Schneier’s New Old Book

If you haven’t heard Bruce Schneier pontificate on security, you’re missing out, and likely don’t work the security circuit much. But the prolific security writer and blogger, now CTO of BT Counterpane after selling Counterpane to BT in late 2006, has made it easy for his fans to find all of his security pearls of wisdom in one place with the recent publication of “Schneier on Security.”  The book, published this month by John Wiley & Sons, is a collection of Schneier’s essays—all previously published material dating from as far back as 2002.

Schneier has a couple of messages he tends to hit pretty hard from whatever platform he’s on: Security is a tradeoff; we are security consumers; security is a system; and technology causes security imbalances. His latest area of research and focus is on the psychology of security, tied to his belief (touted in the forward to the book) that “security is often about technology, but it’s always about people. People are the reason security exists in the first place, and they are the core of any security breach.”

It’s tempting to dismiss Shneier’s $29.95 collection of already-published essays—many of which are easily available for free online—as shameless greed. But just calling it greed fails to acknowledge Schneier’s trademark self-promotion, a mildly endearing trait that inevitably that led to the book’s cover blurb, attributed to The Register, which deems Schneier “The closest the security industry has to a rock star.”

Rock on, Bruce.

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