REVIEW: "Kim", Rudyard Kipling

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade () shaw ca>]

BKKIM.RVW   20061124

"Kim", Rudyard Kipling, 1901, 0-812-56575-4
%A   Rudyard Kipling
%C   49 West 24th Street, or 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY  10010
%D   1901 (no, it isn't a Y2K joke)
%G   0-812-56575-4
%I   Tor Books/Tom Doherty Assoc.
%O   pnh () tor com www.tor.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812565754/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812565754/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812565754/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience n+ Tech 3 Writing 3 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   307 p.
%T   "Kim"

Kipling packed a great deal of information and concept into his
stories, and in "Kim" we find The Great Game: espionage and spying. 
Within the first twenty pages we have authentication by something you
have, denial of service, impersonation, stealth, masquerade, role-
based authorization (with ad hoc authentication by something you
know), eavesdropping, and trust based on data integrity.  Later on we
get contingency planning against theft and cryptography with key
changes.

Beyond all this, and repeatedly throughout the story, we have social
engineering: misdirection, analysis of situations and characters, the
maneuvering and manipulating of people so that they do what you want,
all the while thinking that it was their idea.  The explanation given
is at once subtle and lucid, and is both more useful and much more
entertaining than that given by Mitnick in "The Art of Deception" (cf.
BKARTDCP.RVW).

Kipling is, perhaps, too gentle a writer for the thriller genre.  He
is, though, a better wordsmith than most of those who work in that
idiom.  His command of dialogue is unparalleled: in "Kim" there is no
need to identify the individual speakers, for they are as instantly
distinguished in the text as they would be by speech.

I heartily recommend "Kim" to anyone in the security field, or anyone
who wants a decent read.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2006   BKKIM.RVW   20061124

Merry Christmas

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be
dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes.                    - Mel Brooks
Dictionary of Information Security  www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=4150
http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm
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