This book explores the genesis of ransomware and how the parallel emergence of encryption technologies has elevated ransomware to become the most prodigious cyber threat that enterprises are confronting. It also investigates the driving forces behind what has been dubbed the 'ransomware revolution' after a series of major attacks beginning in 2013, and how the advent of cryptocurrencies provided the catalyst for the development and increased profitability of ransomware, sparking a phenomenal rise in the number and complexity of ransomware attacks. This book analyzes why the speed of technology adoption has been a fundamental factor in the continued success of financially motivated cybercrime, and how the ease of public access to advanced encryption techniques has allowed malicious actors to continue to operate with increased anonymity across the internet. This anonymity has enabled increased collaboration between attackers, which has aided the development of new ransomware attacks, and led to an increasing level of technical complexity in ransomware attacks. This book highlights that the continuous expansion and early adoption of emerging technologies may be beyond the capacity of conventional risk managers and risk management frameworks. Researchers and advanced level students studying or working in computer science, business or criminology will find this book useful as a reference or secondary text. Professionals working in cybersecurity, cryptography, information technology, financial crime (and other related topics) will also welcome this book as a reference.

The rise of populism and nationalism in the West have raised concerns about the fragility of liberal political values, chief among them tolerance. But what alternative social resources exist for cultivating the interpersonal relationships and mutual goodwill necessary for sustainable peace? And how might the lived practices of religious communities carry potential to reinterpret or re-circuit these interpersonal tensions and transform the relationship with the cultural "other" (Fremde) from "foe" (Feind) to "friend" (Freund)? This volume contributes a unique analysis of this shifting discourse by viewing the contemporary socio-political upheaval through the lens of Friedrich Schleiermacher's theology, with a focus on the themes of friendship, interpersonal subjectivity, and sociability as a path beyond mere tolerance. Each of the essays of the volume is written by an internationally recognized scholar in the field, and the volume examines Schleiermacher's novel reflections across multiple social contexts, including North America, Great Britain, western Europe, and South Africa. As these essays demonstrate, the implications of this conversation continue to resound in contemporary religious communities and political discourse.

This volume examines a multitude of characters in Matthew's gospel and provides an in-depth look at the different approaches currently employed by scholars working with literary and reader-oriented methods. Beginning with an introduction on 'the properties of character' and the several aspects involved in the creation of person, the contributors provide a close reading of numerous characters and character types in the Gospel of Matthew. Including Mary, King Herod, John the Baptist, Jesus the Preacher, Jesus the Teacher, God the Father, the Roman Centurion, Peter, Women, Gentiles, Scribes and Pharisees, and Romans. Such close studies aid the understanding of different issues in Matthean characterization, while also charting the development of hermeneutical vistas that have developed in contemporary scholarship, resulting in a collection of exegetical character studies that are self-consciously working from a literary, narrative-critical, reader-oriented, or related methodology.

It is difficult to underestimate the significance of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 within the biblical tradition. Although hell occupies a prominent position in popular Christianrhetoric today, it plays a relatively minor role in the Christian canon. The most important biblical texts that explicitly describe the fate of the dead are in the Synoptic Gospels. Yet among these passages, only the Lukan tradition is intent on explicitly describing the abode of the dead; it is the only biblical tour of hell. Hauge examines the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, uniquely the only 'parable' that is set within a supernatural context. The parables characteristically feature concrete realities of first-century Mediterranean life, but the majority of Luke 16:19-31 is narrated from the perspective of the tormented dead. This volume demonstrates that the distinctive features of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus are the result of a strategic imitation, creative transformation, and Christian transvaluation of the descent of Odysseus into the house of hades in Odyssey Book 11, the literary model par excellence of postmortem revelation in antiquity.

What was the relationship of ancient education to early Christianity? This volume provides an in-depth look at different approaches currently employed by scholars who draw upon educational settings in the ancient world to inform their historical research in Christian origins. The book is divided into two sections: one consisting of essays on education in the ancient world, and one consisting of exegetical studies dealing with various passages where motifs emerging from ancient educational culture provide illumination. The chapters summarize the state of the discussion on ancient education in classical and biblical studies, examine obstacles to arriving at a comprehensive theory of early Christianity's relationship to ancient education, compare different approaches, and compile the diverse methodologies into one comparative study. Several educational motifs are integrated in order to demonstrate the exegetical insights that they may yield when utilized in New Testament historical investigation and interpretation.

This book explores the genesis of ransomware and how the parallel emergence of encryption technologies has elevated ransomware to become the most prodigious cyber threat that enterprises are confronting. It also investigates the driving forces behind what has been dubbed the 'ransomware revolution' after a series of major attacks beginning in 2013, and how the advent of cryptocurrencies provided the catalyst for the development and increased profitability of ransomware, sparking a phenomenal rise in the number and complexity of ransomware attacks. This book analyzes why the speed of technology adoption has been a fundamental factor in the continued success of financially motivated cybercrime, and how the ease of public access to advanced encryption techniques has allowed malicious actors to continue to operate with increased anonymity across the internet. This anonymity has enabled increased collaboration between attackers, which has aided the development of new ransomware attacks, and led to an increasing level of technical complexity in ransomware attacks. This book highlights that the continuous expansion and early adoption of emerging technologies may be beyond the capacity of conventional risk managers and risk management frameworks. Researchers and advanced level students studying or working in computer science, business or criminology will find this book useful as a reference or secondary text. Professionals working in cybersecurity, cryptography, information technology, financial crime (and other related topics) will also welcome this book as a reference.

