Into the Breach: Protect Your Business by Managing People, Information, and Risk [Hardcover]

I began my information security career in 1998 as a consultant. My first client was a military organization. In the military, getting people to adhere to infosec policies is easy - everyone is required to follow the rules, and there are clear and unequivocal consequences for those who choose not to.

I've spent the rest of my career in business, and out here it's a different story. It's generally ineffective to "order" anyone to adhere to policy, and there are countless good reasons why people won't do it at any given time. I've seen millions of dollars wasted on the latest silver bullet technologies to fix what is fundamentally a human problem. Of course the problem remains, and now we're throwing good money after bad to support the new tools.

Michael's book is the first to call a spade a spade and address the human problem with a human solution. By taking away the intermediaries that cause end-users to feel disengaged from their responsibilities, he transforms the problem itself (end-users) into the solution. It's not rocket science, it doesn't cost millions of dollars, there's nothing to support for eternity, and best of all, it works!

I just finished a book by Michael Santarcangelo entitled Into the Breach: Protect your Business by Managing People, Information, and Risk. I am ashamed to admit that I hadn't run across this book sooner and didn't know about it until after I was a guest on Michael's Podcast a few weeks back. At 110 pages the book is a quick read but don't let that fool you - there is a lot of information in here.

The book is aimed at executives and other decision makers and not at technical information security professionals themselves. That is not to say that there isn't value in here for the technically minded as long as they remember that they are not the targeted audience. There are a few things in here that might actually cause the technically focused some anguish but if they are honest with themselves and take a step back they should admit that what Michael says is true.

Into the Breach is the book that I wanted to write. I share Michael's perspective on many of the topics discussed and have come to the same conclusions, although independently. We attack the problem from different angles but we share so much in common that I'm left to wonder if the differences are merely trivial. As I read the book I heard my own thoughts being echoed back to me more than a few times. I found new and interesting perspectives on issues that I have worked hard to solve and I even learned a few things (which means that it was time well spent.)

The book is broken up into three parts. The first part explains the human factors at play in any environment and seeks to provide a understanding of the human factors as they relate to protecting information. I really couldn't find fault with anything I read in this section.

The second part lays out Michael's Strategy to Protect Information and its implementation. Michael's approach to the problem is different from mine but in no way does that make it any less valid. He does a good job explaining not only how something needs to be done but why it needs to be done which is the key to mastering anything. That said I have some constructive criticism to provide with regard to a few things that were mentioned.

The first being that Michael talks about how a management team can learn and deploy his strategy by just reading his book. The concepts that he lays forth are simple and well explained however I can say that I have facilitated groups through similar processes and it is not as easy as Michael makes it sound. The greatest fear that I would have by someone reading Michaels book is that they will try to implement his program without guidance then in failure believe that this approach is just a load of crap and go back to the way they have been doing things. Processes like this need to have someone with experience facilitate their adoption in order to steer teams around pitfalls and ultimately achieve success.

The second criticism is that near the end of Part Two, Michael talks about metrics and how to measure the success of the program. This is indeed an important point however his examples did little to illustrate his point and may have in fact made his argument weaker. He talks about the blending of quantative and qualitative measures (a concept that I'm wholly in favor of) but gives his executive/decision maker reader little to take back that is actionable.

The third part addresses considerations for extending and enhancing the strategy laid out in Part Two. Michael talks about how his strategy can help protect the bottom line and help reduce the cost of compliance. I agree that it will but again the topic was treated so quickly that a reader may be left to conclude that this is all that there is to the argument. They couldn't be more wrong however would someone in the targeted audience know this - perhaps it would; perhaps it wouldn't.

Please dear readers, don't construe my criticisms as a damning critique of this book. At 110 pages it is nearly impossible to cover the topics that Michael has attempted. This book is exactly where it needs to be in terms of detail when considering the intended audience. I applaud Michael for writing the book. It is a book that has been needed out there for a very hard time. I highly recommend it. I would even go so far to say that you should buy several copies and give them out to senior executives in your organizations. But only do so if you intend to follow up with several conversations about how to apply these principles in your environment. Use this book as a basis upon which to build conversations on how you can improve security within your organization and environment.

(From Ascension Blog - www.ascensionriskmanagement.com/BlogOne/)

Michael does an amazing job in setting out a new way of thinking through information security and compliance issues. His simple, intuitive, and (to be quite honest) very overlooked ideas that "people want to do the right thing at their jobs" married up with "how to effectively communicate the security and compliance needs and concerns" has been critical for me in my CISO role. Turning the people that we've traditionally seen as "the Problem" into our allies and friends is *crucial* in today's reality of compressed/non-existent budgets, reduced staffing, and ever evolving compliance requirements. Michael shows, in steps that are based in reality and experience, how to make that change.

So many of the other books in this genre (and I've read many of them) take a technologists approach to solving problems. To be sure - there is a time and place for that. But if you want to get at the root of your issues, if you really want to understand the problems, and if you really want to get the most powerful leverage you can get to create an effective program you *must* read this book.

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