Listening In
WARNING
You are viewing an older version of the Yalebooks website. Please visit out new website with more updated information and a better user experience: https://www.yalebooks.com
Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age
Susan Landau
View Inside
Format: PaperPrice: $18.00
Our shopping cart only supports Mozilla Firefox. Please ensure you're using that browser before attempting to purchase.
Also Available in:
Hardcover
A cybersecurity expert and former Google privacy analyst’s urgent call to protect devices and networks against malicious hackers?
New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country’s electricity—and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable. In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un. And Russian cyberattackers leaked Democratic National Committee emails in an attempt to sway a U.S. presidential election.
And yet despite such documented risks, government agencies, whose investigations and surveillance are stymied by encryption, push for a weakening of protections. In this accessible and riveting read, Susan Landau makes a compelling case for the need to secure our data, explaining how we must maintain cybersecurity in an insecure age.
New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country’s electricity—and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable. In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un. And Russian cyberattackers leaked Democratic National Committee emails in an attempt to sway a U.S. presidential election.
And yet despite such documented risks, government agencies, whose investigations and surveillance are stymied by encryption, push for a weakening of protections. In this accessible and riveting read, Susan Landau makes a compelling case for the need to secure our data, explaining how we must maintain cybersecurity in an insecure age.
Susan Landau is Bridge Professor in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, at Tufts University.
“A sophisticated yet accessible primer on how communications technologies, devices, and services work; the threats to them; and the tools, including encryption, that . . . can protect our privacy and secure our data.”—Glenn C. Altschuler, HuffPost
"Susan Landau manages to harness the sprint of our online era and provides a lasting framework for how to manage, protect, and even master our digital footprint."—Juliette Kayyem, former Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Homeland Security
"Encryption is essential to our online security, but it also makes the job of law enforcement harder. In Listening In, Landau gives us an authoritative and unflinching look at this challenge and confronts the urgent question of security in the digital age."—Matt Olsen, Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center
"Susan Landau has performed a remarkable feat of public service with Listening In: she simplifies the complex contemporary debate around privacy and security trade-offs in a way that welcomes anyone with an interest in these topics to engage with them -- and she demonstrates why everyone should."—Jonathan Zittrain, author of The Future of the Internet – and How to Stop It
“An extremely important book. Landau has the remarkable talent of taking very broad issues and detailing them in a concise, yet comprehensive manner.”—Ben Rothke, author of Computer Security, on Landau's previous book Surveillance or Security?
"Susan Landau is eminently qualified to guide readers to deeper understanding of risks and threats that accompany an increasingly connected world. Our online appetites are growing and our presence attracts hacking and surveillance among other uses we may not have authorized or even anticipated. Must read."—Vint Cerf, internet pioneer
“A detailed overview of the history of cybersecurity.”—Hope Reese, UnDark
“[Landau’s] clean knowledgeable writing reflects the depth of her expertise as she traces the tug of war that has played out between law enforcement and cryptographers in recent decades.”
—Kadhim Shubber, Financial Times
—Kadhim Shubber, Financial Times
“An excellent primer on the importance of encryption for users of technology.”—Choice
ISBN: 9780300244427
Publication Date: March 26, 2019
Publication Date: March 26, 2019
240 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4
