An engaging, brisk read that demystifies an intimidating field.
A cybersecurity expert shows how the weakest link of a cybersecurity program—people—can also be its strongest.
One wouldn’t think of cybersecurity as a timeless concept. But in his latest book on the topic, Finney, who teaches cybersecurity at Southern Methodist University, begins by showing that the inventor of the printing press was effectively the victim of 15th-century hacking when an untrustworthy colleague destroyed his business papers. Finney also points out that Star Wars is, essentially, “the story of a group of hackers with a political agenda who successfully steal government secrets and use those secrets to topple said government.” With all of its firewalls and SQL injection attacks, cybersecurity can seem like an intimidating and arcane field best left to the experts. But the author argues that it’s about human beings at its core: the ones who implement attacks and the ones who are capable of stopping them. Rooted as much in psychology as in psy-ops, this book outlines nine concepts, including “Skepticism,” “Diligence,” and “Community,” to think about and illustrates their importance via anecdotes and scientific studies. By the end, information security leaders will have a better idea of how to make every employee in their company think of themselves as fellow security officers without scaring them or confusing them. Finney shows how this group can include those who might not consider themselves computer experts, from Girl Scouts (who know the importance of “community and connection”) to theology students (“doubt is a well-established part of the process when you study religion”). This book is light on coding lingo and discussions of the latest programs, and readers looking for technical, concrete ways to increase their personal cybersecurity won’t come away with much more than a few techniques and apps to check out. But for those who are in charge of cybersecurity for large organizations, this work will prove invaluable for getting employees thinking about how to protect their company. At the very least, readers won’t look at Johann Gutenberg and Darth Vader the same way ever again.
An engaging, brisk read that demystifies an intimidating field.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62634-735-9
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.
A principled athlete strives for social justice.
Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls.
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781538777879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Legacy Lit/Hachette
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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