CD-ROM contains: "10,000 pages containing the full texts, tools, and exploits described and previewed in the book."

Describes the tools, techniques, and primary code that hackers use to exploit network security loopholes and then shows specific methods for blocking these attacks.

The author examines issues such as the rightness of web-based applications, the programming language renaissance, spam filtering, the Open Source Movement, Internet startups and more. He also tells important stories about the kinds of people behind technical innovations, revealing their character and their craft.

Using a computer system to gain unauthorized access to a computer system or network. "Hacking is not necessarily bad. Hacking is having that bug in you that says I have got to figure this out", said the Director of Information Security at Advantage Technology. And since computers and the internet are now a major part of our society, understanding hacking and protecting your information is more important than ever. Thanks to Hollywood and the mainstream media, hackers are stereotypical nerds. They are viewed as extremely smart, socially awkward basement dwellers, and on top of that, they are seen as criminals. It is believed that a hacker can take control of anything, ranging from someone's mobile device to national security servers. Hacking as we think of it today goes back to the early days of telecommunications when calls were first being handled by computer systems and the industry was moving away for human operators. The computers that made phone connections generated specific tones over the lines in order to communicate with one another. Early hackers would study these sounds and learn to manipulate the computers by replicating the tones, a technique that became known as "phreaking." One of the best known "phreaks" was John Draper who discovered a whistle that came in Cap'n Crunch cereal that combined just the right pitch and frequency to stop a phone recording and put the caller in operator mode, allowing him to make unlimited calls. And just like everyday life, there are good guys and bad guys. Criminal hackers, known as "black hat" hackers, will look for vulnerabilities in a computer system and use it to their advantage, for example, to block access to users, download information, or to deliver a malicious software. However, not all hackers are cyber criminals out to get you. In fact, there is a whole profession built around good or ethical hacking called "penetration testing" which is the practice of testing a computer systems, network or application to find vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit. These ethical hackers are known as "white hat" hackers. The white hats are considered the ethical hackers, using their skills to protect companies from a criminal attack. They often work with security researchers by testing an organization's system for vulnerabilities. On the opposite end, black hats are what give the word hacker a negative connotation. They aim to exploit companies or individual devices for illegal gain. There is also a group known as "gray hat" hackers, they are not malicious, but they might still operate outside the law. An example of a gray hat hacker might be a "hacktivist" that is engaged in political activism that they feel in just, even when they are breaking the law. Another type of hacker is the "script a kiddie," which is an unskilled person who uses existing computer code, which they had no involvement in producing, to hack into computers. Script kiddies demonstrate that a person doesn't even have to create their own code in order to hack. The main target for cyber criminals is typically an organization's servers. This is where most data is stored, and it is a jackpot full of sensitive data. Once inside, hackers can have a devastating effect on a company from releasing private correspondence to stealing trade secrets. Everyone is venerable to hacking because everyone has connected devices today. We've come a long way from when it was only phone systems that were controlled by computers and cereal box prizes could get free long distant calls. Today a script kiddie can take the code that a Russian hacker developed and deploy a ransom ware attack. It's not just big corporations that need to worry about hacking anymore, and that's why it's important to engage Advantage Technology to assess your information security risks today.

There are today no more compelling sets of crime and security threats than those encompassed by cybercrime.

There are today no more compelling sets of crime and security threats facing nations, communities, organizations, groups, families and individuals than those encompassed by cybercrime. For over fifty years crime enabled by computing and telecommunications technologies have increasingly threatened societies as they have become reliant on information systems for sustaining modernized living. Cybercrime is not a new phenomenon, rather an evolving one with respect to adoption of information technology (IT) for abusive and criminal purposes. Further, by virtue of the myriad ways in which IT is abused, it represents a technological shift in the nature of crime rather than a new form of criminal behavior. In other words, the nature of crime and its impacts on society are changing to the extent computers and other forms of IT are used for illicit purposes. Understanding the subject, then, is imperative to combatting it and to addressing it at various levels. This work is the first comprehensive encyclopedia to address cybercrime. Topical articles address all key areas of concern and specifically those having to with: terminology, definitions and social constructs of crime; national infrastructure security vulnerabilities and capabilities; types of attacks to computers and information systems; computer abusers and cybercriminals; criminological, sociological, psychological and technological theoretical underpinnings of cybercrime; social and economic impacts of crime enabled with information technology (IT) inclusive of harms experienced by victims of cybercrimes and computer abuse; emerging and controversial issues such as online pornography, the computer hacking subculture and potential negative effects of electronic gaming and so-called computer addiction; bodies and specific examples of U.S. federal laws and regulations that help to prevent cybercrimes; examples and perspectives of law enforcement, regulatory and professional member associations concerned about cybercrime and its impacts; and computer forensics as well as general investigation/prosecution of high tech crimes and attendant challenges within the United States and internationally.