Philip Alexander – författare

This volume brings together studies by experts in the rabbinic literature of late antiquity and by specialists in the history of the Jews in that period in order to reveal the value of rabbinic material as historical evidence and the problems and issues which arise in its exploitation.A substantial introductory section discusses the current state of knowledge about Palestine in this period and debates about the difficulties involved in editing and dating rabbinic texts. Specific core texts and text categories are then introduced to the reader in a series of ten discrete studies. The volume concludes with six thematic analyses which illustrate the use and limitations of rabbinic evidence for cultural, religious, political, economic and social history.This volume will be essential reading for all scholars concerned with the history of the later Roman Empire.

This volume presents the long-awaited edition of the Cave 4 manuscripts of Serekh Ha-Yahad or The Rule of the Community, in which the Essenes detailed the guidelines for membership in their community. Also known as the Manual of Discipline, a complete scroll was found in Cave 1 at Qumran and this edition illuminates the textual and redactional history of Dead Sea literature. The document is extremely important for understanding the nature, practice, and ideology of the Qumran covenanters.

This volume contains the texts from Cave 4 at Qumran which did not find a home in the earlier volumes of Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, which were arranged by literary genre. Although many compositions found at Qumran were works already known from the Bible, Apocrypha, or Pseudepigrapha, these texts were previously unknown and include some works composed by the Qumran community itself. In addition, the volume contains some literary and documentary texts from sites near Qumran.

Organizations with computer networks, Web sites, and employees carrying laptops and Blackberries face an array of security challenges. Among other things, they need to keep unauthorized people out of the network, thwart Web site hackers, and keep data safe from prying eyes or criminal hands. This book provides a high-level overview of these challenges and more. But it is not for the hard-core IT security engineer who works full time on networks. Instead, it is aimed at the nontechnical executive with responsibility for ensuring that information and assets stay safe and private. Written by a practicing information security officer, Philip Alexander, the book contains the latest information and arms readers with the knowledge they need to make better business decisions.Information Security: A Manager's Guide to Thwarting Data Thieves and Hackers covers the following technical issues in a nontechnical manner: -The concept of defense in depth -Network design -Business-continuity planning -Authentication and authorization -Providing security for your mobile work force -Hackers and the challenges they can present -Viruses, Trojans, and worms But it doesn't stop there. The book goes beyond the technical and covers highly important topics related to data security like outsourcing, contractual considerations with vendors, data privacy laws, and hiring practices. In short, Alexander gives the reader a 360-degree look at data security: What to be worried about; what to look for; the tradeoffs among cost, efficiency, and speed; what different technologies can and can't do; and how to make sure technical professionals are keeping their eyes on the right ball. Best of all, it conveys information in an understandable way, meaning managers won't need to rely solely on the IT people in their own company—who may speak an entirely different language and have entirely different concerns. Hackers and data thieves are getting smarter and bolder every day. Information Security is your first line of defense.

In the news on a daily basis are reports of lost or stolen computer data, hacker successes, identity thefts, virus and spyware problems, and network incursions of various kinds. Many people, especially nonprofessional administrators of home or small business networks, feel helpless. In this book, technical security expert Philip Alexander explains in layman's terms how to keep networks and individual computers safe from the bad guys. In presenting solutions to these problems and many others, the book is a lifeline to those who know their computer systems are vulnerable to smart thieves and hackers—not to mention tech-savvy kids or employees who are swapping music files, stealing software, or otherwise making a mockery of the word security.In his job protecting data and combating financial fraud, Philip Alexander knows well which power tools are required to keep hackers and thieves at bay. With his gift for putting technical solutions in everyday language, Alexander helps readers with home and/or small business networks protect their data, their identities, and their privacy using the latest techniques. In addition, readers will learn how to protect PDAs and smartphones, how to make hardware thefts more unlikely, how to sniff out scammers and the motives of offshore tech support personnel who ask too many questions, and how to keep personal information safer when shopping over the Internet or telephone.The emphasis throughout the book is on managing security—putting protections and policies in place that will make it far less likely that readers become victims. What's more, the book isn't just about the dangers of technical ignorance: It is designed to show readers how to get the most from their systems, how the latest software can increase productivity, how to solve knotty computer problems without getting tied into knots yourself, and when to call in the pros. This book does more than provide solutions—it provides peace of mind.

Starting from a careful definition of mysticism, this volume argues that there is clear evidence for the practice of mysticism in the Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It offers a close reading of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, the Self-Glorification Hymn, and related texts, which constitute the Qumran mystical corpus. It discusses the nature of the mystical experience at Qumran, which was centred on union with the angels in offering praise to God in the celestial temple, and the means by which this union was achieved, through the communal chanting of highly-charged numinous hymns. It also argues that that the presence of mysticism at Qumran has important implications for the history of western mysticism. It means that Jewish mysticism began in priestly circles in Second Temple times, several centuries before the commonly accepted date. And the important form of Christian mysticism involving speculation on the angelic hierarchies, classically associated with Dionysius the Areopagite, had a pre-Christian Jewish forebear. Consequently Qumran mysticism belongs to the genealogy of Christian as well as of Jewish mysticism.This volume synthesizes and makes accessible a mass of technical research widely scattered in monographs and articles, and offers the reader a clear guide to the most recent scholarly work in the field.