89 books like Ghost Fleet

By P.W. Singer, August Cole,

Here are 89 books that Ghost Fleet fans have personally recommended if you like Ghost Fleet. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

George Finney Author Of Project Zero Trust: A Story about a Strategy for Aligning Security and the Business

From my list on books on cybersecurity that anyone can understand.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have worked in cybersecurity for over 20 years and think it’s one of the most important topics in our modern world. Everyone needs to be secure–from young kids to elderly people avoiding online scams. As a practicing Chief Security Officer, I work with security technology and people every day, and I’m getting to live my childhood dream of being a writer helping people understand these complex challenges. Security is a part of the foundation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and allows everyone to live up to their full potential as humans. People are the most important part of security, and you don’t need a degree in computer science to be cyber secure.

George's book list on books on cybersecurity that anyone can understand

George Finney Why did George love this book?

The first person to ever catch a hacker wasn’t an FBI or CIA agent. It was an astronomer, and his name was Clifford Stoll. This book is a biographical account of how he took on a German hacker who was selling secrets to the KGB in the 1980s. I love this book because it shows how anyone can play a role in cybersecurity.

As a kid, I watched the TV adaptation of the book for PBS’s NOVA program and went into cybersecurity in large part because of Stoll. Because cybersecurity wasn’t a profession at the time, Stoll created his own innovative techniques, like building the first computer honeypot to help catch the hacker in action. When his book was made into a PBS documentary, as a thank you for putting up with him and all the crazy things he had to do to track the hacker, he had all of…

By Clifford Stoll,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Cuckoo's Egg as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Before the Internet became widely known as a global tool for terrorists, one perceptive U.S. citizen recognized its ominous potential. Armed with clear evidence of computer espionage, he began a highly personal quest to expose a hidden network of spies that threatened national security. But would the authorities back him up? Cliff Stoll's dramatic firsthand account is "a computer-age detective story, instantly fascinating [and] astonishingly gripping" (Smithsonian).

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name…


Book cover of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

Steve Vigdor Author Of Signatures of the Artist: The Vital Imperfections That Make Our Universe Habitable

From my list on science that should inform public policy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been passionate about science as a way of learning how nature works and approaching truth since I was a pre-teen. After five decades of basic research, teaching, and management in physics, I can distinguish good science from pseudoscience even beyond my own areas of expertise. I am greatly disturbed by attempts to undermine science in public policy-making when its findings conflict with ideology, religious beliefs, or business bottom lines. My passion project, via my blog debunkingdenial.com, is to explain to teachers and the public the underlying science and the flaws in science denial across a wide range of topics at the interface with public policy. 

Steve's book list on science that should inform public policy

Steve Vigdor Why did Steve love this book?

I love this book because Perlroth chronicles the proliferation of cyberweapons, which began in the hands of mischievous young hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in widely used software. Once some of those hackers joined the NSA, their tools were developed into sophisticated weapons to undercut technological developments in enemy states like Iran.

Once NSA’s hacks leaked to the wider world, they spawned an arms race and fueled rampant criminal ransomware attacks on vulnerable institutions. Informed by Perlroth’s book, I see a future in which dwindling human fertility and the ballooning costs of advanced weaponry will enhance the military role of cyber-attacks, leading to Mutually Assured Cyber Destruction, in which many countries have cyberweapons deeply embedded in the critical infrastructure of their adversaries, just waiting to activate them.

By Nicole Perlroth,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award * Bronze Medal, Arthur Ross Book Award (Council on Foreign Relations)

"Written in the hot, propulsive prose of a spy thriller" (The New York Times), the untold story of the cyberweapons market-the most secretive, government-backed market on earth-and a terrifying first look at a new kind of global warfare.

