Cult of the Dead Cow

Author: Joseph Menn
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541762371
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
The shocking untold story of the elite secret society of hackers fighting to protect our freedom – “a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the internet age." (New York Times Book Review) Cult of the Dead Cow is the tale of the oldest active, most respected, and most famous American hacking group of all time. With its origins in the earliest days of the internet, the cDc is full of oddball characters – activists, artists, and musicians – some of whom went on to advise presidents, cabinet members, and CEOs, and who now walk the corridors of power in Washington and Silicon Valley. Today, the group and its followers are battling electoral misinformation, making personal data safer, and organizing to keep technology a force for good instead of for surveillance and oppression. Cult of the Dead Cow describes how, at a time when governments, corporations, and criminals hold immense power, a small band of tech iconoclasts is on our side fighting back.

The Book of Cao: Enlightenment through a Poke in the Eye

Author:
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0974653713
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Book Description

Breaking and Entering

Author: Jeremy N. Smith
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 0544903218
Category : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Book Description
This taut, true thriller dives into a dark world that touches us all, as seen through the brilliant, breakneck career of an extraordinary hacker--a woman known only as Alien. When she arrived at MIT in the 1990s, Alien was quickly drawn to the school's tradition of high-risk physical trespassing: the original "hacking." Within a year, one of her hallmates was dead and two others were arraigned. Alien's adventures were only just beginning. After a stint at the storied, secretive Los Alamos National Laboratory, Alien was recruited by a top cybersecurity firm where she deployed her cache of virtual weapons--and the trespassing and social engineering talents she had developed while "hacking" at MIT. The company tested its clients' security by every means possible--not just coding, but donning disguises and sneaking past guards and secretaries into the C-suite. Alien now runs a boutique hacking outfit that caters to some of the world's biggest and most vulnerable institutions--banks, retailers, government agencies. Her work combines devilish charm, old-school deception, and next generation spycraft. In Breaking and Entering, cybersecurity finally gets the rich, character-driven, fast-paced treatment it deserves.

The Reality Game

Author: Samuel Woolley
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541768248
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Book Description
Fake news posts and Twitter trolls were just the beginning. What will happen when misinformation moves from our social media feeds into our everyday lives? Online disinformation stormed our political process in 2016 and has only worsened since. Yet as Samuel Woolley shows in this urgent book, it may pale in comparison to what's to come: humanlike automated voice systems, machine learning, "deepfake" AI-edited videos and images, interactive memes, virtual reality, and more. These technologies have the power not just to manipulate our politics, but to make us doubt our eyes and ears and even feelings. Deeply researched and compellingly written, The Reality Game describes the profound impact these technologies will have on our lives. Each new invention built without regard for its consequences edges us further into this digital dystopia. Yet Woolley does not despair. Instead, he argues pointedly for a new culture of innovation, one built around accountability and especially transparency. With social media dragging us into a never-ending culture war, we must learn to stop fighting and instead prevent future manipulation. This book shows how we can use our new tools not to control people but to empower them.

We Are Anonymous

Author: Parmy Olson
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
ISBN: 0316213535
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 475

Book Description
A thrilling, exclusive exposè of the hacker collectives Anonymous and LulzSec. We Are Anonymous is the first full account of how a loosely assembled group of hackers scattered across the globe formed a new kind of insurgency, seized headlines, and tortured the feds -- and the ultimate betrayal that would eventually bring them down. Parmy Olson goes behind the headlines and into the world of Anonymous and LulzSec with unprecedented access, drawing upon hundreds of conversations with the hackers themselves, including exclusive interviews with all six core members of LulzSec. In late 2010, thousands of hacktivists joined a mass digital assault on the websites of VISA, MasterCard, and PayPal to protest their treatment of WikiLeaks. Other targets were wide ranging: the websites of corporations from Sony Entertainment and Fox to the Vatican and the Church of Scientology were hacked, defaced, and embarrassed, and the message was that no one was safe. Thousands of user accounts from pornography websites were released, exposing government employees and military personnel. Although some attacks were perpetrated by masses of users who were rallied on the message boards of 4Chan, many others were masterminded by a small, tight-knit group of hackers who formed a splinter group of Anonymous called LulzSec. The legend of Anonymous and LulzSec grew in the wake of each ambitious hack. But how were they penetrating intricate corporate security systems? Were they anarchists or activists? Teams or lone wolves? A cabal of skilled hackers or a disorganized bunch of kids? We Are Anonymous delves deep into the internet's underbelly to tell the incredible full story of the global cyber insurgency movement, and its implications for the future of computer security.

