Sep 1, 2015 11:00 AM

You Can't Understand Security Without These Classic Works

Essential background material for helping you understand the worlds of security and government today.

There are seminal books, movies, articles, and more that you’ve been meaning to get to but just haven’t made the time for. Well, the time is now, so here’s some essential background material for helping you understand the worlds of security and government today.

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MGM/Everett Collection

WARGAMES, Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, 1983, (c) MGM/courtesy Everett Collection

WarGames | A high-schooler hacks into a US military computer and brings the country to the brink of war—a reminder that attribution can be tricky.

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Cyberspies Hacked Cisco Firewalls to Access Government Networks

Sources suspect China is behind the targeted exploitation of two zero-day vulnerabilities in Cisco’s security appliances.

Andy Greenberg

Change Healthcare Finally Admits It Paid Ransomware Hackers—and Still Faces a Patient Data Leak

The company belatedly conceded both that it had paid the cybercriminals extorting it and that patient data nonetheless ended up on the dark web.

Andy Greenberg

ShotSpotter Keeps Listening for Gunfire After Contracts Expire

Internal emails suggest that the company continued to provide gunshot data to police in cities where its contracts had been canceled.

Max Blaisdell

The Biggest Deepfake Porn Website Is Now Blocked in the UK

The world's most-visited deepfake website and another large competing site are stopping people in the UK from accessing them, days after the UK government announced a crackdown.

Matt Burgess

The Best VPNs to Protect Yourself Online

It won’t solve all of your privacy problems, but a virtual private network can make you a less tempting target for hackers.

Scott Gilbertson

North Koreans Secretly Animated Amazon and Max Shows, Researchers Say

Thousands of exposed files on a misconfigured North Korean server hint at one way the reclusive country may evade international sanctions.

Matt Burgess

The Next US President Will Have Troubling New Surveillance Powers

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden signed legislation not only reauthorizing a major FISA spy program but expanding it in ways that could have major implications for privacy rights in the US.

Dell Cameron

Hackers Linked to Russia’s Military Claim Credit for Sabotaging US Water Utilities

Cyber Army of Russia Reborn, a group with ties to the Kremlin’s Sandworm unit, is crossing lines even that notorious cyberwarfare unit wouldn’t dare to.

Andy Greenberg