News in the Category "Secrets & Lies"
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Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World. By Bruce Schneier; published by John Wiley & Sons, 800/225-5945 (phone), 732/302-2300 (fax); 432 pages; $29.99.
Consider the scores of books about computer and network security available today. Many are fat tomes, exhaustively written with myriad details. But corporate networks remain extremely insecure. Is anyone buying or reading these books?
With its mantra that security is a process, not a product, Secrets and Lies is one of the most important security books to come out in the last ten years. It forces information security managers to focus on security at the macro level—the processes—rather than at the micro level, as in the installation of a firewall or intrusion detection system. And since so many managers do equate security with firewalls, it is easy to understand why corporate networks are at risk…
Secrets and Lies by Bruce Schneier: A Shockwave Review
The internet is growing up and, like a small child becoming an adolescent, it’s having growing pains. Fortunately, we have Bruce Schneier to act as our technological Dr. Spock.
The internet has moved from a Defense Department initiative to a toy for geeks to a powerful research and communications tool and is now a major economic force. Up until recently, the net was pretty much left alone. With the advent of the World Wide Web and faster connections speeds, commerce came to the net. Now, it takes big money just to start a net company. We need to treat the net like an young adult, even though the technology is still in its infancy…
Attack Defense
Number 2 of the top 14 security vulnerabilities, according to the recently released second edition of Hacking Exposed (Osborne/McGraw-Hill, $40): “Unsecured and unmonitored remote access points provide one of the easiest means of access to your corporate network. Telecommuters often connect to the Internet with little protection, exposing sensitive files to attack.”
Microsoft’s security experts appear to have overlooked this concept: It’s what seems to have happened in the company’s recent experience of being hacked from afar.
For a more readable but depressing look at just how tough it can be to maintain security, there’s …
Think You’re Safe Online? Think Again!
Let’s assume for a moment that you are not a techie or a hacker. You’re browsing in a bookstore and happen to pick up a copy of Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World (John Wiley & Sons, $29.99). As you idly flip through it, all you see are dense paragraphs on arcana: the role of symmetric algorithms in encryption systems, the relative merits of code signing and access control at the interfaces, and what a one-way hash function does. Whoa! This is way over your head, you think, as you sheepishly put the book down and look for the latest Grisham thriller…
Tell Me No Secrets
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
By Bruce Schneier
John Wiley & Sons, 2000, $29.99
Bruce Schneier’s latest book on security is a rare achievement, as it takes a highly technical and often deadly dull topic and creates a surprisingly accessible and often fascinating read for even the least techy exec. Secrets and Lies lays out the current landscape of network security—from the challenges presented by hackers and viruses to the often ineffectual state of corporate security systems. Schneier offers enough gritty history, cautionary tales and colorful explanations to keep readers engrossed, whether they’re new to the security field or seasoned professionals. In addition, he has managed to pepper his text (especially the latter sections) with plenty of useful tips and advice that can help companies battle their way through the dangerous and often confusing task of securing their most valued assets. …
A Security State of Mind
It’s not encryption. It’s not a password. It’s not connecting through a VPN or an anonymizing service. Security means vastly different things to a national government, an e-commerce site, or a home user.
Governments are rightly paranoid about little things like their military preparedness, new weapons systems, communications codes, and sensitive information about other governments. E-commerce sites amass records for millions of consumers; a break-in could net huge numbers of credit cards. Businesses are constantly evolving, and your chief competitor would love to know what you’re up to…
Briefly Noted: Perfection Still Leaks
Bruce Schneier, author of Applied Cryptography, reportedly shelved the unfinished manuscript for his latest book, Secrets and Lies ($29.99, Wiley), because it was too depressing. He let it sit for two years, derailed by the fact that, for all he knew about threats to security in the digital age, he could offer no truly effective solutions. Cryptography, he discovered, was not the answer. As he put it, “Mathematics is perfect; reality is subjective. Mathematics is defined; computers are ornery. Mathematics is logical; people are erratic, capricious, and barely comprehensible.”…
Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World (Review)
Book explains risks and strategies for protecting digital information
Rarely does an author start out telling you about the mistakes he made in his previous book. But that’s exactly what Bruce Schneier does in Secrets & Lies: Digital Security In A Networked World.
Schneier is chief technology officer and co-founder of Counterpane Internet Security Inc., San Jose, CA. He also is the author of Applied Cryptography (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1994), which he says mistakenly stated that cryptography, based on logical mathematics, was the great technological equalizer that could provide individuals and businesses with data security. At the beginning of …
Secrets & Lies: Digital Security In A Networked World
Bruce Schneier, well-known security and encryption expert, and author of Applied Cryptography has recently had his newest book published, entitled Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World, which explores the world of security as a system. Read the entire review below.
Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
author: Bruce Schneier
pages: 412
publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 09/2000
rating: 10
reviewer: Jeff “hemos” Bates
ISBN: 0471253111
summary: A well written, well researched exploration of digital security as a system…
Secrets and Lies Book Is Encyclopedic
Do you need to know about security? Of course. But first, you have to accept that it’s impossible to know everything. Then you have to decide how much you need to know.
Understanding the limits of computer and network security and the limits of knowledge about those topics is one of the main purposes of Bruce Schneier’s book “Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World,” published by John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Although Schneier’s style is lively and spiced with unusual vocabulary (try looking up “banausic” and “flagitious” in your Funk and Wagnalls), no one is going to pick up this book for the sake of a good read. They want the information contained therein…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.