The Myths of Security

Book Details :

Author: John Viega

Publisher: O'Reilly Media (2009) 

ISBN: 978-0-596-52302-2

Pages: 264

Language: English

Everybody with a computer should worry a little about whether hackers might break in and steal personal data. After all, software is complex and has lots of flaws—and people can be tricked by a good ruse. People are in over their heads in trying to figure out this difficult problem, and they need a good security product that works, is easy to use, and doesn’t impact the performance of their machines.

The security industry should be coming to the rescue. But in this book, John Viega shows why many people are at risk when they shouldn’t be. While the security industry points the finger at the bad guys, or even computer users, John rightfully points the finger at the security industry. There’s lots of biting criticism here that hopefully will make the industry examine itself, and lead to some positive change. It would be great to see a world where security vendors aren’t feeding hackers all the ammo they need to break in to machines (which is not condoned at McAfee), and where the industry is more cooperative in general and tries to solve the problem, not just cover up its symptoms.