A quick tale of black hats and white hats, with a lot of gray area in between.
Computer pranksters and the internet come of age together, as the former become the leading security experts on the latter, joining forces with and against corporations and governments alike.
“In its earliest days, the chief moral issues for the teens in the [hacking collective] Cult of the Dead Cow were how badly to abuse long-distance calling cards and how offensive their online posts should be,” writes Reuters technology reporter Menn (Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet, 2010, etc.). “But as they matured, the hackers quickly became critical thinkers in an era when that skill was in short supply….They all helped push a realistic understanding of security challenges and ethical considerations into mainstream conversations in Silicon Valley and Washington.” The author narrates a fast-paced story about how a little-known movement that could trace its roots to the psychedelic rock of the 1960s—one visionary was the son of the Jefferson Airplane’s drummer while another was a lyricist for the Grateful Dead—would eventually serve as security advisory for the Pentagon, the cybernetics industry, and geopolitical forces around the globe. Menn introduces many characters who were formerly anonymous or deeply underground, known only by their “cDc” monikers, the names by which they posted during the days before the World Wide Web, when bulletin boards attracted kindred spirits. The group had its genesis in the remote outpost of Lubbock, Texas, but its influence eventually extended from San Francisco to Boston and beyond, as computer technology triumphed over geographical logistics. They recognized the porousness of the web’s security because they had penetrated it, and they knew that those insisting that information was secure were in denial. They knew that “everything was unsafe and would only get less safe as the economy grew more dependent on technology. This was classic market failure, compounded by political failure.”
A quick tale of black hats and white hats, with a lot of gray area in between.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5417-6238-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
A neat but overbroad analysis of the current state of Supreme Court confirmation proceedings. Since 1968, when the nomination of Abe Fortas to replace Earl Warren as chief justice was shot down by maverick Republican senators defying a politically impotent LBJ, the confirmation process has become ``disorderly, contentious and unpredictable. In short...thoroughly democratic,'' writes Silverstein (Political Science/Boston Univ.). What made '68 such a turning point in judicial history? A number of factors, which the author untangles with the self-assurance of a skilled classroom lecturer. He argues that in the decade before the Fortas nomination, the Warren Court had jettisoned the jurisprudence of restraint, reinventing the federal judiciary as a haven for ethnic and religious minorities seeking novel forms of relief. This heightened judicial activism lured more politically powerful, upper-middle-class groups (such as consumer advocates and conservationists) into federal courtrooms throughout the US. By 1968, the political winds had shifted, a new breed of senators had assumed power, and Richard Nixon's law-and- order regime was dawning. But the politically potent upper middle class was prepared to lobby against any anti-activist Supreme Court nominee who threatened its access to the courts. Silverstein's depiction of confrontational confirmations as a by-product of judicial activism is suggestive, but he tends to downplay factors that don't fit perfectly into this theory—he covers the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, for example, as if they were nothing but a debate over the separation of powers. And his argument that the modern confirmation process has resulted in uninspiring ``stealth'' nominees such as David Souter and Anthony Kennedy completely fails to explain how a controversial, well-known nominee such as Antonin Scalia can have, in the author's own words, ``sailed through'' the process. Silverstein articulately presents a provocative theory but stretches it beyond its limits.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-393-03692-8
Page Count: 172
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
An informed, but incomplete, stab at one of civilization’s greatest questions.
Sweeping attempt to explain the existence of God.
Inspired by his brush with death–which he juxtaposes with the actual death of an atheist friend–the author attempts to explain for believers and nonbelievers alike whether God exists. The task is neither new nor easy, and Dwyer calls upon a full range of thinkers and fields of study to build his case. In some ways, he gives strength to his argument through the book’s depth and complexity; in others, the answer, and even the quest for it, is lost in details. Dwyer begins with a lengthy exposition of how humans think and what constitutes consciousness. Comfortable with science, he disputes some absolutist stances. For instance, he takes the author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, to task, contrasting natural selection with natural law and finds the former wanting. After this deep foray into biology, psychology and evolution, he moves on to philosophical arguments for and against God, drawing from several thinkers: Aquinas, Anselm, Spinoza, Kant, Descartes, among others. Rather convincingly, he shows that while proving a personal God exists might not be possible, disproving his existence may be even more so. Belief in God, therefore, is dependent entirely on faith and imagination and cannot be proven by reason alone. Finally, the author discusses ethics and how society should act if we accept God’s existence. Dwyer’s writing, though sometimes too informal, is accessible enough, but the author has chosen a topic difficult to tackle and impossible to resolve, thus his task is an uphill battle–readers may find it difficult terrain.
An informed, but incomplete, stab at one of civilization’s greatest questions.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4196-6259-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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