This is part of a sub-series of postings based on the "20 Books Cybersecurity Professionals Should Read Now".
Neil Stephenson is one of the leading authors in the "cyberpunk" genre, which I covered in a prior posting about Neuromancer. Not surprisingly, he has 3 of his works on this list. I already covered his earlier work, Snow Crash (1992). Now I move to what is considered his second masterpiece, Cryptonomicon.
In this work, there are two separate, but connected storylines. The storylines are separated by time, but have some of the same characters or linked between the two groups.
One storyline is set during WWII and centered around Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young United States Navy code breaker and mathematical genius. He is assigned to the newly formed group called Detachment 2702. Their focus is to keep the Axis from knowing that the Allies has broken the Enigma code.
The second storyline is set in the 1990s, and centers around Randy Waterhouse (Lawrence's grandson). He involved in a venture with others that involved creating a secure data haven and cryptography.
The book gets into some cryptographic details, which may be off putting for some people.
I do recall after reading it at the time that I figured there would be a sequel, but instead he wrote a prequel trilogy called the Baroque Cycle.
Showing posts with label cyberpunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cyberpunk. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
20 Books: Snow Crash
This is part of a sub-series of postings based on the "20 Books Cybersecurity Professionals Should Read Now".
Neil Stephenson is one of the leading authors in the "cyberpunk" genre, which I covered in a prior posting about Neuromancer. Not surprisingly, he has 3 of his works on this list. Snow Crash (1992) is the earliest of the three, so figured we'd start with this one.
Set in the near future where the United States (and probably the world) has broken down into a large number of sovereign enclaves. Most everything is privatized, including roads and mail service. The internet (cyberspace) is known as the Metaverse.
A new virus has been released which is both a computer virus and a neurological virus. The nominal heroes of the story, hacker Hiro Protaganist and Y.T., must work to figure out the mystery behind the Snow Crash virus before its too late.
While that seems fairly straight forward, Stephenson's works include a LOT of other concepts. We get ideas about language being a virus, and that our development of multiple languages was a defense from having a single language and its vulnerabilities.
Some of the concepts in the book actually inspired real systems, such as Google Earth.
Because of the interesting ideas in his works, I recommend checking Stephenson out.
Neil Stephenson is one of the leading authors in the "cyberpunk" genre, which I covered in a prior posting about Neuromancer. Not surprisingly, he has 3 of his works on this list. Snow Crash (1992) is the earliest of the three, so figured we'd start with this one.
Set in the near future where the United States (and probably the world) has broken down into a large number of sovereign enclaves. Most everything is privatized, including roads and mail service. The internet (cyberspace) is known as the Metaverse.
A new virus has been released which is both a computer virus and a neurological virus. The nominal heroes of the story, hacker Hiro Protaganist and Y.T., must work to figure out the mystery behind the Snow Crash virus before its too late.
While that seems fairly straight forward, Stephenson's works include a LOT of other concepts. We get ideas about language being a virus, and that our development of multiple languages was a defense from having a single language and its vulnerabilities.
Some of the concepts in the book actually inspired real systems, such as Google Earth.
Because of the interesting ideas in his works, I recommend checking Stephenson out.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
20 Books: Neuromancer
This is part of a sub-series of postings based on the "20 Books Cybersecurity Professionals Should Read Now".
William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) is considered one of the seminal works of cyberpunk. Ok, so what is "cyberpunk"? Its a genre of science-fiction that is set in the near-future. It shows a world that has both high tech, such as advanced information technology and cybernetics, but also shows a degree of breakdown of the social order. Some could even be a bit dystopic. Cyberpunk would spawn other genres. Attempts to push the ideas of cyberpunk into prior technology periods would result in "steampunk" and "dieselpunk" genres. And other genres would be spawned that would be thispunk and thatpunk that got tiresome.
Why we as info sec professionals should care is that in much of the cyberpunk genre, cyberspace, the world on-line, usually has a big place in the stories. And as such, hacking and security and all that will have a big part to play.
Gibson is considered one of the main originators of the genre, and Neuromancer was his first novel, and the first in his "Sprawl" series. I read it and other cyberpunk works soon after they came out. As a young computer science major in college, I recall trying to grasp the world being explained. Keep in mind that at the time the Internet was not available to many people. The idea of cyberspace was then pure science fiction. We didn't have the Internet, WWW, and all the rest to reference to.
As one of the first cyberpunk works, it sets the stage for others, so I think its important to be familiar with it, and the world of hackers and the computer underground it shows. If you haven't already read it, check it out.
I should point out that the Keanu Reaves movie, Johnny Mneumonic is loosely based on a short story of the same name that precedes Neuromancer, But the movie doesn't quite match up with the story. Big surprise.
William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) is considered one of the seminal works of cyberpunk. Ok, so what is "cyberpunk"? Its a genre of science-fiction that is set in the near-future. It shows a world that has both high tech, such as advanced information technology and cybernetics, but also shows a degree of breakdown of the social order. Some could even be a bit dystopic. Cyberpunk would spawn other genres. Attempts to push the ideas of cyberpunk into prior technology periods would result in "steampunk" and "dieselpunk" genres. And other genres would be spawned that would be thispunk and thatpunk that got tiresome.
Why we as info sec professionals should care is that in much of the cyberpunk genre, cyberspace, the world on-line, usually has a big place in the stories. And as such, hacking and security and all that will have a big part to play.
Gibson is considered one of the main originators of the genre, and Neuromancer was his first novel, and the first in his "Sprawl" series. I read it and other cyberpunk works soon after they came out. As a young computer science major in college, I recall trying to grasp the world being explained. Keep in mind that at the time the Internet was not available to many people. The idea of cyberspace was then pure science fiction. We didn't have the Internet, WWW, and all the rest to reference to.
As one of the first cyberpunk works, it sets the stage for others, so I think its important to be familiar with it, and the world of hackers and the computer underground it shows. If you haven't already read it, check it out.
I should point out that the Keanu Reaves movie, Johnny Mneumonic is loosely based on a short story of the same name that precedes Neuromancer, But the movie doesn't quite match up with the story. Big surprise.
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