Without Secrets

"Richard Hunter has seen the future, and it's really scary. If you ever plan to do anything wrong, you need to read this book. If you suspect that someone will ever try to do anything wrong to you, you also need to read it. I believe that covers pretty much all of us." —Thomas H. Davenport, Director, Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, Distinguished Scholar, Babson College

"Like a laser, Hunter gets directly to the heart of the issues for business and society in computer security. He understands and delineates issues and nonissues of cybercrime and cyberwar and provides provocative thought on new social structures affecting current and future security issues. A strongly recommended read for anyone concerned about cybersecurity and the coming cyberwars." —Dr. Bill Hancock, CISSP, Vice President, Security and Chief Security Officer, Exodus, a cable and wireless company

To some it's a dream come true; to others it's the stuff of nightmares-a world of ubiquitous computing in which human beings are surrounded by smart, aware, always-on machines that monitor, record, and analyze most or all of what goes on around them. World Without Secrets takes you on a chilling tour of the near future and the hard realities of what's to come, from the home without secrets to the Network Army, from mentats to the exception economy.

Don't enter the future unprepared. Read World Without Secrets and learn how to protect your business from information crime, seize emerging opportunities, and survive and succeed in a new environment that is as dangerous as it is promising.

The future of computing-the future of business
Rapid technological innovation is moving us towards a world of ubiquitous computing-a world in which we are surrounded by smart machines that are always on, always aware, and always monitoring us. These developments will create a world virtually without secrets in which information is widely available and analyzable worldwide. This environment will certainly affect business, government, and the individual alike, dramatically affecting the way organizations and individuals interact. This book explores the implications of the coming world and suggests and explores policy options that can protect individuals and organizations from exploitation and safeguard the implicit contract between employees, businesses, and society itself. World Without Secrets casts an unflinching eye on a future we may not necessarily desire, but will experience.

Publishers Weekly

The warning bell about our rapidly disappearing privacy is sounded again albeit none too stridently in this study of new technologies and their impact. Hunter, a vice-president at Gartner's Research organization, a business technology consulting group, wants to sketch out how the omnipresence of computers affects every last centimeter of modern human existence. His first chapter, "Why Won't They Leave Me Alone?" is most to the point, asking, on the subject of Internet commerce, "Is the convenience of being known everywhere worth the risk of being known everywhere?" More worrisome than having a digital signature follow you everywhere online he uses the example of Amazon.com's ability to remember things you've bought or even just looked at is the ubiquity of surveillance in public and private spaces. One chapter addresses the tracking of cars, relating the story of a man who was fined $450 for driving his rental car over the speed limit. It wasn't the police that caught him it was a global positioning satellite system in the car. From there, Hunter assays such subjects as the Open Source debate (over making the source codes of commercial operating systems and applications available to the public) and Internet crime. While each of the chapters is useful by itself, Hunter's thesis gets progressively fainter as the book goes on. Very little is resolved by the end of this less-than-groundbreaking study, but it may still be interesting for those new to the subject. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

RICHARD HUNTER is Vice President, Security Research, GartnerG2, the strategic business growth division of Gartner, Inc., the world's largest technology research firm. Hunter is internationally renowned for his expertise in technology and security, cybercrime, information management, and privacy. He was formerly Vice President and Director of Research for Applications Development at Gartner. Hunter earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University with a concentration in music and is also a world-class harmonica virtuoso. He works in Gartner's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and lives nearby.