From taking off shoes at the airport, to wrestling with “protective packaging”, to consenting to illegal wiretapping, citizens are doing more in the name of personal security than any time in history. But, is it making a difference? Are people safer? Bruce Schneier, the computer security writer, has a collection of his most recent writings, Schneier on Security.
This features some strengths and weaknesses of security and the price people pay when security fails. Discussing the issues surrounding things such as airplanes, passports, voting machines, ID cards, cameras, passwords, Internet banking, sporting events, and computers, this book is for business, technical and personal security people.<br><br>Bruce Schneier explores the digital aspects, but also, the behavioural side. He claims the topic of security is “as much about personal behavior as it is about technology.” Schneier says: “systems fail not so much for technical reasons as from misplaced incentives. Often the people who could protect a system are not the same people who suffer the costs of failure. Most of the basic security questions are as much economic as technical.” <br><br>Topics go beyond technology, offering insight into everything from the risk of identity theft (vastly overrated, claims the author) to the long-range security threat of unchecked presidential power, and the surprisingly simple way to tamper-proof elections. Covered are:<br><br>• Why data mining will never protect anyone from terrorists<br>• Why computer security is fundamentally an economic problem<br>• Whether a Trusted Traveler can really be trusted<br>• If sacrificing privacy has made individuals more secure<br>• Why refusing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants actually reduces security<br>• The industry power struggle over controlling the personal computer<br>• Why some risks are overestimated and others underestimated<br>• Why national ID cards won’t make citizens safer, only poorer.<br><br>Schneier is the Chief Security Technology Officer of BT. <br><br>ISBN: 9780470395356; Hardback; £15.99. Schneier also maintains the "Schneier on Security" blog – www.schneier.com/blog
