Cyberjutsu: Cybersecurity for the Modern Ninja

by Ben McCarty

Cyberjutsu is an approachable and enlightening guide to modern cyber security and espionage, based on secret techniques shared in ancient Japanese ninja scrolls. Like Sun Tzu's Art of War for Modern Business, this book uses ancient ninja scrolls as the foundation for teaching readers about cyber-warfare, espionage and security.

Cyberjutsu brings the tactics, techniques, and procedures ninjas used in feudal Japan into today's cyber security battlefield, creating an essential handbook for cyber defenders. The book uses authentic Japanese scrolls to analyze how real ninjas thought about and practiced information assurance, security, infiltration, and espionage that often required covert, unauthorized access to heavily fortified organizations--many of the same concepts cyber security professionals deal with every day. Readers learn: how to map a network like an adversary; how to place network sensors like a ninja; how ninja used social engineering techniques to slip into castles and how ninja installed backdoors and implants into castles; anti-attribution tactics used by ninja to protect their employer and punish the enemy; ninja command and control communication (C2) techniques and much more!

Genres: Technology, Technical, Software, Business

264 pages, Paperback

Published April 27, 2021

About the author

American author, veteran, inventor and cybersecurity professional.

Reviews

[Allen West · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was definitely unique. Mapping modern day problems onto ninja problems is a very cool concept and was done thoroughly and convincingly! I learned a lot about ninjas, and I feel like almost all of the concepts were relevant and had tangible takeaways. I did find myself being a bit confused who this book was for though. Many of these concepts are very basic and entry level, and while important to know, often included suggestions that an entry level cyber security analyst could not implement themselves. I also felt that managers of cyber security would not take this book seriously, although they would be the ones taking most of these actions. Some of the ideas were simply for perspective or daily considerations, but many were how to organize a company’s resources on a larger scale to develop secure habits. Interesting read, helpful takeaway considerations, and ninjas.

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

No ground breaking thoughts for cyber security people here in all honesty but kudos to the writer for making correlations to the shinobi tradecraft and explaining key concepts of todays cyber security counter measures in "ninja terms" making it more easy to understand for non it people.

[Daly Barnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great lessons but literally a posterchild for orientalism.

[Raju Chacko · Rating 5 out of 5]

No cybersecurity and no Internet! Cybersecurity has risen to prominence in our lives ever since the Internet, inhabited by tech criminals of every kind, became the primary technology backbone enabling ecommerce, business, and banking. They continually look out for you on unsafe computer networks and thwart sophisticated tech criminals from stealing your money and digital valuables. And note, that could be to the tune of several trillions of dollars (1 trillion = a million-million) for organizations and businesses! Cyber criminals are one up in the game, having relegated brilliant, hard-working cybersecurity teams to defensive, and reactive roles. Cheesed off, the cybersecurity industry has long been seeking to draw even, but without success!

Enter 'Ninjutsu', the top espionage/reconnaissance tradecraft developed and used by the deadly medieval Japanese ninjas. This author, a US Army veteran and a cyberwarfare specialist, discovered impressive parallels in the strategies, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by the ancient ninjas and the marauders in cyber attacks. Unable to keep the excitement to himself, he's noising it about publicly through this book! Read it to find more about ‘Cyberjutsu’, the proposed deadly fusion of cyber security and ninjutsu!

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could be so much more: excellent start, but quickly went down in quality and depth of thought. Later chapters were two pages long each and contained almost nothing of intellectual value. It felt, the author was trying to get to a certain size of the book.

Some parts are repetitive, for example chapter 3 “Xenophobic security” discusses the concepts similar to chapter 25 “Zero-trust threat management”.

There are few good thoughts, like “mapping your networks”, this is why the book gets 2 stars from me.

[BookTrib.com]

Connecting cybersecurity and ninja lore, CYBERJUTSU is both practical and prescient. With its knowledge of the past and its applications for the future, this book is sure to inspire both cybersecurity insiders and the curious.

Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/04/06/old-s...

[Jozsef · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could have been a really good book, but unfortunately there are some mind blowingly weird tips that would hardly ever work in a real non-military organization with internal or external customers. Also the book feels like the obligatory Sun Tzu slide from any cybersecurity slidedeck, so if you don't like that, well, this book is not for you.

[Shane Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting tie between Shinobi scrolls and modern cybersecurity. However, it doesn't really cover anything new or groundbreaking (especially as it ties everything back to established frameworks). I'd say if you're new to the industry it's a good, easy read, for those with experience it's probably something you could pass on.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Perfect Combination

This was a refreshing read.

Essentially, it was a combination of Japanese philosophy and cybersecurity.

I loved it!

Truly a great combination. McCarty did an excellent way of giving examples of security in terms of a ninja.

Fun and interesting read!

4.6/5

[Javier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well. This wasn't very good.

Way too generalistic, gives sometimes contradictory advice in different chapters, and at some point defends security by obscurity. (which is a BAD idea).
Would not recommend this one

[Ivan Koma · Rating 2 out of 5]

обложка очень хороша и заинтересовывает, но само содержание для не безопасника довольно туго и сухо с самого начала технической части, а для безопасников судя по отзывам оно наоборот слишком очевидно, за двумя зайцами погонишься, никого не догонишь увы...

[Jules The Book Junkie Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the author’s analogies of ninja warfare to modern day cyber security. It made me think of malware and virus threats. Unlike my co-reviewer, Craig, I’m not well versed in protecting the cyber infrastructure of a business. As a novice, I appreciated the author’s analogies to make his point. I will say that much of the technical discussion was…not over my head but out of my wheel house. I did feel the target audience was not the uniformed user of technology (me) but a new IT manager tasked with securing a company’s cyber assets.

Clearly an important topic, and I hope that Cyberjutsu – Cybersecurity for the Modern Ninja finds its way to the many people tasked with cyber security for their existing or newly formed company. As a mere user of technology, I found the risks presented absolutely frighten! I imagine that creating a secure system from the start would be easier than applying Band-aids to an existing one.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. For more reading recommendations, visit Book Junkie Reviews at www.abookjunkiereviews.wordpress.com