Great Reads of 2023
This past year was an absolute rollercoaster. From the low of losing our 5 year old cat to cancer, to the high of obtaining my Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) certification, I found myself doing more reading in order to escape - and to quietly reflect on the state of the world around me.
This year’s “Great Reads” is filled with a multitude of fun, useful, enjoyable, interesting, concerning, and sometimes downright enraging content. Needless to say, there’s an abundance of food for thought across multiple topics of interest (and importance) - and like a buffet, I encourage you to try a little bit of everything.
Enjoy!
Original Content
- Life after the AI-pocalypse
- Advice for breaking into InfoSec
- Taking Breaks
- Getting Humbled with Bug Bounty Hunting
Books
- The Way of the Ronin: A Guide to Career Strategy by Dr. Beverly A. Potter
- The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
- The Will of the Many by James Islington
- Witch King by Martha Wells
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
- The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
- Futureproof: 9 Rules for Surviving in the Age of AI by Kevin Roose
Artificial Intelligence
- Should I solve it with AI? by Tiferet Gazit
- Must Learn AI Security by Rod Trent
- ($) AI bot performed insider trading and lied to user
- Wall Street Watchdog Says AI Will Cause ‘Unavoidable’ Economic Collapse
- Generative AI’s Energy Problem Today is Foundational
- A New Study Says AI Is Eating Its Own Tail
- The AI feedback loop: Researchers warn of ‘model collapse’ as AI trains on AI-generated content
Career
- We’re now finding out the damaging results of the mandated return to the office - and it’s worse than we thought
- Managers Exploit Loyal Workers Over Less Committed Colleagues
- On corporate life by lcamtuf
- Finding Your Moat by Matt Johansen
- Remote workers are more aware of cybersecurity risk than in-office employees
Climate Change
- UAE planned to use COP28 climate talks to make oil deals
- COP28 president says there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels
- Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%
- The richest Americans account for 40 percent of U.S. climate emissions
- Carbon capture pipeline nixed after widespread opposition
- Humanity just lived through the hottest 12 months in at least 125,000 years
- The world has just experienced the hottest summer on record - by a significant margin
- It’s not yet summer in Brazil, but a dangerous heat wave is sweeping the country
- Heat Index in Brazil Hits 137F (58.5C) by Jessica Wildfire
- Scientists sound the alarm as the world briefly smashes through 2-degree warming limit for the first time
- Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies as climate risks grow
COVID-19
- Novel MRI reveals brain changes in COVID patients
- At least 14% of Americans have long COVID
- Long COVID is devastating and far from rare
- Can’t think, can’t remember
- COVID pandemic linked to surge in child and teen diabetes
- Absence from work at record high as Americans feel strain from COVID
- CDC Advised To Weaken Infection Protections As Mysterious Pneumonia Brews Overseas
- Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak
- COVID Silence and How The Media Works by Nate Bear
Economics
- 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck
- U.S. employees spend $51 daily when they work full-time in office
- ($) A mile-long line for free food offers a warning as COVID benefits end
- 50 years of tax cuts for the rich failed to trickle down, economics study says
- New billionaire heirs overtake self-made ones as $5.2 trillion wealth transfer begins
- Super-rich warned of ‘pitchforks and torches’ unless they tackle inequality
- The $500 billion ‘Office real estate apocalypse’
- Inside the Biden White House’s aggressive back-to-office push
- The Elite’s War on Remote Work Has Nothing to Do with Productivity by Jessica Wildfire
Food for Thought
- There Is No Cure For Your Cognitive Dissonance
- ‘What the heck is going on?’ Extremely high-energy particle detected falling to Earth
- Career Advice by Moxie Marlinspike
- The maze is in the mouse by Praveen Seshadri
- Normal is killing us by Jessica Wildfire
- How many friends do Americans have?
Information Security
- “That’s off limits,” Said no attacker ever
- Mature Organizations Still a Security Horror Show
- Security Budgets - Supply and Demand by Phil Venables
- The Death of InfoSec Twitter by Jay Jacobs
- Why ‘shift left’ is now a dirty term in some security circles
- Caricatures of Security People by Phil Venables
- Security Quackery by Mark Curphey
- How I choose a security research topic by James Kettle
Politics
- Over 75% of voters want maximum age limit for elected officials
- More Americans say they support political violence ahead of the 2024 election
- U.S. stops helping Big Tech spot foreign meddling amid GOP legal threats
- YouTube now allows videos that falsely claim Trump won 2020 election
- Mark Meadows Spills to Special Counsel About Trump’s Election Lies
- Second Trump lawyer pleads guilty to conspiracy
- International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Putin over alleged Ukraine war crimes
Technology
- Six Months Ago NPR Left Twitter. The Effects Have Been Negligible
- FTC investigates OpenAI over data leak and ChatGPT’s inaccuracy
- Meta sues FTC, hoping to block ban on monetizing kids’ Facebook data
- Federal judge vows to investigate Google for intentionally destroying chats
- ‘One in a Million’ iPhone Photo Shows Three Versions of the Same Woman
- PlayStation To Delete A Ton Of TV Shows Users Already Paid For
- Melbourne Lord Mayor says ‘vandalism’ of QR codes for reporting graffiti ‘so frustrating’
As always, thanks again for browsing through another year’s “Great Reads” 😊 While I prepare my next blog post reflecting on my Predictions for 2023, you can git checkout other (usually off-topic) content I’m reading more regularly over at Instapaper.
Until next time, remember to git commit && stay classy!
Cheers,
Keith // securingdev
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This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.