Authors: James Adams.
Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 2001-03-23


Reviews :

    It is a silent, invisible, and deadly weapons system. It can paralyze an entire nation without a single soldier being sent to war. We glimpsed its potential on television when surgical strikes on radar sites, electrical power plants, and command networks crippled Iraqi forces during the Gulf War. Now, in The Next World War, James Adams shows how a new chapter in military history is being written as the Information Age comes to the battlefield: to bigger and stronger, now add smarter. As increasingly sophisticated computers and microtechnology have become available, the concept of "conventional" warfare has changed. Technology has already made its way to the front lines: soldiers are now equipped, for example, with new "smart" technologies such as handheld computers that allow them to e-mail their commanders. There are devices that can sense an enemy's presence before the enemy is visible, by detecting body heat or by communication with satellites overhead. Robotic "bugs" can even be sent in swarms to sabotage weapons or subdue enemy soldiers. But the most significant and important use of information warfare won't be on the battlefield. The most devastating weapons will be those that target an enemy's infrastructure -- air-control systems, electrical grids, and communication networks, to name just a few potential targets. "Trojan horse" chips or viruses designed to accept and respond to commands from U.S. military intelligence can be installed in computers being sold overseas, making them vulnerable to attack. By hacking into computer systems, the United States could override programmed commands and thus shut down air traffic control systems, and open floodgates and bridges. Misinformation could even be broadcast, for example, by using imaging technology to simulate a television appearance by an enemy nation's leaders. This type of combat puts civilians at more risk than ever, as financial, communication, transportation, and other infrastructure systems become prime military targets. And information warfare puts the United States -- a nation increasingly dependent on technology -- in a position of both definite advantage and extreme vulnerability. In The Next World War, James Adams draws on impressive research as well as his lifetime of reporting on intelligence and military affairs to give us a chilling scenario of how wars will be fought in the new millennium -- and how much closer to home they might strike....

    Has the computer chip changed the nature of warfare? Will it eventually change war beyond current recognition? Adams, the former defense correspondent and Washington bureau chief for the London Sunday Times, believes that information will become the ultimate weapon and that future battlegrounds will be everywhere we live and work. While the weapons and technology of war will improve beyond even technofiction's expectations, it's the "information warfare" that will be critical in foreign wars and in the war against domestic crime.

We've already seen some of what is to come in the Gulf War's camera-equipped smart bombs. Soldiers can now be equipped with hand-held computers that can send messages and information back to superiors. And among the weapons to come: microwave cannons; plasma guns; devices that can see, smell, and hear; and even robotic "ants" that can swarm and explode around the enemy. Soldiers will wear uniforms powered by body heat that automatically relay important information back to their base camp. Helmets will be able to locate incoming fire, help a soldier see under all kinds of conditions, and locate others in a patrol.

The ability to attack an enemy's civilian infrastructure, such as communication networks, air traffic control, bridges and dams, and electric grids, will be part of the new era of war. With the advanced state of digital imaging, misinformation campaigns in enemy countries can take on a much more convincing role. All it takes is for one country to have a few skilled hackers, and suddenly the number of troops, the hardware, and the nuclear devices don't matter. Could there be an "electronic Pearl Harbor?"

Adams's research and journalism experience has made him aware of how much information warfare is being planned for and how much is already in place. His concern, in part, is that there has been little public debate about this, even though it affects our future so dramatically. Adams says "As David proved against Goliath, strength can be beaten. America today looks uncomfortably like Goliath, arrogant in its power, armed to the teeth, ignorant of its weakness." --Elizabeth Lewis...

Authors: Chris Atton.
Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication Date: 2005-03-03


Reviews :

   

Written by a leading expert in alternative media, this book is an authoritative guide to all aspects of political organization and cultural production on the Internet. Focusing on culture, politics, and economics, the range of topics covered will make it an attractive text for a wide range of readers. Some of the major themes discussed in the book include the use of the Internet by political groups such as the anti-capitalist and environmental movements, as well as the far right.

