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Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World
In "Beyond Fear," Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs...more
Hardcover, 308 pages
Published
July 28th 2003
by Copernicus Books
(first published January 1st 2003)
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I actually had to stop reading this book, because the author apparently didn't care to do the research. The first chapter has a bunch of tables and graphs, depicting data he decided to pull from all sorts of different sources, and without normalizing the data in any way, decided to mash all the data together and call it "research".
I'm not really a statistician/mathematician/numerologist/whatever, but I'm pretty sure you can't just pick pieces of data from various different sources, and call it h...more
I'm not really a statistician/mathematician/numerologist/whatever, but I'm pretty sure you can't just pick pieces of data from various different sources, and call it h...more
From my review of Beyond Fear in Security Management magazine:
Bruce Schneier is perhaps the best example of why IT security professionals are "eating the lunch" of physical security managers in some corporations. He thinks creatively, he expresses himself logically, and he has cultivated the ear of people high on the corporate food chain. His latest book will be food for thought for security professionals.
Beyond Fear is organized into three sections: "Sensible Security," "How Security Works," a...more
Bruce Schneier is perhaps the best example of why IT security professionals are "eating the lunch" of physical security managers in some corporations. He thinks creatively, he expresses himself logically, and he has cultivated the ear of people high on the corporate food chain. His latest book will be food for thought for security professionals.
Beyond Fear is organized into three sections: "Sensible Security," "How Security Works," a...more
I'm familiar with most of the concepts and much of the writings of Bruce Schneier (at least on the security side; I don't claim to understand more than the barest outlines of cryptography). Even though the book was written in 2003, his central theme remain sound -- any security measures need to be evaluated with the following five questions:
1. What assets are you trying to protect?
2. What are the risks against these assets?
3. How well does the security solution mitigate the risks?
4. What other r...more
1. What assets are you trying to protect?
2. What are the risks against these assets?
3. How well does the security solution mitigate the risks?
4. What other r...more
I enjoy reading Schneiers books because he has the ability to write about complex and abstract issues and then bring them down into practice by giving easy to understand examples from real life scenarios and throwing even few jokes here and there to underline the absurdity of some security measures currently used.
Schneiers analytical view is systematic and inexhaustible and while reading the book I noticed how my own ideas and concepts about what security is and how one can achieve it ended up w...more
Schneiers analytical view is systematic and inexhaustible and while reading the book I noticed how my own ideas and concepts about what security is and how one can achieve it ended up w...more
This is more of security sociology, psychology, and philosophy book than a scientific or academic study. So you are not going to find statistics, tables, or "hard evidence".
But you will find examples of how security works and how it can fail. The lack of statistics and such is not necessarily a weakness for the type of book it seems to be. It is make the public think about where they really want to go with security and does it in a readable way rather than to try to give empirical data showing...more
But you will find examples of how security works and how it can fail. The lack of statistics and such is not necessarily a weakness for the type of book it seems to be. It is make the public think about where they really want to go with security and does it in a readable way rather than to try to give empirical data showing...more
Definitely not "fluffy" reading, but an excellent book.
Bruce talks about *how* to assess security threats and solutions, leaving the theory current and highly applicable, even if the content is a couple of years old. He does a good job alternating between theory and examples, which both clarifies what he's talking about and keeps the text from being too dry. And he uses his theory to discuss examples from as small as whether you should lock your house door to as large as whether the US should h...more
Bruce talks about *how* to assess security threats and solutions, leaving the theory current and highly applicable, even if the content is a couple of years old. He does a good job alternating between theory and examples, which both clarifies what he's talking about and keeps the text from being too dry. And he uses his theory to discuss examples from as small as whether you should lock your house door to as large as whether the US should h...more
Another review of this book called it a "good non-technical book on understanding security in general" and that's how I'd summarize it. He talks about nothing is truly secure, so we make tradeoffs to get the best odds we can while still being able to function. It's a lot more common sense than you might think.
Also, since it was written in 2003 much of the book talks about 9/11, of course. The author praises the conception of TSA and how much that will improve security, which is funny to read in...more
Also, since it was written in 2003 much of the book talks about 9/11, of course. The author praises the conception of TSA and how much that will improve security, which is funny to read in...more
My review, written and posted in the VICS Newsletter (VICS is the Voluntary Inter-Industry Commerce Solutions Association)
The bottom line: Bruce makes it clear that we should respond to real risks, and not perceived risks. Through this he challenges our responses to perceived risks, including our response post 9-11.
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Never has security seemed more important. We almost long for the hackers of yester-year that really just wanted to see where they could go, and at their most malicious, would wip...more
The bottom line: Bruce makes it clear that we should respond to real risks, and not perceived risks. Through this he challenges our responses to perceived risks, including our response post 9-11.
=====
Never has security seemed more important. We almost long for the hackers of yester-year that really just wanted to see where they could go, and at their most malicious, would wip...more
Bruce Schneier in an author well worth knowing. I strongly recommend reading what he has posted on his website. (http://www.schneier.com/) It's fantastic stuff. However I found this book very disappointing, for quite a few different reasons. Three of them are:
1) The introduction is in the 2nd person. Thankfully it stopped, but it was extremely annoying. Seriously. Don't do that.
2) No footnotes. This results in some odd statements that I would have really liked to be able to verify. What's worse,...more
1) The introduction is in the 2nd person. Thankfully it stopped, but it was extremely annoying. Seriously. Don't do that.
2) No footnotes. This results in some odd statements that I would have really liked to be able to verify. What's worse,...more
Interesting and informative, Schneier's 5 questions methodology for examining security issues seems very worthwhile, and also seems to be often ignored by the security systems of which I am aware. I would have found the book more helpful to me if it had outlined the cases examined in lengthy expositions in a more diagrammatic way.
Well explained without resorting to gimmicks. Bruce Schneier knows what he is talking about and explains 'security theater' which is prevalent today and will be there tomorrow as well.
Great non-technical book on understanding security in general. Presented a good method for analyzing security risks and whether or not certain trade-offs are worth it. Some people have complained about the lack of references, but I think the underlying methodology he uses in the numerous cases through the book (e.g., are home alarm systems worth it? is it safe to pay with credit cards online? does arming pilots make flying safer?, etc.). This definitely wasn't a fast read, as I've been reading i...more
out of date, not all that helpful, but some interesting asides
A good introduction to thinking rationally about security. A little elementary for my taste, but I would definitely recommend to a layperson who is interested in security.
A corporate security pseudo-text that discusses how the security industry makes none of us safer by utilizing 'noise'. Nice companion to the Black Swan.
This book can help one understand and stop fearing all the REAL things one fears. Not so much the UNREAL things!
A must read for anybody interested in security issues. ANY security issues; personal, national, computer, etc.
A comprehensive books about security. Well written by Bruce Schneier.
One of those books I feel smarter for having read.
Recommended by Jason Reusch
Aug 27, 2008
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#26 for 2009.
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