Preface

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Both The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets and The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace have many consequences as well as opportunities for IT managers. This book provides IT managers with an introduction to those national homeland security initiatives and a framework to implement and integrate into their organization's enterprise IT environment.

Security, and especially computer security, is one of the largest-growth professions of the twenty-first century. The soaring increase in the number of Internet users, combined with the constant computerization of business processes, has created new opportunities for computer criminals and terrorists. Study after study has consistently revealed that cyberattacks, hacking, and computer-based criminal activities are costing businesses and government organizations billions of dollars each year.

Just as law-enforcement agencies around the world started to fight back against computer crimes, a new element was introduced-terrorism and the threat of cyberterrorism. It has been a long, hard struggle to train law enforcement personnel in computer crime-related issues and to recruit skilled computer professionals into law-enforcement careers. Although these efforts are far from finished, it is important for organizations of all types that depend on computers and communications networks to start working more closely with law enforcement.

How companies can benefit from using the Internet is expanding everyday. There are more new marketplaces. There are new marketing, sales, and customer-service methods. The worlds of business and consumers have rapidly become the wired and connected world. It is truly an exciting time to be in business. However, it is truly a time of opportunity for terrorists to disrupt our new world of communications and commerce easily and readily. To keep this from happening, the IT community, which now includes lawenforcement and national security operations, will need to work together.

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