Theological work, whatever else it may be, is always reflection on social transformations. Not only pastors but also theologians work with the sources of the Christian traditions in one hand and a newspaper in the other. But how are we to understand the relationship between social transformations and the continuously “compromised� development of Christian ideals, as these are measured by doctrinal formulations? And how might a more deeply sociological perspective on this relationship inform theological work? Matthew Ryan Robinson and Evan F. Kuehn approach this question, not by reconstructing a history of ideas, but rather by telling a story about the development of churches and theological institutions. They take the turbulent and dynamic ecclesiological situation of nineteenth-century Germany as a representative case, focusing on the sociological methodological orientation of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Ernst Troeltsch in the context of the rise of theological liberalism, the history of religions, and the German churches’ confrontation with social and political challenges. . Robinson and Kuehn then connect this orientation with the sociology of religion of Hans Joas and Niklas Luhmann, arguing for a functional focus in theological research on what doctrines do rather than what the reality behind or in any particular doctrine is.

Serving as both an accessible textbook and an original synthesis of interdisciplinary scholarship, Emerging Infections traces the social and environmental determinants of human infectious diseases from the Paleolithic to the present day. Contrary to earlier predictions of a post-infectious era, humanity now faces a post-antimicrobial era with the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens and the entry of new and deadly viruses such as Ebola and COVID-19 in the human population. Yet despite the novelty of these infections, their evolution is primarily driven by the same human activities of subsistence, settlement, and social organization that have been recurring over the last ten thousand years. Approaching these activities from a biocultural perspective, this book examines the prehistory and history of human infectious diseases. Much has happened in the decade since the first edition, with significant developments in both disease research and in the evolution of the diseases themselves. As such, this new edition has been expanded to include recent epidemics of Ebola, Zika, MERS, and of course, COVID-19. Indeed, the book's biocultural approach is especially relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, examining it from a deep time perspective and placing it within a much-needed explanatory framework. Emerging Infections is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in anthropology, the medical social sciences, public health, and the history of medicine. The book will also appeal to a more general readership with an interest in public health and infectious diseases.

Serving as both an accessible textbook and an original synthesis of interdisciplinary scholarship, Emerging Infections traces the social and environmental determinants of human infectious diseases from the Paleolithic to the present day. Contrary to earlier predictions of a post-infectious era, humanity now faces a post-antimicrobial era with the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens and the entry of new and deadly viruses such as Ebola and COVID-19 in the human population. Yet despite the novelty of these infections, their evolution is primarily driven by the same human activities of subsistence, settlement, and social organization that have been recurring over the last ten thousand years. Approaching these activities from a biocultural perspective, this book examines the prehistory and history of human infectious diseases. Much has happened in the decade since the first edition, with significant developments in both disease research and in the evolution of the diseases themselves. As such, this new edition has been expanded to include recent epidemics of Ebola, Zika, MERS, and of course, COVID-19. Indeed, the book's biocultural approach is especially relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, examining it from a deep time perspective and placing it within a much-needed explanatory framework. Emerging Infections is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in anthropology, the medical social sciences, public health, and the history of medicine. The book will also appeal to a more general readership with an interest in public health and infectious diseases.

This is the story of Thom and Alethea. Two neighbours in a West End apartment block, trying desperately to keep their lives from falling apart. But the Wall that stands between them has decided they belong together. Using chalk, sock puppets, a projector and over two-dozen characters, the creators of Attack of the Attacking Attackers! spin a tall tale of whimsy, imagination and architectural enlightenment.

Characters in the Second Gospel are analysed and an in-depth look at different approaches currently employed by scholars working with literary and reader-oriented methods of analysis is provided. The first section consists of essays on method/theory, and the second consists of seven exegetical character studies using a literary or reader-oriented method. All contributors work from a literary, narrative-critical, reader-oriented, or related methodology. The book summarizes the state of the discussion and examines obstacles to arriving at a comprehensive theory of character in the Second Gospel. Specific contributions include analyses of the representation of women, God, Jesus, Satan, Gentiles, and the Roman authorities of Mark's Gospel. This work is both an exploration of theories of character, and a study in the application of those theories.

It is difficult to underestimate the significance of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 within the biblical tradition. Although hell occupies a prominent position in popular Christian rhetoric today, it plays a relatively minor role in the Christian canon. The most important biblical texts that explicitly describe the fate of the dead are in the Synoptic Gospels. Yet among these passages, only the Lukan tradition is intent on explicitly describing the abode of the dead; it is the only biblical tour of hell. Hauge examines the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, the only 'parable' that is set within a supernatural context. The parables characteristically feature concrete realities of first-century Mediterranean life, but the majority of Luke 16:19-31 is narrated from the perspective of the tormented dead. This volume demonstrates that the distinctive features of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus are the result of a strategic imitation, creative transformation, and Christian transvaluation of the descent of Odysseus into the house of hades in Odyssey Book 11, the literary model par excellence of postmortem revelation in antiquity.