Secrets and Lies
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Highly Recommended!
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Security is kind of a hobby with me. I think it is both interesting and scary
and an area that most people treat pretty lightly. I find lots of security problems
in companies mainly because people do not take a few minutes and set things up in
a logical manner. I have flipped through (though never purchased) Applied Cryptography
by Mr. Schneier, and when I saw this book on the shelf, I was very interested.
First, this book is well written and even funny in places. I think that always helps
to make a book interesting when the writing is good. Second, this is a scary and
fascinating look at security in the modern world. Mr Scheier presents many of the
issues and problems with securing data. There are well organized and logical descriptions
of the issues, definitions, and reasons for security problems.
While I am interested in security, I am not an guru by any means. This book is written for
the technical person, but without requiring a thorough knowledge of security. I could give
this book to my Mom, and though some of the discussions might be confusing, she would
understand most of the book.
The reason I am presenting this book here is that data security will become more important
in the future. I think most DBAs would do well to learn about the possible the issues they
may encounter and be prepared for the future. Unfortunately, Mr. Schneier does not present
too many solutions for the problems, mainly because they do not exist. I wholeheartedly agree
with My. Schneier that insurance is the likely solution to many of these problems. I expect
to hold malpractice insurance at some point in my career if I continue in this business for the
next thirty years.
Regardless of whether
there is a solution, I think it is worth learning about the risks and this is a great
book for learning about security and risks in the digital world.
Steve Jones
March 2001
This page will contain reviews of technical books, though if you are
interested in seeing what else I read, I have been tracking the books I read on my web site,dkRanch.net.
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