Beyond Fear

In "Beyond Fear," Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs we make in the name of security - in terms of cash outlays, taxes, inconvenience, and diminished freedoms - should be part of an ongoing negotiation in our personal, professional, and civic lives, and the subject of an open and informed national discussion.

With a well-deserved reputation for original and sometimes iconoclastic thought, Schneier has a lot to say that is provocative, counter-intuitive, and just plain good sense. He explains in detail, for example, why we need to design security systems that don't just work well, but fail well, and why secrecy on the part of government often undermines security. A skeptic of much that's promised by highly touted technologies like biometrics, Schneier is also a refreshingly positive, problem-solving force in the often self-dramatizing and fear-mongering world of security pundits.

Schneier helps the reader to understand the issues at stake, and how to best come to one's own conclusions, including the vast infrastructure we already have in place, and the vaster systems--some useful, others useless or worse--that we're being asked to submit to and pay for.

This whole book is filled with common-sense and not-so-common-sense thinking. I had the opportunity to see Schneier speak at Toorcon 2003 in San Diego and I can tell you this guy not only knows as much as anyone about security, he also talks *like a normal person*. He's not arrogant, he doesn't throw in gratuitous latin terms, he just makes a very clear point with extremely strong logic to back it up.

That's what this book is: a handbook on how to logically sift through all the garbage that's trickling down to us via the US media and our govt. Does the FBI need expanded snooping powers? Not according to Schneier, who backs that up with facts regarding 9-11 that tell us the right govt agencies *had* the info, they just couldn't analyze it all. So giving up a bunch of our privacy for the FBI to get more info doesn't make much sense in combating terrorism.

This is just one example in dozens. You may not even agree (I've met a few FBI people and they ALWAYS say they need more power/info), but reading this book allows you to pull the emotion out of security-based decisions, whether they are about home alarm systems or airport security lines.

For people who aren't familiar with Schneier, he is basically a semi-legend in the information security field for his cryptography, writing and speaking. His last book, "Secrets & Lies", broadened the scope of his writing from crypto to general infosec. Now he has broadened his focus even further to include the physical world (beyond the server room). To be honest he doesn't really even bring up computers directly that often, and when he does he usually tells us that they aren't nearly as good at making security decisions as people. Seasoned infosec people won't be surprised by any of the logic or conclusions in this book, but it's still worth a read because Schneier has obviously spent a lot of his brain's cycles thinking about security in general and we can all benefit from his conclusions.

Schneier has won my respect with this book. It proves that not only does he get the security details (the crypto), he gets the "big picture", even when the big picture has nothing to do with computing (eg muggings). It is rare to find this in one company, let alone one person.


Realistic and practical   August 2, 2003
Peter Hentges (Minneapolis, MN USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information about how to be safer, what things are dangerous, what to do in case of X, it is pleasant and surprising to see a book that tells you how to make decisions like these yourself.

Pleasantly apolitical, Schneier presents a concrete way to evaluate various decisions about security. Should you install an alarm system in your home? Should airline pilots be armed? While different in scope, the process of answering these questions is the same and presented in easy-to-understand language. This is not a book for "security experts" it is a book for all of us.

When you are finished reading the book, you are armed with the tools to make decisions about your own security and to evaluate the ideas presented by policy-makers. More importantly, you have the tools to rationally describe why potential policies would make things less secure rather than more secure.

This book is a valuable, perhaps necessary, resource for everyone. If you've ever worried about a particular threat and wondered what you could do, read this book.


The Title is The Theme   January 6, 2004
AllenatHome (Pewaukee, WI USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I have read a number of the Pro and Con reviews. I think it is important to take a good look at the title of the book, and use that as a guide to a buying decision. This book is not an in-depth cookbook of technical approaches to combat hackers, but rather a sensible way of looking at the issues that contribute to an aura of security, the appearance of security, and actually being secure. I really liked the whole premise, because we are such an image conscience, and sound-bite oriented society that it can become quite difficult to deliver a thought-provoking treatise on a topic that many think they know so much about.

My only negative comment would be that it got a little slow at the end, for me. Maybe I was just tired that night or something.

He cites a few excellent examples of places or instances where someone did something that they honestly felt would contribute to increased security, when the actual effect turned out to be the opposite. If I may draw a crude comparison: if you appreciated some of the observations, and perhaps even the writing style and presentation in Hammer and Champy's "Reengineering the Corporation", then you will like and appreciate this volume. The way Mr. Schneier presents information, and the way he introduces you to perceived vs. actual may strike you as being similar. (No offense meant to either author - I enjoyed both)

Happy trails.