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August 31, 2006

Ross Anderson's Security Engineering

Ross Anderson's Security Engineering is a great book. And I'm not saying that because I wrote the foreword. Since it was published in 2001, I have regularly recommended it to engineers interested in security.

None of this is news. What is news is that you can download the book, free and legally.

Posted on August 31, 2006 at 7:45 AM15 Comments

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Comments

Fantastic. This is good to see with DRM and all. Ironicaly, every book i have downloaded I have also ended up buying. There is just no substitute for reading from the printed page, and printing out myself is almost never worth the effort.

Posted by: Greg at August 31, 2006 9:10 AM


> Above all, it is aimed at Dilbert. My main audience
> is the working programmer or engineer who is trying
> to design real systems that will keep on working
> despite the best efforts of customers, managers, and everybody else.

Now that's a book I can identify with :-)

Posted by: Dimitris Andrakakis at August 31, 2006 9:15 AM


Greg: not too ironically, if you think about it. The author himself writes it in the referenced page:

> My colleague David MacKay found that
> putting his book on coding theory online
> actually helped its sales. Book publishers
> are getting the message faster than
> the music or software folks.

I've got one more reason to buy a copy of this book... the first one being of course that it's very good material.

Posted by: andrew at August 31, 2006 9:44 AM


> My colleague David MacKay found that
> putting his book on coding theory online
> actually helped its sales. Book publishers
> are getting the message faster than
> the music or software folks.

I like the premise, but real books are more convenient for most people than e-books but mp3s are more convenient with CDs.

Thanks for the link!

Posted by: paul at August 31, 2006 10:16 AM


w00t!

will go through few pages/chapters and might buy it.

cheers.

Posted by: Ghaith at August 31, 2006 10:37 AM


w00t!

will go through few pages/chapters and might buy it.

cheers.

Bruce, when we should expect your new book?

Posted by: Ghaith at August 31, 2006 10:37 AM


This is fantastic news! I've (well my employer has) bought 3 copies in my lifetime, 2 of which are out on permanent loan. I'll still use the hard copy, but this will be great for when I'm at home or away from the office and want to reference the book.

Posted by: richj at August 31, 2006 11:31 AM


It is a good book (like that by Bruce and Neils Ferguson I use both often).

However it was written in the late 90's and some of it is showing it's age. Hopefully Ross (and others) will augment the online version as time goes on.

Posted by: Clive Robinson at August 31, 2006 11:52 AM


Bruce,
When are you releasing "beyond fear" for download ? I just bought it, but I think it could drive my fellow airline-passengers "beyond fear" if they see me taking the hardcopy out of my bag (the same bag where I keep my molotov coctails bought in the duty free shop at Gatwick ;-) )

Posted by: A'kos at August 31, 2006 12:00 PM


A downloadable copy of Beyond Fear would be nice, given my inability to read print media.

Posted by: Igor at August 31, 2006 1:41 PM


I think all books should be at least offered in a combined paper/electronic set. Paper is good for general reading, but when you really want to find something fast, nothing beats text search.

When we travel I have the manuals to our digital cameras both in paper, and in .pdf on laptop and Palm.

Posted by: jayh at August 31, 2006 1:41 PM


I think the site got "Schneier Dotted"... it's not responding.

Posted by: Jon at August 31, 2006 2:52 PM


Jon,

Slashdot and BoingBoing have been feeding off this site quite a bit recently.

Posted by: Milan at August 31, 2006 3:45 PM


@jayh,

My thoughts exactly. I tend to read a book then refer back to it.... obviously remembering where something was is difficult!

Posted by: aws at September 1, 2006 11:41 AM


Well, I just downloaded it, and 10 seconds, later, I bought it on amazon.
I wonder when Schneier will post part or all of Beyond Fear

Posted by: V at September 6, 2006 12:56 PM


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