I love to read unfortunately I don’t have time to read too much but I do listen to books as much as possible in my car and when working around the house. I try to have at least one book in print that I’m reading all the time and often I’ve got 3 or 4 going at a time and I read a little here and there on each depending on my mood. Not too long ago I was asked to read a book and do a review of it on the blog. That book is “America the Vulnerable” by Joel Brenner. I get asked to review lots of books, mostly technical ones and I usually refuse but this one I decided to accept because I love reading books like this. They are usually exciting to read, full of good information and help to raise awareness of the state of technology security. This book does all that and some.
Mr. Brenner is a former top-level NSA insider and he seems to have the inside scoop on a lot of pretty scary stuff. He does a good job of telling a interesting tale and doing so on a level that anyone can understand. He explains concepts that those of you who read my blog already understand but there is a chance that your parents and their friends don’t understand. He also doesn’t just tell a story or try to scare you. He offers some insight into some things that need to be done and can be done to make some changes that hopefully will make a difference.
I like the way that he calls out both public and private networks being behind the curve when it comes to security. He highlights things that you and I do everyday that can impact your security, my security and everyone else on the internet. He gives examples of things that could happen and tells us about things that have happened. One of the things that I really enjoyed was a story about a “hit” that took place in Dubai. Those who were involved still haven’t been caught but the whole thing took place on camera. That is how we know what happened. Due to digital surveillance that occurs daily in Dubai those who participated were caught on video and the authorities were able to track them back to their original flights into Dubai. Unfortunately that’s as far as they were able to get. The point here though is that 20 years ago they would have never even known that much. Technology has it’s blessings in helping out with such things but it also has it’s curse because it has brought about the loss of privacy and anonymity in many ways.
This is a book that I like and would not hesitate to recommend to my friends and family. It has lots of useful info that will educate and inform those who need to know.
