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Doing Math With Python
REVIEWS
Reviews BOOK REVIEW
Success Strategies from Women in STEM Edited by Peggy A Pritchard and Christine Grant. Second edition, published by Academic Press. ISBN: 9780123971814. Price: E31.95, 518pgs, paperback. he domains of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) have often been difficult career environments for women. And while great strides have been made in realising the previously untapped potential of this half of the population, one area seems to remain a pointlessly male preserve. If you look at lists of speakers at hacking and information security conferences, you’ll struggle to find female names. The gung ho, pseudomachismo that infects much of the information technology community would be almost comical (coming as it does from people who pretty much define the term ‘nerd’), except that it creates such a hostile environment for women. And that’s a tragic waste of talent, not least given the current shortage of people with infosec skills. I can’t say from personal experience whether the infosecurity world is any less misogynist than other areas of technology – such as gaming, with its notorious ‘Gamergate’ controversy. One would hope that a professional area such as ethical hacking might be less prone to the adolescent prejudices that infest computer gaming. But I wouldn’t bet on it. As the title denotes, this book covers the whole range of STEM subjects, so it’s not specific to infosecurity. But the issues, and the solutions, are equally applicable. According to the book’s website: “This updated edition contains new and essential chapters on leadership and negotiation and important coverage of career management, networking, social media, communication skills, and more. With an increased focus on international relevance, this comprehensive text contains shared stories
T
4
Network Security
and vignettes that will help women pursuing or involved in STEM careers develop the necessary professional and personal skills to overcome obstacles to advancement.” Given that there are currently too few women in these domains, finding a mentor who genuinely understands the hurdles a woman will face is difficult. This book aims to be that mentor. It goes well beyond simple encouragement – the book’s 500-plus pages contain a wealth of practical methodologies and proven strategies. Organisations are being breached every day, and one factor contributing to this is a shortage of people with the right skills. Purely on a practical level, we need women to fully participate in this industry. But a better reason is that, morally and ethically, it’s simply the right thing to do. This book will undoubtedly help. For more information, go to: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780123971814/index.php. – SM-D BOOK REVIEW
Doing Math With Python Amit Saha. Published by No Starch Press. ISBN: 978-1-59327-640-9. Price: $29.95, 264pgs, paperback. E-book edition also available. ython is now arguably the most popular programming language for penetration testers, security researchers and hackers of all stripes. It allows for rapid prototyping and quick-and-dirty scripts for solving immediate problems. But it also has a rich library and structures that support advanced development, whether your preference is for object-oriented or functional programming. Mathematics is a strong suit for Python, not least thanks to the Numpy library. And in any kind of research work, it’s common to have to manipulate numbers – mathematical domains like statistics and probability have great relevance to security work, especially when presenting or visualising results.
P
However, not everyone working within infosecurity has a maths or even computer science background. And if you’re not clear about what you’re doing, mathematically speaking, it’s terribly easy to make mistakes that can lead to inappropriate conclusions – for example, do you really understand the difference in significance between an average and a mean? Even when you understand the math, turning it into reliable and accurate code isn’t always simple. I speak as someone who greatly overuses parentheses in any mathematical code just to ensure that operations are evaluated in the right order.
“The concepts and solutions are presented by way of tasks such as shuffling a deck of cards, plotting the trajectory of a projectile and estimating the area of a circle by throwing virtual ‘darts’ at it” This book isn’t going to turn you into a maths genius – it’s aimed at high school-level mathematics. But it will show you how to reliably express mathematical ideas and operations in Python code. It covers areas such as statistics, algebra, geometry, probability and calculus, and it takes you through presenting figures and ideas as graphs, charts and geometric representations (including the famous Mandelbrot set, without which no computer maths book would be complete). Something I particularly like about this book is that it is based on Python 3. Far too many books that use Python (rather than being about it) are based on Python 2.x. This is understandable to a degree: they want to use a lowest common denominator to ensure relevance to the biggest-possible readership. And sometimes the necessary libraries don’t have Python 3 versions – this is especially true of infosecurity books. However, version 3 is the future of Python. Another strong point of this publication is that it’s fun. The concepts and solutions are presented by way of tasks such as shuffling a deck of cards, plotting the trajectory of a projectile and estimating the area of a circle by throwing virtual ‘darts’ at it. So, while there is no direct infosecurity content to this book, if maths isn’t your strongest skill, you will find the grounding this gives you will make your Python code more effective, reliable and meaningful. There’s more information here: www.nostarch.com/doingmathwithpython. – SM-D
October 2015
Reviews BOOK REVIEW
Success Strategies from Women in STEM Edited by Peggy A Pritchard and Christine Grant. Second edition, published by Academic Press. ISBN: 9780123971814. Price: E31.95, 518pgs, paperback. he domains of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) have often been difficult career environments for women. And while great strides have been made in realising the previously untapped potential of this half of the population, one area seems to remain a pointlessly male preserve. If you look at lists of speakers at hacking and information security conferences, you’ll struggle to find female names. The gung ho, pseudomachismo that infects much of the information technology community would be almost comical (coming as it does from people who pretty much define the term ‘nerd’), except that it creates such a hostile environment for women. And that’s a tragic waste of talent, not least given the current shortage of people with infosec skills. I can’t say from personal experience whether the infosecurity world is any less misogynist than other areas of technology – such as gaming, with its notorious ‘Gamergate’ controversy. One would hope that a professional area such as ethical hacking might be less prone to the adolescent prejudices that infest computer gaming. But I wouldn’t bet on it. As the title denotes, this book covers the whole range of STEM subjects, so it’s not specific to infosecurity. But the issues, and the solutions, are equally applicable. According to the book’s website: “This updated edition contains new and essential chapters on leadership and negotiation and important coverage of career management, networking, social media, communication skills, and more. With an increased focus on international relevance, this comprehensive text contains shared stories
T
4
Network Security
and vignettes that will help women pursuing or involved in STEM careers develop the necessary professional and personal skills to overcome obstacles to advancement.” Given that there are currently too few women in these domains, finding a mentor who genuinely understands the hurdles a woman will face is difficult. This book aims to be that mentor. It goes well beyond simple encouragement – the book’s 500-plus pages contain a wealth of practical methodologies and proven strategies. Organisations are being breached every day, and one factor contributing to this is a shortage of people with the right skills. Purely on a practical level, we need women to fully participate in this industry. But a better reason is that, morally and ethically, it’s simply the right thing to do. This book will undoubtedly help. For more information, go to: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780123971814/index.php. – SM-D BOOK REVIEW
Doing Math With Python Amit Saha. Published by No Starch Press. ISBN: 978-1-59327-640-9. Price: $29.95, 264pgs, paperback. E-book edition also available. ython is now arguably the most popular programming language for penetration testers, security researchers and hackers of all stripes. It allows for rapid prototyping and quick-and-dirty scripts for solving immediate problems. But it also has a rich library and structures that support advanced development, whether your preference is for object-oriented or functional programming. Mathematics is a strong suit for Python, not least thanks to the Numpy library. And in any kind of research work, it’s common to have to manipulate numbers – mathematical domains like statistics and probability have great relevance to security work, especially when presenting or visualising results.
P
However, not everyone working within infosecurity has a maths or even computer science background. And if you’re not clear about what you’re doing, mathematically speaking, it’s terribly easy to make mistakes that can lead to inappropriate conclusions – for example, do you really understand the difference in significance between an average and a mean? Even when you understand the math, turning it into reliable and accurate code isn’t always simple. I speak as someone who greatly overuses parentheses in any mathematical code just to ensure that operations are evaluated in the right order.
“The concepts and solutions are presented by way of tasks such as shuffling a deck of cards, plotting the trajectory of a projectile and estimating the area of a circle by throwing virtual ‘darts’ at it” This book isn’t going to turn you into a maths genius – it’s aimed at high school-level mathematics. But it will show you how to reliably express mathematical ideas and operations in Python code. It covers areas such as statistics, algebra, geometry, probability and calculus, and it takes you through presenting figures and ideas as graphs, charts and geometric representations (including the famous Mandelbrot set, without which no computer maths book would be complete). Something I particularly like about this book is that it is based on Python 3. Far too many books that use Python (rather than being about it) are based on Python 2.x. This is understandable to a degree: they want to use a lowest common denominator to ensure relevance to the biggest-possible readership. And sometimes the necessary libraries don’t have Python 3 versions – this is especially true of infosecurity books. However, version 3 is the future of Python. Another strong point of this publication is that it’s fun. The concepts and solutions are presented by way of tasks such as shuffling a deck of cards, plotting the trajectory of a projectile and estimating the area of a circle by throwing virtual ‘darts’ at it. So, while there is no direct infosecurity content to this book, if maths isn’t your strongest skill, you will find the grounding this gives you will make your Python code more effective, reliable and meaningful. There’s more information here: www.nostarch.com/doingmathwithpython. – SM-D
October 2015