Zero-day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero-day has the power…


Book cover of Cyber Attacks: Protecting National Infrastructure

Jennifer L. Bayuk Author Of Enterprise Security for the Executive: Setting the Tone from the Top

From my list on cybersecurity for every type of reader.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a cybersecurity risk management thought leader and subject matter expert with hands-on experience in managing and measuring large-scale cybersecurity programs, system security architecture, cybersecurity tools and techniques, cybersecurity forensics, audit of information systems and networks, and technology control processes. I have spent my career educating others in cybersecurity, mostly because it has always been necessary to educate staff; and colleagues soon recognized that I was easily able to handle the transition from staff training to external classroom environments. But my main motivation for external cybersecurity education is to get feedback from the cybersecurity professional community on my approaches to today’s cybersecurity issues.

Jennifer's book list on cybersecurity for every type of reader

Jennifer L. Bayuk Why did Jennifer love this book?

Amoroso’s experience started with academic research at Bell Labs and Stevens Institute of Technology but moved quickly to practically fill voids at AT&T and NSA. His book reduces technical concepts in cybersecurity to basic principles and explains generically how they are effectively implemented. For the true techy who wants to fully understand all the formal logic behind the theories in Cyber Attacks, reach back to Ed Amoroso’s Fundamentals of Computer Security Technology (1994). 

By Edward Amoroso,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cyber Attacks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Cyber Attacks takes the national debate on protecting critical infrastructure in an entirely new and fruitful direction. It initiates an intelligent national (and international) dialogue amongst the general technical community around proper methods for reducing national risk. This includes controversial themes such as the deliberate use of deception to trap intruders. It also serves as an attractive framework for a new national strategy for cyber security, something that several Presidential administrations have failed in attempting to create. In addition, nations other than the US might choose to adopt the framework as well.

This book covers cyber security policy development for…


Book cover of Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet

Jennifer L. Bayuk Author Of Enterprise Security for the Executive: Setting the Tone from the Top

From my list on cybersecurity for every type of reader.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a cybersecurity risk management thought leader and subject matter expert with hands-on experience in managing and measuring large-scale cybersecurity programs, system security architecture, cybersecurity tools and techniques, cybersecurity forensics, audit of information systems and networks, and technology control processes. I have spent my career educating others in cybersecurity, mostly because it has always been necessary to educate staff; and colleagues soon recognized that I was easily able to handle the transition from staff training to external classroom environments. But my main motivation for external cybersecurity education is to get feedback from the cybersecurity professional community on my approaches to today’s cybersecurity issues.

Jennifer's book list on cybersecurity for every type of reader

Jennifer L. Bayuk Why did Jennifer love this book?

It is a reporter’s account of a cybersecurity entrepreneur stumbling into criminal and nation-state level cyberattacks, assisting in the investigation, and ultimately becoming a target. The writing is clear and accessible to the non-technical reader but it still conveys a good sense of what it is like to witness and investigate cyber-crime. It is a suspenseful human drama.

By Joseph Menn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fatal System Error as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 2004, a California computer whiz named Barrett Lyon uncovered the identity of a hacker running major assaults on business websites. Without fully grasping the repercussions, he set on an investigation that led him into the heart of the Russian mob. Cybercrime was evolving. No longer the domain of small-time thieves, it had been discovered by sophisticated gangs. They began by attacking corporate websites but increasingly stole financial data from consumers and defence secrets from governments. While Barrett investigated the cutting edge of technology crime, the U.S. government struggled to catch up. Britain, however, was a different story. In the…


Book cover of Red Storm Rising

Chuck Barrett Author Of The Savannah Project

From my list on spy thrillers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I cut my teeth loving the intrigue of the spy world. Days of old TV shows like Man from U.N.C.L.E. (the original not the remake). All the James Bond movies—old and new. As a child, I had a Man from U.N.C.L.E. spy kit, equipped with a miniature camera and all. It seemed only fitting that when I started writing, I stayed with what I loved. The espionage thriller genre has evolved over time to a more sophisticated, action-packed storyline…which is right up my alley.

Chuck's book list on spy thrillers

Chuck Barrett Why did Chuck love this book?

