Hack-Along with the Heroes and Villains of the Mezonic Agenda as the American Presidency hangs in the balance of cyber-space... In six days Hugh Davis will testify before Congress on the security, stability, and safety of Advice Software Inc.'s e-vote software. He is a world-renowned expert on software security, and his testimony will determine if the software will be implemented for use during the 2004 United States Presidential Elections. After his speech at an RSA conference in Amsterdam, he is handed a cryptic CD with information on the software from notorious hacker, Baff Lexicon. Unbeknownst to Davis, Advice Software has been tracking his every move since the inception of their software evaluation. A string of murders including Baff and the CFO of the Mezonic Corporation (a video card manufacturer in Macau, China) intensifies Davis' need to crack the CD and figure out its secrets before his testimony. He and his friend form the FBI must use their knowledge of buffer overflows, format string vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits to penetrate physical and cyber defenses, ultimately uncovering Advice's plot to fix the US presidential elections. Advice Software's CEO takes the game one step further by holding Davis' family as leverage for his testimony. What is the software's secret? Will Davis find out before his testimony? What are the motives that drive Advice Software's CEO and what is his connection to a secret society destined to avenge the 9/11 attacks against the US?

The "Stealing the Network" series from Syngress created a new genre of realistic but fictional cyber thrillers. "The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking the Presidency" is the first cyber thriller that allows readers to "hack along" with the heroes and villains using the accompanying CD which contains working versions of all the applications described in the fictional narrative of the book.

The Mezonic Agenda deals with some of the most pressing topics in technology and computer security today including: reverse engineering, cryptography, buffer overflows, and steganography. The book tells the tale of criminal hackers attempting to compromise the results of a presidential election for their own gain. The accompanying CD contains real, working versions of all the applications described in the fictional narrative of the book. Computer users, programmers, IT professionals, and policy makers need to be made aware of the risks involved with deploying new technologies and see how attackers can leverage these technologies for their own purposes. While the story in The Mezonic Agenda is fictional, the technologies, exploits, and hacking techniques are all very real.

* The first cyber-thriller" that allows the reader to "hack along" using the accompanying CD which contains working versions of all the applications described in the book.

* To be published in October 2004 when interest in the American Presidential election will be at its highest.

* Provides IT professionals with the most advanced, timely, and accurate information available on security exploits in a fascinating, fictional narrative.