The Coming Cyber War

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The Coming Cyber War What Executives, the Board, and You Should Know by Marc Crudgington is a business book in which the author makes his case for executives on how to prepare for the oncoming cyber events. Mr. Crudgington is a Chief Information Security Office (CISO) and a technology expert.

I’m always looking forward to reading books which inspire to think differently, or see things from a different perspective, especially if I think I have a solid foundation in them. I was hoping that The Coming Cyber War: What Executives, the Board, and You Should Know by Marc Crudgington would fit that bill, and it certainly did, talking about best practices, with some advice to personnel in all levels of an organization.

Not surprisingly, the author advocates, quite heavily, for the hiring of a CISO which would be an integral part of the organization’s management and interact regularly with the Board of Directors. I found that to be quite funny and amusing, seeing someone write a whole book advocating for a position in which they sit in. That’s not to say he’s wrong.

There is some solid advice in the book, and I believe the author is trying to cover all his basis, from the executive officer who knows nothing about technology, to the small business owner that better starts learning, and to the IT people on their way up to management, or even those that are simply called upon to give advice and opinions. This is a short book, and as I said the author is mainly advocating that every company needs to hire a CISO, or even one part-time (a Virtual CISO or VCISO). I can’t say I disagree with him and I’ve seen whole books written for a lesser goal. To his credit the author is upfront about everything, telling the reader right off the bat what he is, where he came from, and what he advocates.

Mr. Crudgington certainly knows what he’s talking about, and he is well worth listing to. This is a short book and is certainly wroth the time reading, even if you want to skip around to sections which are only of interest to you, or the ones you want to know more about.

The book goes into great detail explaining the Internet, Web, and dark web. The author does give examples as you go along learning the basic to intermediate details. The examples were very detailed and often enough that the average person will understand the subject matter.

If you lack an understanding of digital security, then this book is for you. It was written for the techno geek in mind but I can see the average reader making use of the guidelines and information on this book.

Along with the benefits of computers and the internet come the dangers and threats inherent in the phenomenal spread and sophistication of these technologies. How these disruptive and dangerous threats manifest themselves and how to protect ourselves and our institutions are at the heart of this book.

This work is a primer of sorts. A brief history of the escalating attacks and successes of those who seek to probe, attack, gain information, power, and financial gain. Anyone watching the nightly news will be familiar with the the successes of these often amorphous but no less insidious individuals, groups and even state entities. The game is being won by the bad actors who are much better at achieving their goals than those who would protect personal, business, or governmental assets.

After the broad overview the author attempts to offer a strategy that promises to prevent or, at least, contain the damage. The main emphasis, as the author sees it, comes in the form of a specific organizational person, the Chief information security officer - the CISO. This person is seen to be so important that he or she needs to be placed at the highest level of the organizational structure,

The skill set required of this individual includes far more than technical expertise. This is a leadership position requiring extensive interpersonal abilities. Of course, a support staff group large enough to perform the requisite preventive and protective actions is required to be effective.

This book is recommended for those who might need a broader understanding of the problem, particularly those in 'power' positions within companies and agencies who are not already aware of the extent of the threat or how really important it is to view this new institutional position as a real necessity in today's world.

The Coming Cyber War What Executives, the Board, and You Should Know by Marc Crudgington is a book for executive leadership in which the author makes a case on how to prepare for the upcoming cyber attacks. Not surprisingly, the author advocates, quite heavily, for the hiring of a Chief Information Officer which should already be an integral part of the organization’s management team and interact regularly with the Board of Directors. This book is a great reminder for any executive about their role in security, outlining to the C-Suite the past, current and upcoming threats and how to stay ahead of the bad guys. While companies move to the cloud it is still the companies responsibility to secure the customers data. Marc focuses on what the boards of directors, executives, and small business owners need to know to meet that responsibility today and to be secure for tomorrow.

great read! Yes, this was a great read and very relational to the real world. I really like how Marc was personal in the beginning with specific items that impacted his life and how he built on these. I highly recommend this book.