Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent by Ryan Russell

Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent Reviews

• 
  Amar Pai

  This might be the best security book I've read. It reads like a suspense novel, but at the same time gives a fairly deep technical overview of how massive 'cyber-crimes' are accomplished. The book's suspense novel conceit is really useful as a way of communicating the concepts. I almost feel like this should be required reading for all developers. It's better than teaching security via endless boring Powerpoint slides. ("The elements of security are STRIDE. [next slide] S - Something. [next slide] T -TakeSecuritySeriously. [next slide] I - InfoSec. [next slide] D - DontGiveOutPassword [next slid] E - EvilHackers...")
  
  The prose in this book is workman-like at best, but that's cos each chapter was written by a domain expert (i.e. a l33t or semi-l33t hacker). You can tell from the level of technical detail that this is the real deal. Surprisingly, though the writing isn't gonna win any awards, it's actually not that bad. Certainly no worse than what you'd see in a Tom Clancy book. This is basically a Tom Clancy novel, but with PHP exploits, nmap console logs, IDA debugger sessions, and other info-sec-porn in place of the usual war-nerdy stats about submarines, missile launchers, Apache gunships, etc.
  
  Only real complaint w/ the book is that it's somewhat outdated. (god infosec moves so fast, I mean this is pre Snowden, pre Stuxnet, pre all the Russian bank robberies / ATM exploits / SWATTING attacks...) But really, most of it is still very applicable today. It's all chillingly plausible, and if anything, history has shown that this book was only scratching the surface of what's possible.
• 
  P0B

  I cannot express in words how refreshing it is to *finally* read the blow by blow details of "what if" hi tech fiction written by authors who *know* the specifics of the technology that they're describing! Outstanding is simply not enough. Dan Brown fans take note, if you think Mr Brown's excursions into what he imagines passes for "hi tech" story lines then you will be sorely disappointed with the STN series simply because you will not understand *any* of the technology. Keep up the good work, Syngress! I look forward to the next book in the STN series.
• 
  Jeremy Needle

  This title is perfect for most tech-savvy people who want to see overhead of a large-scale plan. Even those who aren't familiar w/ NMAP commands or the nature of telco will still benefit from seeing the phased planning of a global hack; and believe me ladies & gentlemen, this is as big as it gets. Medical records, third world service providers, international identity fraud...oh yeah. This is probably THE most realistic text out there.
• 
  Dan

  This is a good example of heavy tech geek factor meets prose. These guys are great, and this has actually inspired me for some corporate security awareness work.
• 
  Istvan Kis

  Csak azoknak élvezhető, akik ITsec-ben dolgoznak, vagy érdekli őket ez a világ, mert sok helyen kifejezetten belemegy módszerekbe, eljárásokba, kódokba, néhol még ASM (!) is előkerül. Egészen furcsa egyvelege ez a regénynek és a szakkönyvnek, természetesen jócskán a regény felé billenve. Defconos srácok írták, egészen jópofa, de szigorú vagyok, ezért a 3 csillag.
• 
  Günther Leenaert

  A great read! Edutainment fiction.
• 
  Brian

  (4.0) Great, not seamlessly connected nor well written but cool
  
  I really liked the concept: a series of short stories linked together by a mastermind criminal who coerces hackers to do his bidding (without really knowing they're part of his "retirement plan"). Real vulnerabilities, real thought processes that an attacker would go through to win the prize.
  
  Writing is pretty raw/bad, but could definitely see past that to the gold that's here. Especially the chapter that's an homage to Real Genius. Genius.
  
  If you read the appendix (their yahoo! newsgroup in which they planned this out), you'll see that it really was separate chapters inspired by the hacking that they loosely wove together retrospectively. This does detract a bit (doesn't fit together quite like, say, Daemon). But still this was good stuff.
  
  Thanks for the rec, Amar!
• 
  Gaurav Chaturvedi

  First of this book is written by geeks and not story tellers, so the sound and feel of this book lacks a lot.
  But it more then makes it up in its technical details.

  The chapters are written by different hackers, so the story lacks depth and its poorly tied together. I would suggest reading the book as different short stories rather then reading it as single piece of fiction.
• 
  Aaron

  By now the technology is starting to get a little dated, but this book was a great read for the technical details behind what can go into a hack. It was very enjoyable from that perspective. The writing left a lot to be desired, especially a few select chapters. So if you can look beyond the pedantic, chauvinistic, and overly verbose text, then it's a fine book. :)
• 
  Martijn

  The idea was interesting, a book about hacking written by hackers. Unfortunately they all have different writing styles and the overal story didn't really come together.