Summary of Andrew J. Stewart's A Vulnerable System

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Andrew J. Stewart's A Vulnerable System in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: A Vulnerable System delivers a long view of the history of information security, beginning with the creation of the first digital computers during the Cold War. From the key institutions of the so-called military industrial complex in the 1950s to Silicon Valley start-ups in the 2020s, the relentless pursuit of new technologies has come at great cost. The absence of knowledge regarding the history of information security has caused the lessons of the past to be forsaken for the novelty of the present, and has led us to be collectively unable to meet the needs of the current day. From the very beginning of the information age, claims of secure systems have been crushed by practical reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638157960

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Andrew J. Stewart's A Vulnerable System

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation was founded by two men, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, who were well-known for their work on the ENIAC, the first electronic computer. Their work paved the way for modern computing.

#2

The US military was one of the first to utilize computers, and Eckert and Mauchly designed the UNIVAC, which was first manufactured in 1952. The computer was initially used to assist the US military with logistics problems, but its uses were much more widespread than that.

#3

The ability to share a computer’s resources and provide individualized services to multiple clients at the same time created a whole new class of security risk. The US military feared that information stored on computers could be accessed by unauthorized users, and thus had to come up with a solution.

#4

The famous military think tank known as RAND was founded in 1942 by General Henry Hap Arnold, who was concerned that the US would lose access to top military minds after the war.

#5

LeMay believed that the key to victory was to strike first, hard, and often, and that it was more important to be effective than to be moral. He was a big fan of game theory and systems analysis.

#6

Systems analysis is a technique that reduces the complexity of a problem to something manageable, such as a mathematical model or equation. It was popular in the 1950s because it seemed to allow both the world to be understood and the future predicted.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Willis Ware was an electrical engineer who worked for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,