Cybersecurity books that help us understand technology

“It doesn’t go wrong, it starts wrong.”

This captures the privacy and security challenges that existing and new technologies alike are facing. 

When you read about how government agencies are accessing your personal data, don’t get caught up on the actual collection event. You should be just as (or more!) concerned that companies are intentionally developing and promoting software products which allow them or third parties to spy on you.

This is why software developers play a key role in making sure the product they build doesn’t negatively impact the user.

Because the relationship between cause and effect is a very convoluted one in technology, reading books about cyber security is a good way to understand why we need it and how its principles help us. The main benefit of these books is that the pros who write them have done the research and broken down this complexity so anyone who wants to can easily understand it.

Inspired by our recent reads, we have a conversation about ethics in the technology development community and how this impacts our lives.

You’ll learn how the Wannacry ransomware attack triggered a new era in cybercrime tactics with global reach and very visible impact. You’ll also hear about the role government agencies sometimes play in enabling cybercriminals to create and distribute malicious software. Additionally, you’ll learn about the impact that internet overuse is having on people and how it makes bad actors’ “jobs” much easier. 

In this episode, you will learn:

What a zero-day vulnerability is (01:34)How the WannaCry ransomware attack worked (03:53)Why technology developers need to consider the ethical responsibility for what they build (12:56)The impact the internet has on our thinking ability (26:34)

Resources: 

Cindy Gallop - Advertising Business (article)Heather Burns - Understanding Privacy (book)Nicholas Carr - The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (book)Edward Snowden - Permanent Record (book)Nicole Perlroth - This is how they tell me the world ends (book)WannacryStuxnet

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