Executive Guide to Information Security, The: Threats, Challenges, and Solutions

Praise for The Executive Guide to Information Security

"Every CEO is responsible for protecting the assets of their corporation–the people, intellectual property, corporate and customer information, infrastructure, network, and computing resources. This is becoming both more important and more difficult with the rise in the number and sophistication of cyber threats. This book helps the CEO understand the issues and ask the right questions to implement a more effective strategy for their business."

–Steve Bennett, president and CEO, Intuit

"Mark Egan and Tim Mather help nontechnical executives gain a comprehensive perspective over the security challenges that all companies face today. This book is well structured and practical. Yet, it also stresses that a strategic approach to cyber security is essential, and that "tone at the top" will determine the effectiveness of any corporate cyber security policy."

–Eric Benhamou, chairman of the board of directors, 3Com Corporation, palmOne, and PalmSource, Inc

"This book is not about cyber security; it's about managing one's company and the role that cyber security plays in that scenario. It's chilling to think of how vulnerable the assets of a business are on a computer network; this book is a fire alarm in the night for business executives to realize computer security is not a tech issue–it's a business issue worthy of the same attention and priority that business executives might place on any other mission-critical element of their company."

–George Reyes, CFO, Google

"This is a must read for any executive of any size company. The Internet makes all businesses equal in that they are subject to the same types of threats regardless of their product. In this book, the CIO and security director of one of the top security companies makes the business case for security and tells you what to do to successfully mitigate threats."

–Howard A. Schmidt, former cyber security advisor to the White House, CSO Microsoft, and VP CISO eBay

"This book gives an excellent overview of the issues around securing information at a time in our history when information is extremely vulnerable to outside attack, retrieval, or manipulation. Steps taken now can make a huge difference to a company's ability to survive and thrive in a heterogeneous attack culture."

–Bob Concannon, Global Practice Leader, Boyden Global Executive Search

"Few if any books expose the business executive to the serious and critical nature of existing and evolving security issues using nontechnical terms. Executives can no longer afford to delegate the responsibility and accountability for security without understanding the issues and without assuming the ultimate responsibility for security in the firm. This book should become required reading for every business executive, regardless of product or company size."

–John Moreno, chair, MS in Information Technology, Golden Gate University

"This book details the what, why, and how to solve issues of information security in business today. It gives examples many people will recognize from the press, discusses the basics of information security in a very understandable way, and reviews approaches for addressing these risks and threats."

–David Schwartz, managing director, Derivative Products Risk Advisors, Inc.

"This book fills a void by addressing the key criteria executives need to consider when implementing an effective information security plan within their organization."

–Shobana Gubbi, former project manager of IOS Technologies, Cisco

Today, every executive must understand information security from a business perspective. Now, this concise book tells business leaders exactly what they need to know to make intelligent decisions about security–without ever getting lost in the technical complexities.

The Executive Guide to Information Security offers realistic, step-by-step recommendations for evaluating and improving information security in any enterprise. From start to finish, the focus is on action: what works and how to get it done. Here are just a few of the things you will be learning:

• Understanding your security challenges and obligations

• Trends in security attacks

• Systematically identifying your risks and vulnerabilities

• Implementing best-practice processes for access, acceptable use, training, strategy, and emergency response

• Effective executive leadership, governance, and metrics

• Staffing security–coping with a shortage of expertise

Whether you're a CxO, a line-of-business executive, or an IT executive who needs to get colleagues up to speed, this is the nontechnical, business-driven security briefing you've been searching for.

Mark Egan is chief information officer and vice president of the Information Technology Division of Symantec. In this role, he is responsible for all internal systems and security at Symantec. Egan is the co-chair of TechNet's Cyber Security Best Practices Campaign and a frequent speaker on best practices for information security and information technology.

TIM MATHER, Symantec's vice president and chief information security officer, is responsible for Symantec's information security program. Mather is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and a Certified Information Systems Manager.

The authors' profits from this book will support a scholarship program for underprivileged students planning IT careers.

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