Overview

Cybersecurity incidents make the news with startling regularity. Each breach-the theft of 145.5 million Americans' information from Equifax, for example, or the Russian government's theft of National Security Agency documents, or the Sony Pictures data dump-makes headlines, inspires panic, instigates lawsuits, and is then forgotten. The cycle of alarm and amnesia continues with the next attack, and the one after that. In this book, cybersecurity expert Josephine Wolff argues that we shouldn't forget about these incidents, we should investigate their trajectory, from technology flaws to reparations for harm done to their impact on future security measures. We can learn valuable lessons in the aftermath of cybersecurity breaches. Wolff describes a series of significant cybersecurity incidents between 2005 and 2015, mapping the entire life cycle of each breach in order to identify opportunities for defensive intervention. She outlines three types of motives underlying these attacks-financial gain, espionage, and public humiliation of the victims-that have remained consistent through a decade of cyberattacks, offers examples of each, and analyzes the emergence of different attack patterns. The enormous TJX breach in 2006, for instance, set the pattern for a series of payment card fraud incidents that led to identity fraud and extortion; the Chinese army conducted cyberespionage campaigns directed at US-based companies from 2006 to 2014, sparking debate about the distinction between economic and political espionage; and the 2014 breach of the Ashley Madison website was aimed at reputations rather than bank accounts.

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9781982622367

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This is a critical work explaining the interplay between cybersecurity technology, policy, and law. Through the deft storytelling of six major cyberattacks, Wolff illustrates how liability and blame hinder our attempts to make the internet more secure. A must-read for anyone trying to understand how cybersecurity technology and policy play out in the real world. -- Bruce Schneier, author of Data and Goliath, CTO of IBM Resilient, and fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center You'll See This Message When It Is Too Late provides a fresh perspective on cybersecurity. With attention to the legal and policy decisions that impact cybersecurity efforts, Wolff offers hope that there are more ways to enduringly defend against attacks than we may think. -- Jonathan Zittrain, professor of computer science and George Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard University Wolff's book challenges conventional wisdom about cybersecurity with insight, theory, and case studies, concluding that focusing on nontechnical aspects of cybersecurity offers much more leverage than techies realize. Read it! -- Herbert Lin, senior research scholar and Hank J. Holland Research Fellow, Stanford University

Author Information

Josephine Wolff is assistant professor in the Public Policy Department and Computer Security Department at Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a Faculty Associate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and a Fellow at the New America Cybersecurity Initiative. She has written for Internet Policy Review, Slate, the Atlantic, Scientific American, the New Republic, and other publications. Kate Reading is an Audie Award-winning narrator and has received dozens of Earphones Awards. She has been named by AudioFile magazine as a Voice of the Century, as well as the Best Voice in Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2008 and 2009 and Best Voice in Biography & Culture in 2010. She is also a theater actor in the Washington, DC, area and has been a member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, among others.

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