Books on Security
Finding books on security is as easy as opening amazon.com and typing “security” in the search field – but my job here is to help you find your way there and get the best out of them! Every single book on this list is in my personal library – and every single security book listed has helped me in one way or another in my personal life or in my career.
I’ve been in Information Security for the past 10 years – working for global companies such as Hewlett-Packard on senior security management levels – and you can look at my opinion as given from experience and with the sincere desire to help you grow in the security profession. Reading books on security is the way to go, so get started!
The best of 2600
I know – from the image the book looks miniscule – but it’s a HUGE ASS BOOK – you can literally use it as a brick in heavy construction work!
This is probably not going to be your first book on Security – but if it could be, I would recommend you buying exactly it. Or, if you’re seasoned in information security but you have not read it, you definitely, most definitely, should! I would describe it almost as an religious experience – you get to learn the beginnings of computer security as we know it, it’s history and the grand stories of some famous hackers. You will discover how it all begun! Is that not exciting?
Description: Since 1984, the quarterly magazine 2600 has provided fascinating articles for readers who are curious about technology. Find the best of the magazine’s writing in Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey, a collection of the strongest, most interesting, and often most controversial articles covering 24 years of changes in technology, all from a hacker’s perspective. Included are stories about the creation of the infamous tone dialer “red box” that allowed hackers to make free phone calls from payphones, the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the insecurity of modern locks.
Buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-2600-Hacker-Odyssey/dp/0470294191/
The Art of Intrusion (by Kevin Mitnick)
This one is iconic as well. If you were ever interested in Social Engineering this book is the first one you should get – and I’m sure you won’t notice the time passing by when reading it. It’s not technical nor is it over simplified – it’s just the story of the greatest hacker ever lived on this planet, in one book!
This is the first book I read on security roughly 10 years ago – and it’s still on my bookshelf.
Description: Kevin Mitnick, the world’s most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cybervandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In his bestselling The Art of Deception, Mitnick presented fictionalized case studies that illustrated how savvy computer crackers use “social engineering” to compromise even the most technically secure computer systems. Now, in his new book, Mitnick goes one step further, offering hair-raising stories of real-life computer break-ins-and showing how the victims could have prevented them. Mitnick’s reputation within the hacker community gave him unique credibility with the perpetrators of these crimes, who freely shared their stories with him-and whose exploits Mitnick now reveals in detail for the first time, including:
- A group of friends who won nearly a million dollars in Las Vegas by reverse-engineering slot machines
- Two teenagers who were persuaded by terrorists to hack into the Lockheed Martin computer systems
- Two convicts who joined forces to become hackers inside a Texas prison
- A “Robin Hood” hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies-andthen told them how he gained access
Buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Intrusion-Intruders-Deceivers/dp/0471782661/
The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security (by Kevin Mitnick)
How many security-related books have a foreword written by Steve Wozniak? This is one of them. Although the front cover may look slightly ugly, it’s the inside that matters. Again, one of my early books – if I remember correctly, I read the whole book on a 125px mobile phone screen… from a text file. Yes, I was that hooked! Should you be? Yes!
Description: The world’s most infamous hacker offers an insider’s view of the low-tech threats to high-tech security
Kevin Mitnick’s exploits as a cyber-desperado and fugitive form one of the most exhaustive FBI manhunts in history and have spawned dozens of articles, books, films, and documentaries. Since his release from federal prison, in 1998, Mitnick has turned his life around and established himself as one of the most sought-after computer security experts worldwide. Now, in The Art of Deception, the world’s most notorious hacker gives new meaning to the old adage, “It takes a thief to catch a thief.”
Buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Deception-Controlling-Security/
There is also the series of books called “Stealing the Network” – and once again, these are unique and immensely valuable to any infosec professional who wishes to expand their horizons in security.
Each book in the series expands the story / exploit levels of the previous one. I’m sure you will just sit there, in awe, of what you just read – once you’re done with them!
So here are the complete series, all in one huge, 1000+ page book and a DVD:
Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition, Final Chapter, and DVD
“Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box is a unique book in the fiction department. It combines stories that are fictional, with technology that is real. While none of the stories have happened, there is no reason why they could not. You could argue it provides a road map for criminal hackers, but I say it does something else: it provides a glimpse into the creative minds of some of today’s best hackers, and even the best hackers will tell you that the game is a mental one.” – from the Foreword to the first Stealing the Network book, How to Own the Box, Jeff Moss, Founder & Director, Black Hat, Inc. and Founder of DEFCON
For the very first time the complete Stealing the Network epic is available in an enormous, over 1000 page volume complete with the final chapter of the saga and a DVD filled with behind the scenes video footage!
These groundbreaking books created a fictional world of hacker superheroes and villains based on real world technology, tools, and tactics. It is almost as if the authors peered into the future as many of the techniques and scenarios in these books have come to pass.
This book contains all of the material from each of the four books in the Stealing the Network series.
All of the stories and tech from:
- How to Own the Box
- How to Own a Continent
- How to Own an Identity
- How to Own a Shadow
Plus:
- Finally – find out how the story ends! The final chapter is here!
- A DVD full of behind the scenes stories and insider info about the making of these cult classics!
Buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Network-Complete-Collectors-Chapter/dp/159749299X/
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