Schneier on Security

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really informative look at what helps members of society act rationally and allows society to function. Schneier explains many of the common models of trust that exist at different layers of society and provides examples of each. I would have preferred to have the examples be a little more in depth and most of them were covered at a very high level. I guess that would make this a good jumping off point to other books which go in depth on any of the failures mentioned in the book. Overall I really enjoyed the book it was a very easy read and I recommend it…

I swear I didn’t read sidebernie‘s latest before I decided to post this….  Actually what happened was I got a deeply discounted and autographed book some time ago on the condition that I post a review about it somewhere.  And it’s been nagging at me (partly due to the fact that I left the book out on my desk to remind me and I keep knocking it off—oops, sorry) and I finally got some time, so here goes.  Hope there’s more than two of us here, or it won’t be very much publicity for the author!  Anyway….

I first discovered Bruce Schneier when I got interested in mathematical cryptography, with his book “Applied Cryptography”.  When that book came out and for many years afterwards, it was *the* book to read if you wanted to know how cryptography works.  Although Schneier is still considered an expert on the technical side of cryptography and is still designing ciphers, he has gradually broadened his attention over the years, first into computer security as a whole, then into security against terrorism, and most recently into security in general.  His most recent book, …

One of the perils of buying a book written by a blogger one reads regularly is that the book may be little more than a rehashing of their blog, with insufficient original material to warrant the time investment. Sometimes it’s still nice to support them financially, but it may not make sense to read the book. I’ve been following Schneier’s blog for years (as should anyone with an interest in security), including through the entire process of writing Liars and Outliers, and was a bit worried that might be the case here. Thankfully, I can reassure any other worried potential readers that is not the case. This is substantial new material establishing a firm framework for thinking about incentives and controls in any society or organization…

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Bruce Schneier and his work. So when he offered readers a chance to buy his book at a discount in exchange for a review, I jumped at the chance. This review fulfills the obligation that I took on.

Every once in a while, you learn something that recontextualizes the world for you, and you start looking at everything through a new lens. After reading Liars and Outliers, I’ve been framing the systems I interact with in terms of cooperation, defection and the pressures applied to prevent defection.

At a certain abstract level, many human actions taken at large are much like Prisoners’ Dilemmas (or other game-theoretic games where the global optimum is at odds with personal optima). When you go to the grocery store, you (along with everybody else) has a choice between paying for your goods—cooperating—or walking out—defecting. If you pay, it’s good for everybody, because it helps ensure that the grocery store will continue to serve the area, but if you walk out, you get free groceries, but the costs are passed onto other customers. If too many people steal, the store might close. The fact that most people don’t steal groceries allows stores to continue operating. These defectors, as Schneier calls people who make the selfish choice over the societally optimal choice, are the titular …

Tl;dr An enormously important book about understanding and optimizing security in the 21st century.

On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. I don’t know Bruce Schneier, and he certainly doesn’t know me. Even so, when he announced a heavily discounted signed edition of Liars and Outliers he was effectively testing the main hypothesis of the book: That in any society it is reasonable to uphold a non-zero level of trust even in complete strangers:

• Schneier trusted 100 (or at least many enough to make a net gain) random strangers to reciprocate the offer by writing and publishing a review of the book…

Several weeks ago Bruce Schneier asked his readership if they wanted to make a deal: Buy a signed copy of Liars and Outliers at a substantially reduced price in return for writing a review. I took him up on that offer, as did several others. While my review has been delayed, I wanted to ensure that I was able to absorb (I think I have) what Mr. Schneier has to say about a topic that is a departure from his usual subjects. Additionally, I wanted to make some attempt to apply his construct to the concept of information risk management.

Liars and Outliers…

I’ve long been a fan of Bruce Schneier as evidenced by my collection of his books (Secrets and Lies and Beyond Fear). So was excited to finally get my hands on the latest book Liars and Outliers from him.