// Prerequisites
What to read before Malware Data Science
If Malware Data Science feels too steep at intermediate level, here is what to read first. Lighter books in the same topics that build the prerequisites this one assumes.
01 · 2014
Countdown to Zero Day
Kim Zetter's investigative reconstruction of Stuxnet, the joint US/Israeli operation that physically damaged Iranian uranium-enrichment centrifuges via a worm, and what its discovery revealed about state-level cyber capability.
Beginner5/5Kim Zetter02 · 2022
The Ransomware Hunting Team
Investigative journalism on the volunteers who quietly cracked ransomware to free victims for free, while the FBI mostly watched. A people-first look at the early ransomware economy.
Beginner4/5Renee Dudley, Daniel Golden03 · 2012
Practical Malware Analysis
Still the gold standard textbook for static and dynamic malware analysis on Windows.
Intermediate5/5Michael Sikorski, Andrew Honig04 · 2013
The Practice of Network Security Monitoring
Richard Bejtlich's NSM playbook: how to deploy collection sensors, validate that you actually see what you think you see, and build detection workflows around open-source tools.
Intermediate5/5Richard Bejtlich05 · 2013
Applied Network Security Monitoring
A practitioner's walkthrough of building an NSM capability end to end, from deciding what to collect through detection and the analysis workflow that ties it together. The tooling is dated, but the way it teaches you to think about monitoring is not.
Intermediate4/5Chris Sanders, Jason Smith06 · 2017
Network Security Through Data Analysis
Michael Collins on building situational awareness from network telemetry: collection architecture, statistical baseline-setting, and the analytic patterns that turn raw flows into detection.
Intermediate4/5Michael Collins07 · 2017
American Kingpin
A propulsive account of how Ross Ulbricht built the Silk Road dark-web drug empire as Dread Pirate Roberts, and how a handful of investigators across rival agencies finally unmasked him.
Beginner5/5Nick Bilton08 · 2011
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen's reconstruction of Max Butler's career — from white-hat consultant to running CardersMarket, the carding forum that consolidated the early-2000s underground — and the FBI investigation that finally took him down.
Beginner5/5Kevin Poulsen