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Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I am using Cybershock for my textbook. I wanted to pass on some general comments from my students.They feel the book is GREAT! It is interesting, easy to read, and brings up ideas to think about. Almost all my students have made these comments. One student has even got his thesis adviser to read the book. For me, since the book is easy to read, I am having fun with the course. I have my students read several pages as homework (approx. 60- 80 but this isn't a problem since they like to read it - we meet once per week) and then they find articles on the same subject for class discussion. Most of my students have read the entire book and are now just reviewing it for class. We are only half way through the course. The discussions are energized and often the students reference the book in the class discussions as either an opposing side or in support of their articles. Winn did a great job! Thank you, Winn, for writing the book.
Rating:
Summary: book review
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Winn Schwartau's book. He gives the reader an insightful look of hackers and phreakers community. He doesn't berate that community, but helps the reader understand what they are about. Schwartau's book makes this dangerous issue easy to understand and is written in a way that everyone has a chance of reading this book. He also fills the book with examples of security breaks that he has encountered. His stories seem scary at first, but he also emphasizes that there are ways to deter such attacks. His idea is not to get readers to stop using computers and the Internet because of such attacks, but to get them aware of what it out there and to take countermeasures. His real life stories are what make the book interesting to read and enjoy. I think that he could have offered sort of program that would allow the reader to see an example of a security program, maybe negotiating a deal to market a program would have been nice to include.
Rating:
Summary: One-stop course to common sense on the net
Review: I'm not saying not to read this book. If you're after info and facts, it's got a lot of them, and they're useful and thought provoking. At the same time, take it with a grain of salt. This book would have been much better written if the author had been able to take himself out of it a little more. His acedotes are amusing, but they give the whole book a feeling of condensation, a "smarter than thou" feeling. And it just got under my nerves. If you're reading it for the info, go ahead. If you're reading it for reading, try something else.
Rating: 
Summary: The Real Comprehensive Guide To Internet...
Review: Mr. Schwartau has never let me down before, and this time is no exception. Being a knowledgeable security professional already I still decided to read this book anyway. I liked the plain sense of it that I lent it to my neighbor who often wondered what my job involves, and probably be lending to my friend who is in law enforcement. It's a good read and I can guarantee after reading this book and watching CNN reports about hackers you'll begin to understand and question some things...
Rating:
Summary: A Hacker's Thoughts on cyberSecurity
Review: Speaking as someone who once spent three months behind bars for computer hacking, I can vouch for the authenticity of this book. It should scare you right out of your socks. And it's not the technical details that should scare you, though there's enough of that. It's the simple "social engineering" that can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. A good hacker doesn't need to touch a computer - he just picks his target, gains a bit of information and uses others to do the dirty work, all unsuspecting. By the time you work out you are under attack, someone has taken out a second mortgage on your home, cashed in your life insurance, raided your credit cards and had a hell of a good time at your expense. Here are case studies to demonstrate it. people driven to bankruptcy, despair and suicide. Get a firewall on your computer right NOW. And do all the other things this book advises. Otherwise you are a mug. Don't figure it won't happen to you - if you are at all active in cyberspace, then you are leaving footprints behind that can be picked up and exploited by a hacker looking for his next target. Buy this book - it will be the best handful of dollars you ever spent.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book for the Layman!
Review: The author covers just about every area on information warfare, however, the book would be strengthened with the addition of a software CD that included free security tools and liks to security sites. ZoneAlarm is a free internet firewall that makes it virtually impossible for a internet hacker to access your computer without physical access. Freedom, is another piece of software the protects your identity and internet habits/practices/visits even from your ISP check it out: http://www.zeroknowledge.com/clickthrough/click.asp?partner_id=10124 Another FREE program/account gives you a way to securely and with certainty spend and receive money online (privately and anonymously if neccessary) http://www.24karat.cjb.net Tons more...email me if you need them by clicking on the reviewers name above this post. Hope that helps some :-)
Rating:
Summary: Sensationalist, Populist, Useful, Worthy
Review: There will be those quick to trash this book as sensationalist, and they are partly right. What most people, including the critics, do not realize is that Winn Schwartau went out on a limb in the late 1980's and early 1990's and is *the* primary reason Congress got concerned enough about these issues to demand a Critical Infrastructure Protection program funded at over $1B--it was Winn, not others quick to claim the line, that testified to Congress about an "electronic Pearl Harbor" on 24 June 1991. This book is unabashedly populist and seeks to make this very complex threat entertaining and understandable, and for that reason alone it is worth the time to consider. There are many other serious books for engineers, this is the one for anyone at all from housewife to student to executive. Great airplane book, won't save the world, but will certainly increase your consciousness across the board. Worthy.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Stuff
Review: This book is a good explanation of hackers of all varieties, their techniques, and what ordinary people and businesses can do to protect against them. In a usually-even-tempered voice, Mr. Schwartau tackles common misconceptions and explains what hackers really are and what threats we should really be worrying about. He has had a reputation of being a Chicken Little with regard to hacking, but at least a respected Chicken Little. None of this is real knock-your-socks-off stuff. But it's good in an enjoyable sort of a way.
Rating: 
Summary: Worse book on the subject
Review: This is quite possibly the worse book I ever read on the subject. The author has a tendency to make unqualified statements with no supportive evidence. He thinks Hong Kong is an ".... emerging country around the Far East, having problems with software piracy. (Where have you been for the last 50 yrs ? Australia has a software piracy rates on par to Hong Kong. The highest is in Thailand and Vietnam.) He thinks when you start a web browser, and a small program running in the background, it is written in a "new" computer language called JAVA. Not knowing that JavaScirpt and JAVA has nothing in common, but share a name. He is not sure whether to called hacker as "immature bastards" with no real skills, or to take the high road and suggest that talented individuals like them should be nutured, and jail sentences should be reserved for murderers - so he did both.
The author has the hallmark of a typical sales/marketing/management type, knowing all the buzz words: risk management, business contingency plan, ..etc. CEO loves it, but can he tell the different between PPTP and IPSec ? and why should you use one and not the other ? I started questioning his credential after reading three chapters. If you want a better introduction to the subject, try Personal Firewalls by Lisa Yeo, Firewalls and Internet Security by Cheswick and Bellovin or Hacker's Challenge by Schiffman. Luckily, I only paid $4 for this paper weight.
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