News in the Category "Text"
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Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World (Review)
Does arming pilots make flying safer? Computer security guru Schneier applies his analytical skills to real-world threats like terrorists, hijackers, and counterfeiters. Beyond Fear may come across as the dry, meticulous prose of a scientist, but that’s actually Schneier’s strength. Are you at risk or just afraid? Only by cutting away emotional issues to examine the facts, he says, will we reduce our risks enough to stop being scared.
Practical Cryptography (Review)
Practical Cryptography. By Niels Ferguson and Bruce Schneier; published by John Wiley and Sons, 877/762-2974 (phone), 800/597-3299 (fax), www.wiley.com (Web); 432 pages; 150.
As Mark Twain acidulously remarked, “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” Bruce Schneier’s Applied Cryptography, published in 1996, is a classic in the canon of computer security works; it’s a seminal, important book for the experts in the field or for those with the technical background, but it is far too complex and mathematical for most readers…
Book Review: Beyond Fear
The most appealing part of Bruce Schneier’s thorough, well-reasoned approach to security strategies—personal, corporate and computer—is what he does not do. He does not propose concrete solutions (“We need more police. We need national ID cards. You need to build better firewalls.”) Instead, he lays out the issues, debates the pros and cons, and leaves it to the reader to pick a solution.
What makes the discussion worthwhile is that Schneier, founder of consulting firm Counterpane Internet Security Inc. and publisher of the security newsletter Crypto-Gram, takes great pains to identify the key issues and examine some proposed solutions, pointing out the costs involved and the likelihood of success. For example, he believes that the idea of using biometric scanners—programmed to search out known criminals and terrorists based on their physical characteristics—probably won’t work because false positives will overwhelm the system…
Perspectives from the Field: Bruce Schneier, Encryption Expert
Bruce Schneier contends that the strongest security systems benefit from redundancy and variety. And as the Homeland Security Department consolidates a number of different agencies, Schneier warns that entrusting a centralized authority with securing the nation may make the country less, rather than more, secure.
Few in the field of information technology security have more expertise and industry respect than Schneier. Not only is he the author of “Applied Cryptography,” one of the seminal textbooks on encryption, but his Two fish encryption algorithm was a finalist far the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s new Federal Advanced Encryption Standard. He is also founder and chief technical officer of managed security service provider Counterpane Internet Security Inc., Cupertino, Calif., and publishes his own Crypto-Gram newsletter (http://www.counterpane .com/crypto-gram.html). Schneier Spoke with Staff Writer Joab Jackson to discuss how best to secure the nation’s IT and physical infrastructures…
Book Review: Beyond Fear
The Bottom Line
This is an excellent addition to what seems to be an emerging genre of books—those about national security or the lack thereof. Bruce Schneier gives a plain-English and well thought out overview of the security measures that have been implemented since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He points out that security and liberty are not mutually exclusive. I recommend this book for anyone. It is important that we, as citizens, understand these issues so we can make informed decisions.
Pros
- Excellent and timely information
- Non-techies and techies alike can understand this book…
Review of Beyond Fear
Security is a complex business. If you’re looking at the security of a computer network, for example, you can’t just look at the physical characteristics of the system. Humans help protect the system, and humans attack it. Yes, most humans aren’t clever enough to create their own attacks, but they can master the rudimentary skills required to go after the system using automated tools the innovators create.
But how do you evaluate a security system, whether it’s meant to protect a computer, an airport, or an individual? In Beyond Fear, security expert and founder of Counterpane Internet Security, Bruce Schneier advocates a five-part analytical framework:…
ITsec PEP Review of: Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World
I am going to keep this review short. Schneier’s first book I read, Applied Cryptography (2nd edition), left me fascinated by the art and science of cryptography. Another Schneier book, Secrets & Lies, told things many were not inclined to share. Practical Cryptography (co-authored with Niels Ferguson) presented such a clear, practical, and down-to-earth view of cryptography that I thought anyone who is lucky enough to read the book and follow the advice is going to really understand cryptography in context. Now, Beyond Fear. If it can be said that Practical Cryptography followed Applied Cryptography, then Beyond Fear follows Secrets & Lies. Once again, Schneier manages to describe complex security concepts and interdependencies without a word of technical jargon, so loved by many pseudo-experts trying to disguise their lack of clear understanding. Once again Schneier advocates “understand before you act”, which seems not to match some governments’ approach to security – security in a wider sense. Once again Schneier proves he is the one of few people who indeed understand security, and what is more important and more difficult, that he can explain complex security concepts to people not specializing in security. Whatever your trade and whatever your background, go ahead and read it because security affects your life…
Security Vision: Bruce Schneier
Tech entrepreneur Bruce Schneier is one of America’s best-known computer security experts. His testimony before Congress helped defeat legal restrictions on cryptography sought by the FBI and the National Security Agency when an appellate court ruled in 1999 that crypto algorithms were a form of speech covered by the First Amendment.
Schneier co-founded security services company Counterpane Internet Security, where he serves as chief technologist. Arguing that constant vigilance, not technology, is the best defense against computer break-ins, Schneier believes security breaches are nonetheless fated to increase as networking systems become more complex…
Homeland Insecurity
A top expert says America's approach to protecting itself will only make matters worse. Forget "foolproof" technology—we need systems designed to fail smartly
- To stop the rampant theft of expensive cars, manufacturers in the 1990s began to make ignitions very difficult to hot-wire. This reduced the likelihood that cars would be stolen from parking lots—but apparently contributed to the sudden appearance of a new and more dangerous crime, carjacking.
- After a vote against management Vivendi Universal announced earlier this year that its electronic shareholder-voting system, which it had adopted to tabulate votes efficiently and securely, had been broken into by hackers. Because the new system eliminated the old paper ballots, recounting the votes—or even independently verifying that the attack had occurred—was impossible…
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World (Review)
“That is a good book to give to your boss so that his boss will see him reading it and think that he’s getting a clue,” said the geek beside me at the coffee shop where we were both working wirelessly.
”But to me, this book is just the right thing,” I answered. ”Look, Schneier not only covers all the bases, but he’s a very clear writer and he‘s witty to boot.”
“No code, no real book,” grumbled the geek.
”It is exactly his sticking to concepts that makes the book work for such a variety of readers. Look, you could give this book to someone who thinks that setting up a home firewall has made his cable-modem connected PC secure or to someone interested in being on top of security issues or even to someone who only surfs the net but wonders what dangers lurk there. None of them would be ill served. And all of them would be enlightened…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.