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Title: The Myth of Homeland Security by Marcus Ranum ISBN: 0-471-45879-1 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 03 October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Glad to see this book
Comment: The Myth of Homeland Security is an excellent debunking of the counter-terrorism security nonsense that we're all being forced to put up with. Marcus has written an honest, straightforward, sensible book. I don't agree with every point he makes, but it's refreshing to read someone who actually takes a stand on the issues and supports his stance with intelligent arguments and not rhetoric. The fact that this book is enjoyable to read is a bonus.
Rating: 5
Summary: The perfect boxcutter companion!
Comment: If you're a little uneasy these days with teenagers testing our homeland security by planting boxcutters and getting away with it, this book is a must read! Ranum takes what a lot of us have been thinking for the past couple of years and puts it into perspective. It's refreshing to see something other than rants. This guy actually brings common sense into the picture with his In a Perfect World at the end of each chapter. By the time you finish checking out his "you should know" factoids, you know you're a much better informed citizen. It's the perfect "plane read" (especially that chapter on Airline Insecurity).
Rating: 3
Summary: entertaining polemic
Comment: I purchased and read this entertaining romp despite having skimmed it at the bookstore and reading this poor ad hominem argument:
"After watching the way the worldwide media and the international community reacted to the question of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, I don't think they'd see a smoking gun if you stuck it right against their foreheads." (p. 220)
I purchased it anyway, because although I think that's an incredible feeble aside (Mr. Ranum doesn't bother to say what smoking guns he thinks have been established, and it seems clear as of this writing that there are no WMDs in Iraq, and no good evidence that there were any post-1994), elsewhere in my initial skimming I saw what looked to be very interesting information about the Homeland Security Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. Largely because of this material, I did find the book to be worth my time (if not quite worth the dollars I spent on it--I should have waited for a paperback edition).
The book is definitely a polemic, not a researched and referenced scholarly tome--there are no references or footnotes, beyond the suggested further reading material on pp. xvi-xvii. There is much to disagree with besides the above example, as other reviewers here have noted. It's short on conclusions and suggested remedies, though there are a few radical (i.e., politically impossible) suggestions, such as abolishing the INS and starting over from scratch (probably not a bad idea at all).
I recommend it for those interested in a lightweight, quick read to get a quick overview of the problems of securing an entire nation and the means that are being adopted with that alleged goal, but if you are looking for depth and detail, with solidly argued conclusions and recommendations, you'll need to look elsewhere.
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Title: Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World by Bruce Schneier ISBN: 0387026207 Publisher: Copernicus Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Why America Slept : The Failure to Prevent 9/11 by Gerald L. Posner ISBN: 0375508791 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security by Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon, Steve Wozniak ISBN: 0471237124 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 04 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Practical Cryptography by Niels Ferguson, Bruce Schneier ISBN: 0471223573 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 28 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism by Dan Verton ISBN: 0072227877 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Pub. Date: 19 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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