Thursday, October 12, 2017

Cyber Storm by: Matthew Mather

Not sure this title is appropriate for this book.  It is more of a "preper" book than a "Cyber" book.  The book takes place mostly in NY City where a power outage affects the entire city and from the lack of communication, the New Yorkers do not know if this is exclusive to their city or if it has affected the entire United States.

The book drives home the fact those that fail to plan, will plan to fail. Some level of prepping is necessary.  Especially in this day and age where the liberals push for urban living, it is important to be prepared.  In tight quarters, when things go south, chances of survival diminish.  The book covers some neighboring families that bond together to survive in the aftermath of a widespread power outage and an ensuing blizzard hitting NYC.  Chuck, the avid preper has supplies stored in a storage unit in his building.  When things go south, they soon find that someone has broken into the storage unit and has wiped out the supplies that will carry them through this ordeal.





I found a lot of similarities to the Florida Hurricane Alley way of living. We too have been without power for extended periods of time after a hurricane hits our area.  We run out of water, food, gas, and it is usually within the hottest months of the year where the inside of your house easily hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Thankfully, folks in South Florida have been burned before and have made some  strides to be prepared when a hurricane warning has been issued, but never for any extended period of time.  Usually 3 days.

The scary part about this book is the fact that they were in a gun controlled state and because of that, their circumstances were far worst than they could have been with proper weapons.  Mather writes about the challenges in getting food, logistics in getting the food back to their location and the danger posed by other citizens that were as desperate if not more desperate the Michael and Chuck's family.  I myself have had this conversation with my wife.  If things go South, and people run out of food and/or water, they will come and try to take it or if I am that person that needs it for my family I WILL go and take it.  I am wondering if the author of Zello the Walkie Talkie app read this book and copied the idea of the "Mesh Network".  Recently after Hurricane Irma hit South Florida, it was the hottest app to have.  Neighbors were all communicating.  Even setting up APs meshed together to be able to communicate with each other.

The book showed a lot of promise but quite frankly fell short at the end.  The last chapter seemed like the author had somewhere to go and just slammed something together to end it.  As I stated, the book is more about surviving a natural disaster coupled with a bunch of coincidences.  The title was "click bait" for me since I am an Information Security Practitioner and thought it would be more about an actual "Cyber" Attack against the US.



Paperback: 362 pages
Publisher: PhutureNews Publishing; 1 edition (March 23, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0991677196
ISBN-13: 978-0991677191
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches

Monday, October 9, 2017

Private by: James Patterson

This book is a typical book for James Patterson.  The two page chapters are typical for Patterson.  The book covers four cases.  One of which is a cursory case with very little coverage.

The issues I found were from a technical perspective.  There are many inaccuracies with the technology in the book.  I think they should have had a consultant, or a better consultant to review the tech.



Not a book I would recommend as a MUST read, but if you have access to it, go for it.  Short review because there was nothing ground moving with this one.


Series: Private Novels
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; Lrg edition (June 28, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316096237
ISBN-13: 978-0316096232
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.5 x 9.4 inches