBN: 0930072146, UK Equivalent: £19.13, Our Price: £17.22


Simpson Garfinkel, Database Nation, Paperback - 320 pages new edition (28 February, 2001), 
                        O'Reilly UK; ISBN: 0596001053, List Price: £11.95, Our Price: £9.56

Book Description 
Fifty years ago, in 1984, George Orwell imagined a future in which privacy was demolished by a totalitarian state that used spies, video surveillance, historical revisionism, and control over the media to maintain its power. Those who worry about personal privacy and identity--especially in this day of technologies that encroach upon these rights--still use Orwell's "Big Brother" language to discuss privacy issues. But the reality is that the age of a monolithic Big Brother is over. And yet the threats are perhaps even more likely to destroy the rights we've assumed were ours. 

Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century shows how, in these early years of the 21st century, advances in technology endanger our privacy in ways never before imagined. Direct marketers and retailers track our every purchase; surveillance cameras observe our movements; mobile phones will soon report our location to those who want to track us; government eavesdroppers listen in on private communications; misused medical records turn our bodies and our histories against us; and linked databases assemble detailed consumer profiles used to predict and influence our behavior. Privacy--the most basic of our civil rights--is in grave peril. 

Simson Garfinkel--journalist, entrepreneur, and international authority on computer security--has devoted his career to testing new technologies and warning about their implications. This newly revised update of the popular hardcover edition of Database Nation is his compelling account of how invasive technologies will affect our lives in the coming years. It's a timely, far-reaching, entertaining, and thought-provoking look at the serious threats to privacy facing us today. The book poses a disturbing question: how can we protect our basic rights to privacy, identity, and autonomy when technology is making invasion and control easier than ever before? 

Garfinkel's captivating blend of journalism, storytelling, and futurism is a call to arms. It will frighten, entertain, and ultimately convince us that we must take action now to protect our privacy and identity before it's too late. 


Glyn Moody, Rebel Code, Paperback - 352 pages (25 January, 2001), Allen Lane The Penguin Press; ISBN: 0713995203
                         List Price: £12.99, Our Price: £9.74, You Save: £3.25 (25%)

Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
Everyone in computing has heard of Linux and hundreds of millions use it every day. Every Net user accesses Linux systems dozens of times during any Net session. Yet because people associate products with companies, Linux--with its thousands of largely anonymous volunteer developers and free availability--is a difficult fit with our world view.

The Rebel Code puts Linux into an historical and social context. Based largely on interviews with the main players and precise historical data (Linux kernel releases are dated to the second) it traces Free Software from its early eighties origin with Robert Stallman's founding of the Gnu Project and takes it as far as the end of 2000 with Gnu/Linux becoming a worldwide phenomenon running handheld PDAs, PCs and Macs, IBM mainframes and powering the world's biggest supercomputers.

Glyn Moody charts every milestone in the development of the Linux kernel from Linus Torvalds' first installation of Minix. As important, he follows the progress of major Free Software projects--essential to the success of Gnu/Linux--from Emacs and GCC to Sendmail and XFree86 finishing with KDE and Gnome.

The end result is a curiously exciting and compulsively readable tale which stands comparison with Tracy Kidder's book, The Soul of a New Machine. Endlessly fascinating, you'll be up reading it well past bedtime. --Steve Patient

Synopsis
In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student, sent an e-mail to an internet newsgroup, asking for advice on how to make a better operating system. His project, he said, was a hobby and would never be "big and professional". Yet in less than ten years he and a loose alliance of hackers have created an operating system - LINUX - that challenges Windows for the server software market and is now poised to dominate the next generation of handheld and desktop computers. In this age of new technology start-ups, LINUX is impressive, but it might seem like just another business success story. What makes this story strange - and deeply troubling for the business world - is that LINUX is free. Not only is it free, but anyone can adapt it in any way they wish, as long as they pass it on to new users on the same terms. And far from being an isolated case, it is one of dozens of software projects round the world that have ignored or postponed commercial concerns to concentrate on writing the perfect code and have dedicated themselves to the principles of free and open development. For years they have been dismissed as irrelevant idealists. Yet already, more than any government or corporation, these fluidly organized and highly efficient teams of "amateurs" have defended and entrenched the open standards on which the Internet depends. In this definitive account, Glyn Moody traces the history of open software from its origins in the UNIX community 30 years ago, through its embrace of internet technology, to its present status as Microsoft's only serious rival. Moody shows how pioneers like Richard Stallman struggled to define and defend the principle of free software development, and how companies like IBM, Netscape and Hewlett Packard first ignored and then raced to understand and attempt to control - its potential. He reveals for the first time the full story of the creation of LINUX, Apache, Sendmail and many of the other open source programmes. As he describes the personalities and principles of those involved, he shows how subtle and apparently trivial differences in method have spelt success or failure for individual projects. This is a book about the human urge to share and exchange, about the limits - and resilience - of the profit motive. Above all it is about what we can achieve together when we suspend, even for a moment, the pursuit of personal advantage.


  Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Paperback - 455 pages 1st (15 January, 2001) 
                         Penguin Books; ISBN: 0141000511 US List Price: $14.00, UK Equivalent: £9.74, Our Price: £8.77, You Save: £0.97 (9%)


Steven Levy, Crypto, Hardcover - 368 pages (25 January, 2001), Allen Lane The Penguin Press; ISBN: 0713993464
                            List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £15.19
Synopsis 
"Crypto" is a story of people. It begins with a subculture made of hackers, mathematicians, and rebels - who created an alternative movement and liberated an empowering technology from of secrecy. It also deals with the mind-set of cryptography itself - an odd mix of abstract reasoning, intuitive genius, obsessive patience and useful paranoia. This is the story of those who bear witness to the origins of both the dreams and nightmares of our impending digital society - a book that is both on the edge of digital technology and readable. 


Bound and Gagged: A Secret History of Obscenity in Britatin, Alan Travis,
                         Hardcover
- 320 pages (14 September, 2000), Profile Books; ISBN: 1861972296, Our Price: £13.59

Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
With the tangle of the Web, the notion of censorship is as relevant and challenging as it's ever been. The Guardian's Alan Travis wraps discussion of free speech and child protection on the Net, the role of the Internet Watch Foundation, and a call for a comprehensive revision of the Obscene Publications Act, around an agile account of the history of its application. And it comes, naturally, in a brown paper cover. Opening with Ulysses, banned after the DPP read just 42 of the 732 pages, with establishment outcry drowning out Molly Bloom's orgasmic ones, it proceeds via a now-classic progression of test cases--The Well of Loneliness, Fanny Hill, and virtually anything by DH Lawrence, but infamously Lady Chatterley's Lover. A series of hapless double-barrelled Home Secretaries did their best to wreak havoc on literature they had not read, with perhaps the worst, Sir William Joynson-Hicks, a dour anti-Communist who also presided over ominously worthy organisations such as the Public Morality Council, using as a yardstick whether a work would bring a blush to the cheek of Little Nell. Today L'il Kim might be more appropriate, but the nanny state ruled in the nursery of public morality.

It was to grow up. The battles of the reforming Roy Jenkins against police corruption (the Met Commissioner laid down, as a smudged thumbnail, that if the ink came off in your hands, it was porn), the Lady Chatterley case, the needless severity of the sentences in the "Oz" trial, and the abolition of theatre censorship in 1968, all helped define abstract concepts such as obscenity and harm, while sending vulgarity back to the Blackpool postcards it had always graced. Fascinating when viewed alongside Michael Hames' The Dirty Squad, which shows the recent shift of police focus to child pornography, Alan Travis' fluid, wry journalism, the story of the growing pains of Britain as a sexual nation, successfully highlights when the law is an ass, while underlining the fundamental role it still has to play, alongside responsible self-regulation, in a global community lacking moral equilibrium. --David Vincent


Charles Sykes, The End of Privacy, Paperback - 288 pages (October 2000), 
                        St. Martin's Press; ISBN: 031226318X, UK Equivalent: £9.70, Our Price: £8.73


Cybercrime, Douglas Thomas (Editor), Brian D. Loader (Editor) , Our Price: £16.99
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Paperback - 320 pages (10 March, 2000)
Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd; ISBN: 0415213266

Synopsis
"Cybercrime" focuses on the growing concern about the use of electronic communication for criminal activities and the appropriateness of the counter-measures which are being adopted by law enforcement agencies, security services and legislators to address such anxieties. Fuelled by sensational media headlines and news coverage which have done much to encourage the belief that technologies like the Internet are likely to lead to a lawless electronic frontier, this book aims to provide a considered and balanced perspective to what is an important and contested arena for debate. It looks at legislation, electronic criminal behaviour, privacy and liberty, and the dangers of surveillance. The book explains the basic issues surrounding cybercrime and its impact on society


Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books; ISBN: 046503912X, 
                      
230 pages ( 1 December, 1999)
Our Price: £9.76
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
Everyone knows that cyberspace is a wild frontier that can't be regulated, right? Everyone is wrong and that's why we should all read Harvard Law professor (and famous Microsoft trial expert) Lawrence Lessig's eye-opening, jaw-dropping book Code, the best guide yet to the future that's heading our way like a frictionless freight train. For such an analytical book, it's also anecdote-studded and utterly fun to read.

