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ViewpointEverybody knows that cyberspace is a wild frontier, untamed and untamable, with no Marshal Dillon to keep the bad guys from making off with the payroll. As usual, everybody's wrong -- more and more white hats are joining the black (and Red) hats that roam the Net. But libertarians can spit out their suicide pills, because this doesn't have to mean the end of our freedom.Lawrence Lessig wants us to draft a constitution to constrain governmental and commercial authorities within an appropriate rule of law that will permit criminal apprehension, business competition, and the same liberties that we expect on Main Street. Don't roll your eyes until you've read Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, the Common Sense of our time. That's fine for the long term, but what's going on right now? Two books look at the effects and means of prevention of computer crime from slightly different perspectives, offering a bit of triangulation and some good advice on shoring up the home office. Both Tangled Web: Tales of Digital Crime from the Shadows of Cyberspace and The Hundredth Window: Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the Internet give readers the skinny on the fraud and theft that parasitize the Internet. While the former argues for a combination of stronger law enforcement and personal responsibility for defense, the authors of the latter would like to see the Net regulate itself and call 911 only in the event of a life-threatening emergency. With our attention turned toward abuses of police power in the US and abroad, and strong opposition to the FBI's "Carnivore" plan, we should remember that cyberspace will be policed eventually and that the onus is on us to choose who gets to ride off into the sunset. Just off the Presses Code
and Other Laws of Cyberspaceby Lawrence Lessig Hooray for heresy! Attorney Lawrence Lessig tells the "information-wants-to-be-free" crowd that their daydreams have become dangerous. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace alerts readers to the growing regulation of the Internet by the same commercial forces that have driven its explosive growth. He offers a divergent vision from the unrealistic netopia of Barlow's Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, and tells us to wake up, move on, and get to work shaping the values of our new metaworld.  Read More Tangled
Web: Tales of Digital Crime from the Shadows of Cyberspaceby Richard Power, Rik Farrow Criminals can use computers to pick a million pockets at once, efficiently and without a trace -- what are you going to do about it? Security expert Richard Power opens up the geek files in Tangled Web and shows readers how the 21st-century Dillingers and Hoovers operate. Although he paints a fairly pessimistic picture of the current state (it seems that the hen house has fox-shaped holes in its walls), he also tells us how to secure our home and business data at least as well as our physical dwellings. Read
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Hundredth Window: Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the
Internetby Charles Jennings, et al Feel a draft? That's your data flying out of The Hundredth Window. Truste.org founders Charles Jennings and Lori Fena lay out the risks of networking and eCommerce, and outline commonsense solutions that eat up just a little extra time. Forewarned of the horror stories of identity theft, fraud, and financial disaster firsthand, most readers will find themselves taking better care of their data. Read
MoreWhat's Hot?At the top of this month's Cyberculture bestsellers list are a sizzling tome on cybersecurity, one on cybermarketing, and another on the robofuture.
 Unleashing
the Ideavirusby Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell Treat a product or service like a human or computer virus, contends online promotion specialist Seth Godin, and it just might become one. In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin describes ways to set any viable commercial concept loose among those who are most likely to catch it -- and then stand aside as these recipients become infected and pass it along on to others who might do the same. Read
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Sapiens: Evolution of a New Speciesby Peter Menzel, Faith D'Aluisio If you believe that children are our future, you're only half-right. Photographer Peter Menzel and journalist Faith D'Aluisio traveled around the world to interview researchers who want to jump-start our evolution by designing and building electrical and mechanical extensions of ourselves -- robots. Their book, Robo Sapiens, takes its title from the notion that our species might somehow merge with our creations, either literally or symbiotically. Read
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50 computer titles
Almost PublishedWhat will Cyberculture gurus be reading next? These guides have garnered the most orders from Amazon.com customers -- even before they've been published.
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