Atton explores how the Internet presents radical ways of organizing and producing media that offer political and cultural alternatives, both to ways of doing business and to how we understand the world and our place in it.

...

Authors: Simon Bell.
Hardcover, 230 pages
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 1996-06-18
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    In Learning with Information Systems the author takes the developing world as the context and through a series of case studies develops a commonly used systems analysis methodology. He demonstrates how this methodology can evolve and adapt as new ideas become prominent. Issues of sustainability of information systems, participation in systems design and user ownership of systems are all examined....

Authors: Elizabeth Losh.
Hardcover, 416 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2009-05-29


Reviews :

    Today government agencies not only have official Web sites but also sponsor moderated chats, blogs, digital video clips, online tutorials, videogames, and virtual tours of national landmarks. Sophisticated online marketing campaigns target citizens with messages from the government—even as officials make news with digital gaffes involving embarrassing e-mails, instant messages, and videos. In Virtualpolitik, Elizabeth Losh closely examines the government's digital rhetoric in such cases and its dual role as mediamaker and regulator. Looking beyond the usual focus on interfaces, operations, and procedures, Losh analyzes the ideologies revealed in government's digital discourse, its anxieties about new online practices, and what happens when officially sanctioned material is parodied, remixed, or recontextualized by users.

Losh reports on a video game that panicked the House Intelligence Committee, pedagogic and therapeutic digital products aimed at American soldiers, government Web sites in the weeks and months following 9/11, PowerPoint presentations by government officials and gadflies, e-mail as a channel for whistleblowing, digital satire of surveillance practices, national digital libraries, and computer-based training for health professionals.

Losh concludes that the government's "virtualpolitik"—its digital realpolitik aimed at preserving its own power—is focused on regulation, casting as criminal such common online activities as file sharing, video-game play, and social networking. This policy approach, she warns, indefinitely postpones building effective institutions for electronic governance, ignores constituents' need to shape electronic identities to suit their personal politics, and misses an opportunity to learn how citizens can have meaningful interaction with the virtual manifestations of the state....

Authors: Lee & Sachi LeFever.
Kindle Edition, pages
Publisher: Common Craft
Publication Date: 2008-09-10


Reviews :

    The US electoral process has a profound impact on every US citizen, but isn't a simple process to understand. The goal of this Kindle Book is to explain the process of electing a US president, in simple and understandable terms, from your vote to the inauguration. ...

Authors: Walter B. Wriston.
Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Publication Date: 1992-09


Reviews :

    The author of Risk and Other Four Letter Words examines instant global electronic information and its impact on humanity, showing that the marriage of global TV, mobile telephones, satellites, and faxes with computers comprises a new geopolitical revolution....

Authors: Karl A. Seger.
Hardcover, 293 pages
Publisher: Pennwell Books
Publication Date: 2003-04


Reviews :

    Text addresses threats to utility systems; showing how to assess vulnerabilities, and develop and implement security countermeasures. Covers threat assessment and security checklists, a vulnerability/countermeasure matrix, and sample security and workplace violence prevention policies. DLC: Electric power plants--Security measures....

Authors: W. Russell Neuman. Lee W. McKnight. Richard Jay Solomon.
Paperback, 344 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 1999-07-02


Reviews :

    In a broad account accessible to generalist and specialist alike, the authors—social scientists as well as technologists—address the current national debate about the development of a National Information Infrastructure. They locate the debate in its historical context and outline a bold vision of an open communications infrastructure that will cut through the political gridlock that threatens this "information highway."

The authors detail what is wrong with the political process on National Information Infrastructure policymaking and assess how different media systems (telecommunications, radio, television broadcasting, and the like) were originally established, spelling out the technological assumptions and organizational interests on which they were based and showing why the old policy models are now breaking down. This analysis leads logically to a policy proposal for a reformed regulatory structure that builds and protects meaningful competition but abandons its role as arbiter of tariffs and definer of the public interest....