Lessig leads us through the new controversies in intellectual property, privacy, free speech and national sovereignty. What about a computer worm that can search every American's PC for top-secret NSA documents? It sounds obviously unconstitutional but the worm code can't read your letters, bust down your door, scare you or arrest anyone innocent. If you're not guilty, you won't even know you were searched. The coded architecture of the Net also enforces certain freedoms: Via the Net, we have now globally exported a more extreme form of free speech than the First Amendment encodes in old-fashioned law. The once-important Pentagon Papers case would be meaningless today; instead of fighting to publish secret government documents, the New York Times could simply leak them to a USENET newsgroup. The Constitution is rife with ambiguities the framers couldn't have imagined and virtual communities such as AOL and LamdaMOO are organising themselves in ways governed largely by code--strikingly different ones.

We've got tough choices ahead. Do we want to protect intellectual property or privacy? How do we keep cyberporn from kids--by brain-dead decency laws, censoring filters or a code that identifies kid users? (Lessig advocates code.) Lessig demonstrates that legal structures are too slow and politics-averse to regulate cyberspace. "Courts are disabled, legislatures pathetic and code untouchable." Code writers are the unacknowledged legislators of the new world, backed by the law and commerce. Lessig thinks citizens must recognise the need to be the architects of their own fate or they'll find themselves coded into a world they never made. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

Synopsis
An expert on the legal aspects of the world of cyberspace explores such issue as free speech, intellectual property, and privacy within the world of computing and the Internet.


Simon Singh, The Code Book -- Order this book by clicking on the title
                       List Price: £16.99 Our Price: £8.33 Hardcover - 416 pages ( 2 September, 1999), Fourth Estate; ISBN: 1857028791

Review by Amazon.co.uk
With their inextricable links to history, mystery and war, codes and ciphers offer a rich seam of material for any author. The relative dearth of non-technical books on the subject may be a reflection of its pretty technical foundations, which compel hard decisions about what to include and what to gloss over. Few are better qualified to take on the challenge than Simon Singh, the particle physicist turned science writer whose book Fermat's Last Theorem, recounting the dauntingly complex story behind the proof of this mathematical conjecture, deservedly became a No. 1 bestseller.

The Code Book contains many fascinating accounts of code-breaking in action, from its use in unmasking the Man in the Iron Mask and the defeat of the Nazis to the breaking of a modern cipher system by a world-wide army of amateurs in 1994. It is especially good on the most recent developments, such as quantum cryptology and the thorny civil liberties issues raised by the advent of very secure cipher systems over the Internet. But Singh's mathematical prowess sometimes gets the better of his journalistic instincts, leading to technical descriptions that unnecessarily disrupt the narrative flow. So buy it-- and have a shot at the 10,000 pound mystery cipher--but be prepared to skip. –Robert Matthews

Book Description
Since humans began writing, they have also been writing in code. This obsession with secrecy has had dramatic effects on the outcome of wars, monarchies and individual lives. With clear mathematical, linguistic and technological demonstrations of many of the codes, as well as illustrations of some of the remarkable personalities behind them - many courageous, some villainous - The Code Book traces the fascinating development of codes and code-breaking from military espionage in Ancient Greece to modern computer ciphers to reveal how the remarkable science of cryptography has often changed the course of history. Amongst many extraordinary examples, Simon Singh relates in detail the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code and put to death by Elizabeth I; the strange history of the Beale Ciphers, describing the hidden location of a fortune in gold, buried somewhere in Virginia in the nineteenth century and still not found; and the monumental efforts in code-making and -breaking that so influenced the outcomes of the First and Second World Wars. Now, with the Information Age bringing the possibility of a truly unbreakable code ever nearer, and cryptography one of the major debates of our times, Singh investigates the challenge that technology has brought to personal privacy today. Dramatic, compelling and remarkably far-reaching, The Code Book will forever alter your view of history, what drives it and how private your last e-mail really was. At the end of this book, you will also find the world-wide Cipher Challenge - for which there is a 10,000 reward, donated by the author, to be given to the first reader to successfully crack it.


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