As a child I was fascinated with everything espionage. I read many authors from Ian Fleming to Stephen King, but when I read my first Tom Clancy novel, I was hooked. This was my genre! I read and read and ultimately, when I decided to write my first novel, this was the only choice. Red Strom Rising was the inauguration of that dream. It planted that seed. It had it all—espionage, intrigue, action, adventure, suspense—all key ingredients for the thriller genre.

By Tom Clancy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Red Storm Rising as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Tom Clancy's second classic No 1 bestselling thriller - a chillingly authentic vision of modern war - now reissued in a new cover.

Three Muslim terrorists who destroyed the Soviet Union's largest petrochemical plant thought they were striking a blow for freedom. What they had done, unknowingly, was fire the first shots in World War III.

Desperately short of oil, the Kremlin hawks see only one way of solving their problem: seize supplies in the Persian Gulf. To do that, they must first neutralise NATO's forces and eliminate their response - and so they develop Red Storm, a dazzling master…


Book cover of The Guardians

Justin Oldham Author Of Haven's Legacy

From my list on action-oriented post-apocalyptic stories.

Why am I passionate about this?

My firsthand experience of the Cold War influenced my taste in reading and entertainment from an early age. I’ve spent my entire adult life collecting books and movies that showcase adventure and adversity in situations where combinations of war and climate change have brought about the end of life as we knew it. All those influences have inspired me to make my own contributions to this form of literature.

Justin's book list on action-oriented post-apocalyptic stories

Justin Oldham Why did Justin love this book?

This storyline blew me away with its fast pace and realism. All the heartaches and firefights come so fast, you barely have time to catch your breath. I was fascinated by the way so many of the chapters read like scenes from a movie. It made me want to read more.

By Richard Austin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Guardians as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This story is the first novel in a series about the adventures of a four man elite survival team, set up to keep things under control in post World War III America. In this first story they have to transport the President from war ravaged Washington to a fortress 1000 miles away.


Book cover of Natural Enemy, Natural Ally: Toward An Environmental History of War

Simo Laakkonen Author Of The Long Shadows: A Global Environmental History of the Second World War

From my list on the environmental history of war.

Why am I passionate about this?

Simo Laakkonen is director of Degree Program in Digital Culture, Landscape and Cultural Heritage, University of Turku, Finland. He is an environmental historian who has specialized among other things on the global environmental history of warfare during Industrial Age. He has coedited on this theme two special issues and three books, the latest one is The Resilient City in World War II: Urban Environmental Histories. He has selected five books that cover some main phases of the long environmental history of wars and mass violence.

Simo's book list on the environmental history of war

Simo Laakkonen Why did Simo love this book?

How has war changed and damaged the environment?

How has nature influenced war and how have these changes presented? These kinds of basic questions make everyone interested in environmental history of war think.

This comprehensive book is easy to read but it provides valuable insights to the interaction between societies and nature from pre-colonial India to post-war Japan and serves as an excellent introduction to the field.

By Richard Tucker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Natural Enemy, Natural Ally as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Contributors to this volume explore the dynamic between war and the physical environment from a variety of provocative viewpoints. The subjects of their essays range from conflicts in colonial India and South Africa to the U.S. Civil War and twentieth-century wars in Japan, Finland, and the Pacific Islands. Among the topics explored are: - the ways in which landscape can influence military strategies - why the decisive battle of the American Civil War was fought - the impact of war and peace on timber resources - the spread of pests and disease in wartime.


Book cover of The Caste War of Yucatán

Stephen B. Neufeld Author Of The Blood Contingent: The Military and the Making of Modern Mexico, 1876–1911

From my list on 19th Century Mexico’s military history.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for Mexican and military history came from many sources. Wandering in my 20s in Europe and Asia honed my appreciation for the historical experience. Good friends in the Canadian military made me curious about the odd rituals and strange subcultures they inhabited. As I moved from Calgary to Vancouver to Tucson I devolved from degree to degree, studying deviance, military history, Mexican culture, and finally finishing a dissertation that combined these elements into one work. And now I happily get to inflict all of this history on my students in California.  