    As social, political, and business forces struggle to come to terms with new communications technology, innovation doesn't progress--it freezes up. This sociopolitical and economic gridlock is what Neuman, McKnight, and Solomon are calling the "Gordian Knot." The authors examine how similar gridlock has happened in the past with other new technologies; for example, during the development of the railroad, among the telephone companies, and, more recently, with the international and inter-industrial wrestling matches over High Definition Television. The introduction of each of these technologies has involved a clash of economic interests among industrial giants or would-be giants--all of which have struggled to control access, standards, and proprietary technology in the emerging industry.

Meanwhile, government has tried to contend with the issue of how much control to exert over standards, technology, and rate structures in order to protect both the industries and the consumers. As the book explains, the resulting gridlock has often resulted in new industries taking decades to become mature, efficient, and able to operate profitably without unfairly exploiting their customers. In the minds of the authors, with modern telecommunications becoming an increasingly vital part of our daily lives and businesses, we can't afford such a tangled knot.

Neuman, McKnight, and Solomon propose cutting the Gordian Knot of gridlock with Open Communications Infrastructure (OCI), a system that they feel best combines the benefits of government oversight with those of laissez-faire. OCI is a system of largely free-market competition with just enough governmental oversight to ensure that competitors stay within bounds. Those bounds are described by the four essential qualities of the infrastructure: open architecture, open access, universal access, and flexible access.

The authors present their arguments in a clear, precise style and with a dry sense of humor. The many case histories illustrate the ironies of human folly and help you take a second look at our technological progress of the past 150 years, clearly stating that we could have progressed much further by now. Neuman, McKnight, and Solomon conclude by showing that this gridlock will have to change if we wish for the cybercultural revolution to proceed according to our dreams....

Authors: OECD Publishing.
Paperback, 648 pages
Publisher: Org. for Economic Cooperation & Development
Publication Date: 2008-08-29
Edition: Pap/Ado

Reviews :

    How are a nation's achievements in innovation defined, and how do they relate to economic performance? What are the major features, strengths and weaknesses of a country's innovation system? How can governments foster innovation? The OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy offer a comprehensive assessment of the innovation system of individual OECD member and non-member countries, focusing on the role of policy and government. They also provide concrete recommendations on how to improve a wide range of policies that affect innovation performance of countries. Each review identifies good practices from which other countries may learn. China has achieved a spectacularly high rate of economic growth over a sustained period for more than two decades. Nevertheless, today China faces the challenge of making the transition from sustained to sustainable growth from social, economical, ecological and envionmental points of view. Innovation has been identified as a main engine for this new growth model, and the Chinese government has launched a national strategy to build an innovation-driven economy and society by 2020. Will China be able to succeed in making this challenging transition? What will it require in terms of policy and institutional changes? How will China's emergence as a future innovation economy affect the OECD countries, as well as the global systems for knowledge production, dissemenation and use? This report sheds light on these issues by assessing the current status of China's national innovation system and policies, and by recommending the most important improvements required in both the policy and institutional environments for China to succeed in promoting innovation through a market-based approach....

Authors: Tsutomu Shimomura. John Markoff.
Hardcover, 324 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Publication Date: 1996-01
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    An international computer security expert offers a suspenseful account of his pursuit and eventual capture of hacker Kevin Mitnick, describing his high-tech face-off with the world's most notorious cyberthief. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo....

    The true story of how Kevin Mitnick was snagged by computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura. As gripping as a great mystery novel -- but true -- and as important as any book on computer security -- but eminently readable by anyone.

You can read more about Mitnick specifically or computer crime and social engineering generally in Jonathan Littman's recent The Fugitive Game: Online With Kevin Mitnick, or in any one of a sampler of books on computer crimes and computer cracking....