Security from Zero: Practical Security for Busy People

by Eric Higgins, Nate Murray (Editor)

Most of the marketing employed by the security industry tends to rely on a bit of fear-mongering. It's easy to sell sensationalism -- to say that "everything is broken" and cause a sense of alarm and hopelessness. The goal of this book is not to impart fear, but knowledge. Informed individuals are less likely to panic when scary things happen. They're more likely to understand what's going on and how to respond appropriately. They're more likely to prepare and prevent disasters when they understand the real risks that they might face. The goal of this book is to inspire confidence in the reader and an understanding that, despite the overwhelming perception that everything is broken, the future is not doomed because everything can be fixed. Your inbox is overflowing, your day is full of meetings, everyone needs something from you, and you're struggling to stay ahead of it all while trying to grow your company. There's that nagging feeling that you should probably be doing something with security to defend all of this work that you've done, to protect your investment. But, what should you be doing? Where do you even begin? If this sounds familiar, then this book is for you. I want to share my experience with you so that you'll know when it's time to start focusing on security and how to start from scratch. This book explains the practical things you can do today, soon, and later -- to improve your security wisely, to maximize the impact, and the metrics you'll need to make decisions, set goals and track progress. This book focuses on the high level strategy of successful security programs and avoids deep technical discussions so that you'll have the right level of insight to make informed decisions and can spend your time on the things that matter most. 1. Goals of This Book 2. Kickstarting Your Security Program 3. The Importance of Security Culture 4. Your First Security Hire 5. Prioritizing the Effort vs Impact 6. Workload Issue Tracking 7. Your Data-Driven Security Program 8. Leveraging Security Frameworks & Questionnaires 9. Regulation and Compliance 10. Tracking Vulnerabilities 11. Planning Your Security Budget 12. Responding to Incidents 13. Threat Modeling Exercises 14. Effective Bug Bounty Programs 15. Security Audits & Penetration Tests 16. Least Privilege & Access Controls 17. Monitoring & Alerting

141 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 21, 2020

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I by no means work in cybersecurity, this book provides a clear understanding for how companies can elevate their current security measures. I felt that my general understanding of cybersecurity and issue ticketing was broadened through this read.