All the Rave

Author: Joseph Menn
Publisher: Crown Business
ISBN: 1400050065
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
At age seventeen, Shawn Fanning designed a computer program that transformed the Internet into an unlimited library of free music. Tens of millions of young people quickly signed on, Time magazine put Fanning on its cover, and his company, Napster, became a household name. It did not take long for the music industry to declare war, one that has now engulfed the biggest entertainment and technology companies on the planet. For All the Rave, top cyberculture journalist Joseph Menn gained unprecedented access to Fanning, other key Napster and music executives, reams of internal e-mails, unpublished court records, and other resources. The result is the definitive account of the Napster saga, for the first time revealing secret take-over and settlement talks, the unseen role of Shawn’s uncle in controlling Napster, and hidden agendas and infighting from Napster’s trenches to the top ranks of the German media giant Bertelsmann. All the Rave is a riveting account of genius and greed, visionary leaps and disastrous business decisions, and the clash of the hacker and investor cultures with that of the copyright establishment. Napster left a generation of music fans feeling that paying the recording industry close to twenty dollars for a CD was a foolish and unnecessary extravagance, which provoked a still-growing backlash against digital media consumers that might leave them with less control than ever. Here is the inside story of the young visionary and the company that made it happen. From the Hardcover edition.

Going Bovine

Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0385733976
Category : Automobile travel
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

The Cult of Smart

Author: Fredrik deBoer
Publisher: All Points Books
ISBN: 1250200385
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Book Description
Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed.

Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?

Author: Robert Bartlett
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691159130
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 806

Book Description
A sweeping, authoritative, and entertaining history of the Christian cult of the saints from its origin to the Reformation From its earliest centuries, one of the most notable features of Christianity has been the veneration of the saints—the holy dead. This ambitious history tells the fascinating story of the cult of the saints from its origins in the second-century days of the Christian martyrs to the Protestant Reformation. Robert Bartlett examines all of the most important aspects of the saints—including miracles, relics, pilgrimages, shrines, and the saints' role in the calendar, literature, and art. The book explores the central role played by the bodies and body parts of saints, and the special treatment these relics received. From the routes, dangers, and rewards of pilgrimage, to the saints' impact on everyday life, Bartlett's account is an unmatched examination of an important and intriguing part of the religious life of the past—as well as the present.

Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons

Author: Carey Parker
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1484238524
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 411

Book Description
Rely on this practical, end-to-end guide on cyber safety and online security written expressly for a non-technical audience. You will have just what you need to protect yourself—step by step, without judgment, and with as little jargon as possible. Just how secure is your computer right now? You probably don't really know. Computers and the Internet have revolutionized the modern world, but if you're like most people, you have no clue how these things work and don't know the real threats. Protecting your computer is like defending a medieval castle. While moats, walls, drawbridges, and castle guards can be effective, you'd go broke trying to build something dragon-proof. This book is not about protecting yourself from a targeted attack by the NSA; it's about armoring yourself against common hackers and mass surveillance. There are dozens of no-brainer things we all should be doing to protect our computers and safeguard our data—just like wearing a seat belt, installing smoke alarms, and putting on sunscreen. Author Carey Parker has structured this book to give you maximum benefit with minimum effort. If you just want to know what to do, every chapter has a complete checklist with step-by-step instructions and pictures. The book contains more than 150 tips to make you and your family safer. It includes: Added steps for Windows 10 (Spring 2018) and Mac OS X High Sierra Expanded coverage on mobile device safety Expanded coverage on safety for kids online More than 150 tips with complete step-by-step instructions and pictures What You’ll Learn Solve your password problems once and for all Browse the web safely and with confidence Block online tracking and dangerous ads Choose the right antivirus software for you Send files and messages securely Set up secure home networking Conduct secure shopping and banking online Lock down social media accounts Create automated backups of all your devices Manage your home computers Use your smartphone and tablet safely Safeguard your kids online And more! Who This Book Is For Those who use computers and mobile devices, but don’t really know (or frankly care) how they work. This book is for people who just want to know what they need to do to protect themselves—step by step, without judgment, and with as little jargon as possible.