Stephen's book list on 19th Century Mexico’s military history

Stephen B. Neufeld Why did Stephen love this book?

Reed’s wonderful writing style and great turns of phrase make this an enjoyable read, while his attention to detail and excellent research make it requisite to understanding the long Caste War of the Maya after 1847. It is a critical antidote to works that pay too little attention to indigenous agents, to religious motivations, and to a long-simmering insurrection with vibrant cultural voices. Other works have taken this on since, but it remains a classic.

By Nelson A. Reed,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Caste War of Yucatán as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the classic account of one of the most dramatic episodes in Mexican history-the revolt of the Maya Indians of Yucatan against their white and mestizo oppressors that began in 1847. Within a year, the Maya rebels had almost succeeded in driving their oppressors from the peninsula; by 1855, when the major battles ended, the war had killed or put to flight almost half of the population of Yucatan. A new religion built around a Speaking Cross supported their independence for over fifty years, and that religion survived the eventual Maya defeat and continues today.

This revised edition is…


Book cover of Eon

Lauren Patzer Author Of Dissonance Junction: A Year of Stories

From my list on sci-fi to face the end of the world with.

Why am I passionate about this?

Reading has been a passion of mine since I first learned how. Consuming books like a ravenous wolf, I explored worlds beyond my own imagining with a simple purchase of a bound novel (or lending from a library.) It gave me the one thing I couldn’t do in real life – escape from reality. In many ways, I’m only sane because I was able to remove myself from the horrific events of my upbringing. It put my feet in two camps – that of science fiction and of horror. I like to think of what could be and bring my readers to that alternate reality to delight or terrify depending on the genre.

Lauren's book list on sci-fi to face the end of the world with

Lauren Patzer Why did Lauren love this book?

I confess that this is the first book I read based on someone else’s recommendation. I’d never heard of Greg Bear, but I was immensely pleased with the experience of discovering him. The world-building in this science fiction epic is enveloping in its detail and believability. It was with Greg Bear’s masterful work that I discovered the ability to take people to another world and make them believably think it could exist. It’s a masterful work and a great addition to the pantheon of science fiction.

By Greg Bear,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Eon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the New York Times–bestselling author of War Dogs: A novel that “may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet” (The Washington Post).
 
In a supernova flash, the asteroid arrived and entered Earth’s orbit. Three hundred kilometers in length, it is not solid rock but a series of hollowed-out chambers housing ancient, abandoned cities of human origin, a civilization named Thistledown. The people who lived there survived a nuclear holocaust that nearly rendered humanity extinct—more than a thousand years from now.
 
To prevent this future from coming to pass, theoretical mathematician Patricia Vasquez must explore Thistledown and decipher its…


Book cover of Words of Radiance

Tyler Krings Author Of War and the Wind

From my list on humor, romance, and a dash of fantasy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an American-born writer and I have been writing fantasy and science fiction since I was just out of elementary school. I have been obsessed with Star Wars (and later Trek) since I was able to watch television, and I believe I was twelve when Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters…needless to say, I have not stopped reading and writing fantasy since. The books on my list are some (but not all) of my very favorites and many of them have gone on to heavily inspire my own style when writing my own works.

Tyler's book list on humor, romance, and a dash of fantasy

Tyler Krings Why did Tyler love this book?

Every entry of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive is epic, hands down.

Filled with fantasy lore, action, weird magic, and displeased gods, yes, there is something good to say about every book in the series so far. But book 2, Words of Radiance, is filled with moment after moment where I found myself standing up and pumping my fist in the air after the story’s main protagonist does something terrifically badass, especially in the latter half of the novel.

It’s got all the other good stuff, too. Like its predecessor, The Way of Kings, it has plenty of light humor, moments of shared brotherhood in the face of oppression, complicated characters, sweeping battles…but those moments of tension building followed by resounding victory are excellently written and gets my heart pumping to this day.

By Brandon Sanderson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Words of Radiance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin,…


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