Here are some fun security sites, some of which let you play with hacking in a safe, legal environment.

NKU has an active cyber defense team that participates in many Capture the Flag competitions.

Here is a list of fun non-fiction readings on the topic of computer security. Most are nontechnical in nature, but be careful or you might learn something anyway.

  1. Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter
  2. The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
  3. Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government--Saving Privacy in the Digital Age by Stephen Levy
  4. Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell by Phil Lapsley
  5. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick
  6. The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling
  7. Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground by Kevin Poulsen
  8. Secrets and Lies by Bruce Schneier
  9. Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers by Andy Greenberg

There aren't too many good novels on hacking and computer security, but there are a few:

  1. Halting State by Charles Stross
  2. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  3. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Finally, here are a few good movies and anime about hacking:

  1. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  2. The Matrix (and The Matrix Reloaded actually shows Trinity using nmap, which you'll learn to use at NKU.)
  3. Serial Experiments Lain

© 2005-2020 James Walden, Ph.D.