Harold McFarland describes this book really well in his review, where he says:

Through a series of fictional system attacks and exploits Stealing the Network: How To Own a Continent provides a basic education in network security. More than just what can happen, it details each attack so you learn the purpose of the attack as well as how it is carried out. Each of the chapters provides the fictional account of an individual who takes on a single network attack. What the reader soon discovers is that it is actually a carefully orchestrated chain of attacks with a larger purpose in mind.

One of the things I really liked about the book is that it is not just a dry security book turned into a more interesting novel but it gives the reader a look at the personalities of those who get involved in these things. Each of the attacks involves real tools that can be downloaded or purchased off the Internet as well as real techniques. If you want to know how an attacker thinks and how far they will go to achieve their goals as well as some of the common techniques you can't go wrong with Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent.

I wrote a chapter on a colelge student who gets tricked into hacking systems on campus to get every student's identity information, including social security numbers. As Harold explained, the tools and techniques that my character used work in the real-world environment, where most of us have practiced using them in legal ethical hacking simulations.

Read the other reviews from Amazon here. Richard Bejtlich gave it a great review, saying 'Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent' (STN:HTOAC) is a detailed look at the capabilities a structured threat could apply to the world's vulnerable digital infrastructures. Rather than hire a Beltway Bandit, I recommend those planning the digital defense of this nation read HTOAC. This book is more creative, comprehensive, and plausible than what most 'infowar' think-tanks could produce.

HTOAC is second in the STN series, which is developing into an entertaining and effective way to train security professionals.