 Dear valued customer,
you are a loser
and over 100 other embarassing and funny stories
of technology gone mad
by Rick Broadhead
Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2004
ISBN: 0740738232
~US$10 from Amazon
This fun little book offers an antidote to those misguided people who, I’m told, think information security is
dreadfully boring. Its 315 small-format pages contain a collection of entertaining stories about “computer errors” and other IT-related glitches, drawn mostly from the general and IT press.
Each story has been verified to some extent by the author although few sources are fully referenced. Most stories are less than 300 words long, just long enough to get the gist without being boring.
There are numerous examples of information security breaches in the book, especially if one accepts that most data-entry errors are either the result of untrained, incompetent or careless computer users, or
inadequate data entry validation.
A typical example is the one about a Salomon Smith Barney trader who lent on the ‘instant sell’ button on
his keyboard one day and inadvertently placed on sale 14,500 French government bond contracts worth a staggering $1.3bn at a low price. Salomon managed to cancel the sell order but not until 10,000 contracts
had been struck, leaving the company nursing a huge loss. I’d have been willing to bet, before the event,
that Salomon’s risk assessments and contingency plans did not even consider this kind of event. Do yours?
Creative information security awareness managers, trainers and presenters use news stories like these to
liven-up their training sessions, case studies, seminars, newsletters and intranet websites. Even people who
hate IT enjoy the opportunity to laugh at the unfortunate victims of computer spoofs, stunts, accidents and
failures. The trick is to use this kind of material to engage the audience and, while you have their attention, explain the underlying information security risk and control issues.
At just under ten bucks from Amazon, it’s a genuine bargain.
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