My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bruce wrote this book in 2003 as a response to 9/11 and how it lead to changes in security practices in the U.S. He criticizes many of the security measures taken as “security theater” that makes it look like something is being done without actually accomplishing anything useful. His criticisms probably are nothing terribly new to people 2013 when many people have come to similar conclusions, but what I think is more important in this book is that he attempts to lay out a way of thinking about security that is rational. Security can never be 100% in a world of human beings, and security always entails trade-offs that make it a cost-benefit decision. As an example, you would never hire an armed guard to protect your empty bottles for getting the 10 cent deposit back. That just doesn’t make sense. Bruce lays out a 5 point analysis you can do with any security plan that asks questions about what you are trying to protect, what are the costs of the protection, will the proposed solution actually work, etc. It is a good analysis and worth a read if you want to learn how to think intelligently about security.
