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THE ART OF INVISIBILITY

THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS HACKER TEACHES YOU HOW TO BE SAFE IN THE AGE OF BIG BROTHER AND BIG DATA

You don’t have to be a paranoiac to have enemies, and you don’t need to be an outlaw to want to keep your personal...

A highly useful handbook for how not to be seen—online, anyway.

Think your data and identity are safe because you’ve got an eight-character password that isn’t “God” or “1234”? Guess again, says cybersecurity expert Mitnick (Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, 2011, etc.). In a world where your smart TV can spy on you and your cellphone can reveal your location to any party with the ability to download tracking software, the odds are that your data is…well, compromised is the least of it. Furthermore, the American government has a rubber stamp for getting at your data, even in the days after Edward Snowden—whom the author mentions at several points—pointed out how much data the government already has. One step in the right direction is to use encryption software such as PGP (“pretty good privacy”) to keep your email secure. However, warns Mitnick after a discussion refreshingly short on technical arcana if still a little daunting, “to become truly invisible in the digital world you will need to do more than encrypt your messages.” Among the other techniques he suggests are using a passphrase instead of a password, made up of information only you can know, behind a virtual private network, encrypted phone calls, and two-factor authorization, all geeky things that Mitnick describes in admirably clear detail. Other tricks: use a reloadable gift card behind an email address used only for that purpose for online shopping, if you must shop online at all. Along the way, Mitnick describes how David Petraeus was caught in electronic flagrante, how Silk Road got taken down, and how he himself got nabbed.

You don’t have to be a paranoiac to have enemies, and you don’t need to be an outlaw to want to keep your personal information personal. Though with more than a whiff of conspiracy theory to it, Mitnick’s book is a much-needed operating manual for the cyberage.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-316-38050-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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