IT Security: Risking the Corporation

Security is more about people and policies than about techie details. Linda McCarthy’s IT Security: Crimes and Misdemeanors gives you more than the title promises. It is not only a collection of enlightening case studies based on real security audits, but the author also gives a brief and to-the-point analysis of the real risks in the way systems are installed, configured, supported and managed. The book deliberately does not go into technical details, so anyone who is interested in network security will find it easy to read. Discusses and documents the importance of a security policy, the impact of organizational politics, and includes actual transcripts of break-ins and checklists of preventive security measures. It won’t come as news to IT pros that cybercrime is soaring. But a new slate of stats reveals just how bad the situation really is. Research firm Computer Economics predicts computer crime will more than double this year while virus incidents are expected to increase by 22 percent.