A Vulnerable System: The History of Information Security in the Computer Age

by Andrew J. Stewart

Overview

As threats to the security of information pervade the fabric of everyday life, A Vulnerable System describes how, even as the demand for information security increases, the needs of society are not being met. The result is that the confidentiality of our personal data, the integrity of our elections, and the stability of foreign relations between countries are increasingly at risk.

Andrew J. Stewart convincingly shows that emergency software patches and new security products cannot provide the solution to threats such as computer hacking, viruses, software vulnerabilities, and electronic spying. Profound underlying structural problems must first be understood, confronted, and then addressed.

A Vulnerable System delivers a long view of the history of information security, beginning with the creation of the first digital computers during the Cold War. From the key institutions of the so-called military industrial complex in the 1950s to Silicon Valley start-ups in the 2020s, the relentless pursuit of new technologies has come at great cost. The absence of knowledge regarding the history of information security has caused the lessons of the past to be forsaken for the novelty of the present, and has led us to be collectively unable to meet the needs of the current day. From the very beginning of the information age, claims of secure systems have been crushed by practical reality.

The myriad risks to technology, Stewart reveals, cannot be addressed without first understanding how we arrived at this moment. A Vulnerable System is an enlightening and sobering history of a topic that affects crucial aspects of our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501758942
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2021
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew J. Stewart is an officer at a global investment bank. He received his MSc in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Three Stigmata
1. A "New Dimension" for the Security of Information
2. The Promise, Success, and Failure of the Early Researchers
3. The Creation of the Internet and the Web, and a Dark Portent
4. The Dot-Com Boom and the Genesis of a Lucrative Feedback Loop
5. Software Security and the "Hamster Wheel of Pain"
6. Usable Security, Economics, and Psychology
7. Vulnerability Disclosure, Bounties, and Markets
8. Data Breaches, Nation-State Hacking, and Epistemic Closure
9. The Wicked Nature of Information Security
Epilogue: The Past, Present, and a Possible Future

What People are Saying About This

Ben Rothke

An excellent blend of history, business, and technical understanding, A Vulnerable System is a great read for anyone involved in information security. It is a compelling book from start to finish.

Josephine Wolff

Stewart offers a provocative history of cybersecurity. He deftly reveals how major figures and technological achievements of the past seventy years contributed to our current faulty set of less-than-best practices. A Vulnerable System shows the urgent need to rethink how we approach computer security.

Jeff Kosseff

Well written and timely, A Vulnerable System is an authoritative history of information security in the United States. Andrew J. Stewart accurately and clearly describes and synthesizes important lessons about the history of the information security field.

Richard H. Immerman

A Vulnerable System is an engaging, cogent, and frankly frightening book. Andrew J. Stewart raises concerns that will only gain in importance as time goes on as cyber is increasingly weaponized and the vulnerabilities of IT infrastructures emerge as potentially fatal threats to national security.

Editorial Reviews

A Vulnerable System provides an accessible and engaging overview of many major developments in the history of computer security. It should be useful for teaching courses on the history of computer security, as well as for providing historical perspective to information security practitioners and general readers.

Technology and Culture

The author writes in an easily accessible style, allowing the reader to gain a good overview of computer security at various stages of development, from the mid-20th-century events to the late 2010s, and to delve deeper by following the notes at the back of the book (there are over 70 pages of them!). Most topics are covered this way and this lends a curious reader to complement their scientific knowledge with amusing or eye-opening anecdotes.

Cipher Newsletter

Stewart has written an easy-to-read history of computer security. He continues his marvelous story telling, covering human weaknesses, perhaps the most reliable way of gaining access to networks, then to massive data breaches. Altogether, I consider this book very much worth reading.

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Andrew J. Stewart's A Vulnerable System: The History of Information Security in the Computer Age is a comprehensive review of the evolution of information security within the overall context of the remarkable level of information technological advancement in the twentieth century. Using carefully researched sources combined with an insightful analysis, Stewart takes readers on a journey through the history of safeguarding digital systems.

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