Books For a Near Future Review
Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable
Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld
Received courtesy review copies of two books that will serve to “stretch” my knowledge base and increase my cognitive map.
Mark Gilbert is a financial columnist and bureau chief for Bloomberg News in London and he has written a hard hitting deconstruction of 
the great credit collapse and crisis bail-out of 2008-2009. Gilbert is telling a story of breathtaking risk assumption, regulatory capture, academic hubris, central bankers as naked emperors and unrepentant banksters who have learned nothing and forgotten nothing from the crisis. My personal background in credit issues is rooted solidly in the dustily agrarian economic history of the 19th century and the painful transition from yeoman “book debt” to gold standard dollars, so I look forward to broadening my understanding of modern financial systems from reading Complicit.
I will probably review Complicit in a cross-blog conjunction with Lexington Green, who also has a copy in his possession.
Jeffrey Carr is the CEO of GreyLogic and a researcher, presenter and consultant on issues related to cybersecurity, hacking, cyberterrorism and asymmetric conflicts in virtual domains. Carr offers a cohesive and compact look at the major problems and players in the uncertain crossroads of national security and cyberspace. Non-geeks (like myself) will appreciate Carr’s focus in Inside Cyber Warfare on the connection to the worlds of intelligence, law enforcement, international law and military operations and doctrine. As an added bonus, the foreword is by Lewis Shepherd, another blogfriend and the former Senior Technology Officer of the DIA.
Originally, I had wanted to review Inside Cyber Warfare before last Christmas, so now that I have the book, I will move it to the top of my titanic reading pile.
January 21st, 2010 at 6:08 pm
I need to finish a few I am currently reading, and I will turn to Complicit in a couple of weeks, probably. Looking forward to an education in an area I know less well than I would like to.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:28 am
For another book along those same lines, I recommend the Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson.
More map-making.
Semper Fi,
Chris
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Posner’s book, A Failure of Capitalism, was superb.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:12 am
ordered inside cyber warfare tonight.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:33 am
I have heard some good things about Ascent of Money and I liked Ferguson’s Rothschild history. Colossus was not as good and I have not yet read The War of the World, which is on my shelf.
.
Is that Judge Richard Posner DC ?
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:34 am
Thanks Fred!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Started CW last night; first impressions very favorable. Carr uses the same mapping software that I use–so his maps have a look and feel that at are at once familiar and intriguing. One thing I’ve learned–the Internet is a much more dangerous place than I suspected–and is becoming a type of field of war.
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Finished; my brief Amazon review: <br>Mr. Carr’s Inside Cyber Warfare is an informative and frightening glimpse into the dangerous realities of our global (connected) digital world. In form and function the book provides the layman a good taxonomy of methods, tactics, and strategies of governments [w/particular emphasis on Russia and China], criminal enterprises and hackers [in groups or on their own]. He does a very good job of describing the legal status of cyber warfare—exposing many holes which leaves most of the work exposed and without legal remedy/recourse. Most informative was his descriptions of the vulnerabilities of social media and how these everyday tools can be be used for mischief. This book is recommended for anyone curious about the state of our cyber world or information warfare. Well done, Mr. Carr. Highly recommended.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:05 am
Yes, Judge Posner. Somewhat controversial, but there’s are really top-knotch at work there.