Another Cyber-Crime Thriller

Map of the (then) East German Island of Ruegen, setting of World of Mirrors

You might want to take a look at World of Mirrors, authored by Judith Copek.  Published as both a trade paperback and an ebook, World of Mirrors is another cybercrime thriller from Wings ePress. 

World of Mirrors is set on an island off the Baltic coast in the former DDR, and the year is 1990, the “time of the turn.” The Berlin wall has crumbled, but Germany is not yet reunified.   Against the seductive decadence of an old resort with its classic sailboats, nude beaches and crumbling casinos, Zara Gray, a consultant to high tech firms, and T.K. Drummond, a man who finds people and fixes situations, must track down an American software thief before he can fence a stolen copy of his company’s bleeding-edge new software.

 Zara narrates the story as she fights the fear that their mission is jinxed from the beginning.  Bad decisions and chilling discoveries threaten to sabotage the project.  The situation further unravels during a sailing weekend, and turns deadly at a Midsummer Festival.  Trapped in a matrix of betrayal, Zara and T.K. must rely on two unlikely people to help them escape the island and in a final, desperate gambit to save the software, Zara must perform her own dangerous treachery.  

There is plenty of suspense and cyber-derring-do (isn't that the best kind)? and a look at East Germany the year after the wall came down, a  World of Mirrors in the words of Marcus Wolf, the former East German spymaster.  Available from the publisher or Amazon.  

E-ISBN:                          978-1-61309-073-2

POD-ISBN:                     978-1-61309-929-2   1613099290  (ASIS) 

    

More Battles on the InfoWar Front

Defense Department Looking to Automate Cyber Defenses

Automation is wonderful, but nothing beats a keen pair of eyes.  I'm sure the government will monitor the automation.

Read the Infowar Blog

Here is the link. Infowar Blog Lots of late-breaking news, etc.

 Assume everyone who can read has learned of the attack on GoDaddy yesterday.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Yes, Sir! Senator!

The Senate has blocked an important cybersecurity bill that would have required business and industry to beef up their security standards, especially in vulnerable infrastructures like dams, transportation and power grids.  If information warfare ever breaks out, and most experts think this is just a matter of time, it will affect all businesses, and then we will have to listen to them howl about the money they are losing.  Yet, the U.S, Chamber of Commerce screamed that the legislation would be “too burdensome” for corporations. 

From my years in IT, I learned that business never wants to spend money that won’t immediately bring in more money, and that the short term always trumps the long term.   Most CEO’s understand zilch about their vulnerability in the area of cybersecurity  and how real the threat of information warfare is.  They think the IT department, well, they should serve sales and marketing and sure, keep our data safe.  

Ask yourself how many companies have had credit card and other information stolen.  Hasn’t that been rather costly?  Wouldn’t it have been better to beef up security rather than alienate customers and suffer all the bad publicity?  Can’t they see beyond their noses?

I guess not.  For a detailed look at the Senate’s short-sightedness, here is the  link from the New York Times:

 Cybersecurity Bill Blocked

CyberSecurity: people just don't get it!

Gaaa!  After reading about the Olympic grand slam opening last night, I caught sight of a NY Times article about taking the teeth out of a CyberSecurity bill because it would be too hard (read expensive), for businesses to comply with.  Business would be the first to scream and rant if a cyber war broke out and they were brought down by infrastructure problems or a ripped-to-shreds economy.

I worked in IT for 20+ years, and believe me, business is always dragging its security heels.  I had to scream loud and long before the customer service people stopped leaving orders by the fax and copy machines, orders with the customers' credit card numbers and expiration dates.  I had to beg for a shredder for confidential information.  I had to preach and tear my hair before everyone understood that by law you could not put the credit card CVVC number on an electronic file.  I cannot tell you  how many forms used to ask for that number.  Duh!  Business is in business to do business and as the old saying goes, the devil take the hindmost.  Credit card processors are hide bound and dragged their feet for as long as possible before the fines outweighed the cost of cleaning up their act.

Business will never implement security measures because it's always more important to please the marketing department who comes up with some meatball idea that needs implementation yesterday!  Executives are mostly focused on sales, not the security infrastructure.  Someone has to mind the CyberSecurity store and right now it's looking like that someone is no one.

When the cyber war breaks out, don't blame me and don't blame your president.  Blame those who didn't want to spend a few bucks to beef up their systems:  electric grids, transportation, nuclear power plants, all those pieces of our infrastructure that may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks.  Brother can you spare a dime?