Libri di William L. Simon Migliori da leggere e consigliati

The firsthand account of the trials and tribulations of engineering one of the most complex pieces of space technology, the Mars Rover Curiosity, by its chief engineer Rob Manning In the course of our enduring quest for knowledge about ourselves and our universe, we haven’t found answers to one of our most fundamental questions: Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? Ten years and billions of dollars in the making, the Mars Rover Curiosity is poised to answer this all-important question. In Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity’s Chief Engineer, Rob Manning, the project’s chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of leading an army of brilliant, passionate, and often frustrated experts. Manning’s fascinating personal account–which includes information from his exclusive interviews with leading Curiosity scientists–is packed with tales of revolutionary feats of science, technology, and engineering. Readers experience firsthand the disappointment at encountering persistent technical problems, the agony of near defeat, the sense of victory at finding innovative solutions to these problems, the sheer terror of staking careers and reputations on a lander that couldn’t be tested on Earth, and the rush of triumph at its successful touchdown on Mars on August 5, 2012. This is the story of persistence, dedication, and unrelenting curiosity.

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.” Focusing on the human factors involved with information security, Mitnick explains why all the firewalls and encryption protocols in the world will never be enough to stop a savvy grifter intent on rifling a corporate database or an irate employee determined to crash a system. With the help of many fascinating true stories of successful attacks on business and government, he illustrates just how susceptible even the most locked-down information systems are to a slick con artist impersonating an IRS agent. Narrating from the points of view of both the attacker and the victims, he explains why each attack was so successful and how it could have been prevented in an engaging and highly readable style reminiscent of a true-crime novel. And, perhaps most importantly, Mitnick offers advice for preventing these types of social engineering hacks through security protocols, training programs, and manuals that address the human element of security.

Hacker extraordinaire, Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling “The Art of Deception”. 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; and, a “Robin Hood” hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies and then told them how he gained access. With riveting “you are there” descriptions of real computer break ins, indispensable tips on countermeasures security professionals need to implement now, and Mitnick’s own acerbic commentary on the crimes he describes, this book is sure to reach a wide audience and attract the attention of both law enforcement agencies and the media.