Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures 1st Edition

by Joel McNamara (Author)

20 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0764537103

ISBN-10: 9780764537103

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* Covers electronic and wireless eavesdropping, computer surveillance, intelligence gathering, password cracking, keylogging, data duplication, black bag computer spy jobs, reconnaissance, risk assessment, legal issues, and advanced spying techniques used by the government
* Author shares easily-implemented countermeasures against spying to detect and defeat eavesdroppers and other hostile individuals
* Addresses legal issues, including the U.S. Patriot Act, legal spying in the workplace, and computer fraud crimes
* Companion Web site contains links to security tools and useful security information resources

Editorial Reviews

Review

&an informative book which should help keep those defences up and those intruders out& -- PC Utilities, No.39, 2003

&informative&entertaining&next time you go to your local bookseller, locate a copy. I bet you'll be hooked& -- Linux Journal, 22 August 2003

“…provides insightful details backed up by a wealth of real-life examples….clearly a valuable addition to your bookshelf…” (www.net-security.org, May 2004)

“…surprisingly clear given the degree of difficulty of his topic,…we suggest this practical book top managers…” (www.getabstract.com, May 2004)

"…an informative book which should help keep those defences up and those intruders out…" (PC Utilities, No.39, 2003)

“…will definitely open your eyes…quirky case studies and good coverage of latest technology…” (Internetworks, November 2003)

“…informative…entertaining…next time you go to your local bookseller, locate a copy. I bet you’ll be hooked…” (Linux Journal, 22 August 2003)

&an informative book which should help keep those defences up and those intruders out& -- PC Utilities, No.39, 2003

&informative&entertaining&next time you go to your local bookseller, locate a copy. I bet you'll be hooked& -- Linux Journal, 22 August 2003

&will definitely open your eyes&quirky case studies and good coverage of latest technology& -- Internetworks, November 2003

From the Back Cover

Is someone spying on you?

You might be surprised

It could be your boss, your competition, or a private investigator, but it could just as easily be a foreign intelligence agent–or the whiz kid down the street. More and more people today want to know what’s on your computer, your PDA, your cell phone, or your wireless network. And as soon as one vulnerable chink in your security is identified and plugged, a new spy tool or method will arise to circumvent the countermeasure.

Joel McNamara takes you inside the mind of the computer espionage artist–amateur or professional–and shows you appropriate defenses for a wide array of potential vulnerabilities.

This is not just another book on network security. This is the book that teaches you to think like a spy, because that’s the only way to outwit one.

Analyze your risk of becoming a target of espionage
Recognize and lock down the vulnerabilities of instant messaging, Web browsers, e-mail inboxes, and address books
Understand where electronic eavesdropping becomes criminal–and where it’s perfectly legal
Discover how spies circumvent security measures and learn how to protect yourself
Find out how law enforcement recovers evidence from a suspect computer
See how a determined spy can compromise the average fax machine, paper shredder, cell phone, voice-mail, pager, PDA, and digital camera
Learn how the government uses computer espionage techniques to combat drug lords, organized crime, foreign terrorists, and industrial espionage
Explore some of the top-secret national spying projects like TEMPEST, ECHELON, Carnivore/DCS-1000, intelligence-gathering worms and viruses, and what impact they may have on you

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0764537105
Publisher ‏ : ‎ John Wiley &Sons; 1st edition (June 13, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 386 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780764537103
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0764537103
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.87 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,106,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,423 in Computer Hacking
- #2,668 in Computer Networking (Books)
- #4,385 in Computer Networks, Protocols & APIs (Books)

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20 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Alan Olsen

A side of computer security seldom seen

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2003

Verified Purchase

Warning: This book will make you paranoid.
It shows you just what kind of problems you face in securing your computers and life in the current legal climate. it shows just what can be done to you legally without papers being served on you. The current laws concerning wiretaping and gathering of evidence. How black bag operations are planned and committed. How your systems can be monitored in many many ways.
The book is current as of 2003 and includes information on the oxymoronically named "Patriot Act", as well as CALEA and other laws that remove your privacy from people with guns and an excuse.
And then there are the illegal ways.
The book does into a level of depth that the current law enforcement community would not want you to know. And you do want to know, even if you don't have anything to hide. (And everyone does have things to protect. Your reputation, your credit information, where you keep your money, not to mention those things that may be unpopular with someone somewhere.)
Well worth getting if you have any interest in security, computers or otherwise.

18 people found this helpful

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JYA aka Cryptome

Machinic Bypasses of Personal Anonymity

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

Machinic Bypasses of Personal Anonymity

The distinction between personal anonymity, consumer anonymity and machine anonymity is worth pondering. Data profilers will quickly offer personal anonymity in exchange for access to data to profile an anonymous consumer. Who a person is is less important than buyer behavior, the name on a bank account is not as important as payments made by the account. It is well established that Internet aggregators of data seek the patterns, pathways and networks of individuals, not so much their individual identity. An algorithmic, machinic ID is assigned to the data for purposes of processing and using the data.

