Secrets and Lies
	Highly Recommended!

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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