Cybersecurity and Cyberwar What Everyone Needs to Know - Hardcover

Singer, Peter W.; Friedman, Allan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199918090 ISBN 13: 9780199918096

Publisher: OUP USA, 2014

Synopsis

A generation ago, "cyberspace" was just a term from science fiction, used to describe the nascent network of computers linking a few university labs. Today, our entire modern way of life, from communication to commerce to conflict, fundamentally depends on the Internet. And the cybersecurity issues that result challenge literally everyone: politicians wrestling with everything from cybercrime to online freedom; generals protecting the nation from new forms of attack, while planning new cyberwars; business executives defending firms from once unimaginable threats, and looking to make money off of them; lawyers and ethicists building new frameworks for right and wrong. Most of all, cybersecurity issues affect us as individuals. We face new questions in everything from our rights and responsibilities as citizens of both the online and real world to simply how to protect ourselves and our families from a new type of danger. And, yet there is perhaps no issue that has grown so important, so quickly, and that touches so many, that remains so poorly understood.

In Cybersecurity and CyberWar: What Everyone Needs to Know, New York Times best-selling author P. W. Singer and noted cyber expert Allan Friedman team up to provide the kind of easy-to-read, yet deeply informative resource book that has been missing on this crucial issue of 21st century life. Written in a lively, accessible style, filled with engaging stories and illustrative anecdotes, the book is structured around the key question areas of cyberspace and its security: how it all works, why it all matters, and what can we do? Along the way, they take readers on a tour of the important (and entertaining) issues and characters of cybersecurity, from the "Anonymous" hacker group and the Stuxnet computer virus to the new cyber units of the Chinese and US militaries. Cybersecurityand CyberWar: What Everyone Needs to Know is the definitive account on the subject for us all, which comes not a moment too soon.

About this title

Review

In our digital age, the issues of cybersecurity are no longer just for the technology crowd; they matter to us all. Whether you work in business or politics, the military or the media ― or are simply an ordinary citizen ― this is an essential read. (Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google)

This is the most approachable and readable book ever written on the cyber world. The authors have distilled the key facts and policy, provided sensible recommendations, and opened the debate generally to any informed citizen: a singular achievement. A must read for practitioners and scholars alike. (Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy (Ret), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO)

In confronting the cybersecurity problem, it's important for all of us to become knowledgeable and involved. This book makes that possible ― and also fascinating. It's everything you need to know about cybersecurity, wonderfully presented in a clear and smart way." (Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs)

If you read only one book about 'all this cyberstuff,' make it this one. Singer and Friedman know how to make even the most complicated material accessible and even entertaining, while at the same time making a powerful case for why all of us need to know more and think harder about the (cyber)world we know live in." (Anne-Marie Slaughter, President, the New America Foundation)

Singer and Friedman do a highly credible job of documenting the present and likely future risky state of cyber-affairs. This is a clarion call." (Vint Cerf, "Father of the Internet," Presidential Medal of Freedom winner)

I loved this book. Wow. Until I read this astonishing and important book, I didn't know how much I didn't know about the hidden world of cybersecurity and cyberwar. Singer and Friedman make comprehensible an impossibly complex subject, and expose the frightening truth of just how vulnerable we are. Understanding these often-invisible threats to our personal and national security is a necessary first step toward defending ourselves against them. This is an essential read. (Howard Gordon, Executive Producer of 24 and co-creator of Homeland)

About the Author

Peter W. Singer is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Allan Friedman is a Fellow in Governance Studies and Research Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199918090
• ISBN 13: 9780199918096
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320