INFORMATION
Book Reviews: International Security
11/13/2007 - Author Steve Coll's reporting is exemplary. Information comes from a range of respected and noted intelligence officers who served in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation or the rise of the Taliban. Coll details such topics as command of the Northern Alliance and the plan to target Tarnak Farm, where Osama bin Laden stayed with his family. Coll also paints a thorough picture of CIA and State Department achievements and setbacks in the region.
Book Reviews: Security Management
11/13/2007 - An associate professor of criminal justice, Mary Clifford has written a lengthy text that would be especially useful to students pursuing a career in security management. Chapters conclude with discussion and review questions designed to help readers understand the terms and concepts presented. These exercises and the practice scenarios contained in the book are best when considered in a group or classroom setting with an opportunity for feedback.
Book Reviews: How-to
11/13/2007 - Intended for anyone whose duties involve "protection, minimizing risk, hiring employees, security training, manufacturing security technology, integrating security solutions, and mitigating threats," the book gives itself little space, 56 pages, to accomplish all these objectives. Fifteen subject headings carve the text into bite-size offerings, while 66 subheads dice these further into morsels. The result is staccato, with the authors striving to introduce, define, and illustrate one or two concepts per page.
Book Reviews: How-to
11/13/2007 - Proper interviewing skills are, of course, crucial to the success of law enforcement and security. Scores of books detail interviewing tactics, many of them providing in-depth explanations on how and why the techniques work. In Advanced Interviewing Techniques, the authors cull the approaches that work best. Drawing from dozens of sources, veteran FBI agents John R. Schafer and Joe Navarro compile the interviewing techniques that have proven effective, without miring the reader in theory and case studies.
Book Reviews: How-to
11/08/2007 - From a technical perspective, the book shows how to determine where a spam e-mail originates and how to read e-mail headers to determine a message's path. Inside the Spam Cartel also explains various phishing scams and how they are propagated. Spam is an enormous irritant, but phishing is so nefarious that it has the potential to disrupt a large sector of the economy.
Book Reviews: IT Security
11/08/2007 - Spam is no longer a nuisance. It has developed into a huge problem for organizations that have to deal with the millions of e-mails that flood their mailboxes, often delivering scams or viruses.
Book Reviews: How-to
11/08/2007 - That's where Network Security Assessment comes in. This well-organized book presents the tools and techniques necessary to identify and assess risks in computer networks. A professional security tester who has successfully penetrated many networks, the author explains how to conduct a structured and logical network security assessment.
Book Reviews: Terrorism
11/08/2007 - Scholarly books are dry--it's almost inevitable. Luckily, this book, a compilation of articles on terrorism intervention strategies, is an exception. Though erudite, the book is captivating and easy to read, offering something for almost anyone with an interest in terrorism or in preparing for mitigation and emergency response. By placing problems, issues, and incidents in a highly relational situational context, it promotes reader understanding.
Book Reviews: International Security
11/08/2007 - Information from interviews is presented as Q&A, then discussed. The author interviews an Israeli CEO, for example, then discusses the main points. A summary follows. The book proceeds like this through three sectors: hotel/tourism, high technology, and transportation.
Book Reviews: Contingency Planning \ Disaster Management
11/08/2007 - Disaster planning need not be merely a necessary administrative burden. It can be a marketing tool. As the authors of The Disaster Recovery Handbook shrewdly observe, disaster preparedness and recovery is really a service for the client. Customers in effect enter into a partnership with their suppliers for their business essentials, so a disruption in supply can be catastrophic to a customer. Thus, disaster planning can be sold to customers as a pledge that the provider will keep their businesses going even in adverse situations.
Book Reviews: How-to
11/08/2007 - Sennewald divides security consulting into three specialties: security management consulting (covering issues such as organizational change and policy development), forensic consulting (such as analyzing evidence for lawsuits), and security technical or engineering consulting (which includes recommending equipment or hardware). The book explicitly focuses on the first two--Sennewald admits to having no technical experience--but the lessons from the book could apply to all three.
Book Reviews: Loss Prevention
11/08/2007 - Loss Prevention Threats and Strategies provides one good alternative for nonexperts. It encourages owners and managers to take responsibility for prevention and training, and it furnishes the necessary tools that managers will need to develop an effective security strategy.
Book Reviews: Legal Issues
11/08/2007 - Databases have assumed a large role in background checks, but Nadell cautions readers about depending on databases when they conduct any criminal history searches. The larger the database, the more potential for inaccurate information. The state criminal repositories, if available, are frequently out of date, at times by months. Information obtained from a database should be verified through direct contact with the courts, Nadell advises.
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