Opinion

The CSO Book of Lists

Lists on network security, fraud, loss prevention, leadership, curious acronyms, shark attacks, bizarre thefts, and so much more.

By Derek Slater

December 01, 2006 — CSO —

I am not a listaholic exactly, but there's no question that a nice checklist can save the day. I can't

go to the grocery store without a shopping list, for example, or else we wind up having dinners like

Roast Chicken with No Side Dishes, or Pasta with Nearly Marinara Sauce.

The Book of Lists—not the issue you're reading, but the one that's actually a book—was

published in 1977 by Irving Wallace and his kids, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace. The kids have

periodically updated it with new editions and somewhere along the way, it picked up the subtitle The

Original Compendium of Useless Information, presumably because other people saw the book's success

and ripped off the format for books—or magazines—of their own.

They're not kidding with that subtitle. Plenty of the material in the original book is genuinely useless. It

includes such lists as:

  • Shoe sizes of famous people

  • The 15 most boring classics

  • People misquoted by Ronald Reagan

While we've borrowed their format (though I prefer to call this issue "an homage"), we've tried to keep

our own Book of Lists light on the useless stuff—even though useless lists are often the most

fascinating to read. What we hope you'll find here instead is eminently useful information on a broad

range of security topics, including:

  • Metrics (good and bad)

  • Emerging technologies and vulnerabilities

  • Fraud

  • Global threats

  • Data breach litigation

  • Business continuity exercises

  • Starting a new job

(We did try to sprinkle in just enough useless-but-fascinating stuff to make good vacation reading too.)

My favorite list in this issue is "How to Build a Surveillance Camera System" (Page 36). It's ridiculously

useful, and also it's what we call found material. We didn't plan on it; we didn't ask for it. Senior Editor

Scott Berinato, who spearheaded the entire issue and whom I would describe as a listaholic, e-mailed a

bunch of questions to a bunch of CSOs. Instead of answering our questions, one gent sent us this

detailed camera plan—plus even more information we couldn't fit into the

magazine—"because it's top of mind."

What's your favorite list in this issue? And what did we miss that's top of mind for you? Maybe we

should do a second edition next year. Let us know.

–Derek Slater

Other stories by Derek Slater

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