Digital Defense: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Company's Assets [Hardcover]

Thomas J. Parenty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

This work helps you protect and maximize your company's digital assets. Security is a critical concern for every company, organization, and institution, regardless of their size or activity. In this timely book, leading security and privacy expert, Thomas J. Parenty demystifies computer and network security for non-technical managers - taking them beyond hackers, firewalls, and virus protection to outline a holistic approach to information security that promotes business growth.Drawing from more than twenty years of experience in the computer security and cryptography fields, Parenty introduces the "Trust Framework", a unique and straightforward approach to developing and implementing a corporate security process. The Trust Framework is based on two core principles: every technology choice must be closely linked to a company's overall mission and specific business activities; and a company needs to show its partners and customers why they should have trust in their electronic business transactions.Parenty guides managers in clearly articulating their specific business requirements, selecting the appropriate security technologies, and building an organizational environment that promotes and nurtures trust. An entirely new era of information security is underway - and it is changing the rules of business for every industry. "Digital Defense" guides managers in implementing security solutions that both protect their firms' current digital assets - and pave the way for future business innovation.""Digital Defense" is an important book whose message is: pay attention to information security! Tom Parenty offers a balanced and detailed assessment of why information security is such a critical priority and concisely lays out practical steps toward better protecting your assets. This book is compelling for the general reader and the IT specialist alike." - Karen Sutter, Director, Business Advisory Services, US-China Business Council. ""Digital Defense" is an important book with a powerful message on information security issues. Non-technical executives, whose organizations are increasingly dependent on information systems, would do well to read this book." - Seymour E.Goodman, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology."In this exceptionally well-written and readable book, Tom Parenty explains the need to tie security to business objectives and organizational missions. Unlike any other book in the market, "Digital Defense" guides readers through security valuation and introduces a trust framework companies can follow to ensure that organization and partner assets are protected." - Daryl F. Eckard, EDS Director, Security and Privacy Professional Services.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this timely book, leading security and privacy expert Thomas Parenty demystifies computer and network security for nontechnical managers..." -- Supportindustry.com, October, 2003

About the Author

Thomas J. Parenty formerly worked for the National Security Agency, and consults to many corporate and government organizations about information security and privacy issues.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578517796
• ISBN-13: 978-1578517794
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,134,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent security introduction for the decision makers, September 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Digital Defense: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Company's Assets (Hardcover)

The biggest problem with properly implementing a security policy is not the technical one of securing digital resources, but instead the organizational problem of having the decision makers sufficiently aware of the problem to guide the implementation to succeess.

Tom Parenty gives an excellent overview of the real-world security problem, drawing from what is obviously years of experience in the trenches helping businesses and government organizatoins implement successful security strategies. A must read for all management types with digital assets to protect.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really useful approach to a difficult problem, October 16, 2003

By 

V. Phipps "vrphipps" (Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Defense: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Company's Assets (Hardcover)

Reading this book has broadened the way I think about solutions to security. Dispensing with technical detail and unrealistic recommendations that sometimes appear in books of this nature, Mr. Parenty gives practical and highly usable instruction to realistically implement practical electronic security in a way that can solve the complete problem. He describes a process-oriented solution to security by identifying methods to identify and maintain security-related information and then guides us through how to secure that information. This is different than the too-typical method of buying more security products, throwing them at an undefined problem, and hoping they work. Under his paradigm, security-related products become a tool to enforce corporate security policy rather than the tools creating policies themselves, which seems to be the real solution to both large and small security issues.

I think that the reader could use the ideas presented in this book in nearly any organization and have a high expectation of success, without hiring a large group of pricey consultants to make it happen.

I expect that this book will become a significant contributor to the security literature and would highly recommend it. If you are looking for a product-oriented solution to security threats though, this book won't provide the information you want.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must-read" computer protection manual, December 8, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digital Defense: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Company's Assets (Hardcover)

Knowledgeably written by Thomas J. Parenty (a computer security expert of twenty years' experience), Digital Defense: What You Should Know About Protecting Your Company's Assets is a straightforward guide to protecting business information. Parenty stresses that it is the data itself, not the computers that store it, that is the most vital consideration when developing and implementing security systems and protocols. Digital Defense goes beyond such common measures as firewalls and virus protection software, to offers a corporate security process called the "Trust Framework" which is uniquely adapted and fine-tuned for the digital world. Simply put, Digital Defense is a "must-read" computer protection manual filled from cover to cover with invaluable and applicably technical information explained in terms expressly intended for non-specialist readers concerned with the security of their company's informational assets.