Behind the promises of personal anonymity is the reality of machinic identity which underlies all devices that transmit and receive data. Much of machinic processing take place without humans and thus has no need for personal identity -- personal anonymity is automatically provided by exclusion from the processing.

Every digital device can be traced and profiled by its activities. The hardware which is used for digital communications, for example, sends signals among devices which are uniquely identified necessarily by type, location and capabilities. A personal device performs its service without need for information about the person using it -- personal identity is useless for machinic performance. Mouse/input device to computer to LAN to cable to ISP to manifold ISPs, nodes and networks -- to and from -- occurs in the background without personal ID, similar to automated controls of structures and infrastructures. This signal is trivially anonymous unless converted to personal nonymity for non-machinic purposes.

Machines and physical networks leak signal, very faintly or grossly. Some of the signal is only for machinic performance, some is anonymous content for directing the signal, some is nonymous content for the sending and receiving parties. Only the latter raises the issue of personal identity, and it is this part which allows protection of identity. The machinic parts and their distinctive leakiness may be used to profile a pattern of behavior by a user whose personal identity is otherwise concealed. Tracing an input-device user to a particular location and to a receiver of that input, as well as profiling the exchanges, can be done machinicly without need to breach personal anonymity or comsec at either end.

For this reason it is fair to describe the Internet as well as other communications systems as concealed spying systems -- concealed from those who (have been induced to) believe user location, identity and content protection are primary. Analogic machinic performance requirements necessarily bypass digital security. And weaknesses in analogic systems cannot be fully corrected by digital means, which, at best, can only camouflage and divert.

As with communications security, the most effective attacks on a secure system are never revealed, instead camouflage, diversions and ruses are promulgated to conceal the attacks. Controversy about password protection, encryption, privacy policy, anonymity and governmental, commercial and institutional spying on Internet users may well be orchestrated diversions from how machinic tracking bypasses consumer and citizen efforts of protection.

Examples of diversion are anonymizing services, encryption and privacy policies which provide some protection on the digital surface but none on the analogic subsurface.

References:

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, by Andrew Blum, 2012
Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures, Joel McNamara, 2003
The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols, David D. Clark, 1988
Transport Protocol Specification, ISO, 1984
A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication, Vincent Cerf and Robert Kahn, 1974

Helpful

Elan N. Clarke

Highly Recommended

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2009

Verified Purchase

Secrets of Computer Espionage: by Joel McNamara is a must for any PC user.This book is worth reading, it stresses the vulnerabilities and threats that so many people overlook it also explains the evolution of spy tactics, network eavesdropping and provide some countermeasures as well.

I don't know how I survive in the computer world for so long without this book, it is one of my favourites,I take it with me almost everywhere I go. This book is very thought-provoking, as a computer technician and Law enforcement officer this book is very valuable to me, it helps you to getinto the minds of identity thieves.

I highly recommend this book, it is worth buying.

One person found this helpful

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Rick Nelson

Computer Espionage

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

Provides good background but must be considered with other cyber-literature to obtain a broad cyber-crime perspective.
Not for the computer hardware/software technically challenged.

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hamdaddy4u5o

Excellent product at a great price that was delivered in ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

Excellent product at a great price that was delivered in about 3 days. Outstanding !!!!! A+A+A+ Can't say enough good about the seller

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Ben Rothke

Informative look at the risks of digital espionage

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2005

Judging from the title, Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures would appear to be geared to governments, security agencies, or high-level corporations. In fact, as the author makes clear, anyone with an Internet connection is a potential target of online espionage-even by such "mundane" means as viruses, worms, and phishing attacks-and this book is addressed to that huge audience.

Just who is spying on whom? The author explains that the typical person might be a target of bosses, friends, family members, hackers, and many others. Even people with nothing confidential or of value on their computers risk getting caught up in espionage and other cyber capers. For instance, hackers can use their computers as vehicles for staging attacks or as a location for storing illicit files, such as child pornography. And as more cell phones and PDAs connect to the Internet, the risks multiply.

What may be disturbing to some readers is that every computer device and peripheral provides at least one avenue of attack. The author explains many of these schemes, such as keystroke loggers and cleartext file transfers via file transfer protocol (FTP). In addition, operating-system and application-level vulnerabilities constitute even more ways that systems can be compromised.

Despite the grim picture painted by the author, the book isn't intended to make readers paranoid, but rather to acquaint them with the many risks posed by the Internet. This excellent book shows that someone quite possibly is out to get you, but it provides the tools to protect yourself.

4 people found this helpful

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Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures 1st Edition