International Law

The New School of Information Security

By David T.S. Fraser

Adam Shostack, one of the most prolific contributors at Emergent Chaos, is the co-author of an interesting-sounding book being launched tomorrow. Here's the scoop from Amazon:

Amazon.com: The New School of Information Security: Adam Shostack,Andrew Stewart: Books

Why is information security so dysfunctional? Are you wasting the money you spend on security? This book shows how to spend it more effectively. How can you make more effective security decisions? This book explains why professionals have taken to studying economics, not cryptography--and why you should, too. And why security breach notices are the best thing to ever happen to information security. It?s about time someone asked the biggest, toughest questions about information security. Security experts Adam Shostack and Andrew Stewart don?t just answer those questions--they offer honest, deeply troubling answers. They explain why these critical problems exist and how to solve them. Drawing on powerful lessons from economics and other disciplines, Shostack and Stewart offer a new way forward. In clear and engaging prose, they shed new light on the critical challenges that are faced by the security field. Whether you?re a CIO, IT manager, or security specialist, this book will open your eyes to new ways of thinking about--and overcoming--your most pressing security challenges. The New School enables you to take control, while others struggle with non-stop crises.

Better evidence for better decision-making

• Why the security data you have doesn?t support effective decision-making--and what to do about it
• Beyond security ?silos?: getting the job done together
• Why it?s so hard to improve security in isolation--and how the entire industry can make it happen and evolve
• Amateurs study cryptography; professionals study economics
• What IT security leaders can and must learn from other scientific fields
• A bigger bang for every buck: How to re-allocate your scarce resources where they?ll do the most good

Full post as published by The Canadian Privacy Law Blog on March 09, 2008 (boomark / email).