BKFLSRUN.RVW  940428

%A   Camp, John
%C   2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada   L3R 1B4
%D   1989
%G   0-451-16712-0
%I   Penguin/Signet
%O   U$4.95/C$5.95
%T   "The Fool's Run"

I very strongly suspect that whoever wrote the screenplay for "Sneakers" read
this first.  There is a mob connected corporation.  They wish to do some
espionage.  They hire a tiger team to do it for them.  They try to betray, and
possibly destroy, the tiger team.  The team is then forced to "crack" their
former client.  There is the same paranoia about the National Security Agency.

I don't know who the technical consultant was for this book, but he, she or it
did an even better job here than Captain Crunch did for the movie.  We have
insider information, phone phreaking, database surfing, social engineering and
overconfident systems managers.  Chapter thirteen introduces computer viral
programs, and I had to go back and check the copyright date.  At a time when
the supposedly technical books were printing absolute garbage, this novel had
the concepts down pat (although slightly shaky on the details).

Probably it won't become a classic in either literature or data security, but a
reasonably fun read, and refreshingly accurate technical details.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKFLSRUN.RVW  940428
 
======================
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733
Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag