An authoritative, disturbing examination of hacking, cybercrime, and techno-espionage.
A cybersecurity expert delves into the mechanics, psychology, and impact of computer hacking.
Shapiro, a professor at Yale Law School and director of Yale’s Center for Law and Philosophy and its CyberSecurity Lab, is well situated to explore the downside of the internet. In his latest book, the author looks at some famous cases and players in the shadowy archives of hacking—e.g., when a graduate student accidentally crashed the internet in the 1980s; the invention of the first mutating computer-virus engine by a Bulgarian with the handle Dark Avenger; and Fancy Bear, a group probably affiliated with Russian military intelligence, which broke into the Democratic National Committee system in 2016. Each of these illustrated a technical aspect of hacking, but taken together, they show the breadth of motivations. While some hacks are for money and espionage, most Americans hackers are young men who arrived at it through online game forums and started to do it for the technical challenge and to earn the respect of their peers. This profiling raises the possibility of early identification and recruitment into the cybersecurity side. However, Shapiro believes that hackers will always be a step ahead and that a “constant patch-and-pray” strategy will eventually lose. Instead, writes the author, cybersecurity measures must be built into computer systems from an early stage. As a possible template, he points to recent legislation in California that requires “devices connected to the internet sold or offered for sale in [the state] to have ‘reasonable security features.’ ” Another avenue is to require corporations to report about their policies to manage cybersecurity risks. These are good ideas, but one suspects that the devil will be in the implementation details. Overall, this is an engrossing read, although there are parts that are dauntingly technical. Shapiro gives readers plenty to think about the next time they turn on their computers.
An authoritative, disturbing examination of hacking, cybercrime, and techno-espionage.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9780374601171
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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