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No More Magic Wands
Once upon a time there was a company that made magic wands, but when they were hacked all the magic in the world couldn’t prevent their data from being stolen. If that company had a chance for a clean start, what would they have done differently? The unlikely hero isn’t a security guy. She’s a business elf who makes it her mission to change the way her company does business from the top down. Most books on Cybersecurity are written for highly technical professionals, focus on specific compliance regulations, or are intended for reference. No More Magic Wands is different...it takes complex security concepts and puts them into practice in easy to read, relateable stories.
- GenresNonfiction
130 pages, Paperback
Published September 10, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 7, 2017
I work in the health industry where cybersecurity is very important. Although, it should be important to everyone, no matter your job. As Mr. Finney states "Security is everyone's job". If you take measures to keep your information secure then, there is less of a chance of it falling into the wrong hands. The harder it is for a hacker or thief to work to access your information, the better chance that they will move to a easier target.
Everything in this book is very relevant to today's world. What I enjoyed the most about this book is the fact that this book was written with everyone in mind. So, if your job is not cyber security or IT related, you can still understand everything that Mr. Finney is talking about in this book.
Mr. Finney breaks the fundamentals down into chapters with each focusing on a different aspect of security. Not with tons of facts like a reference book. No, Mr. Finney actually transports readers to a fairy tale world with fairies, kittens, and other magical creatures. At the end of each chapter is a summary of the topic, takeaways, and questions that everyone should be thinking about. A must read!
Everything in this book is very relevant to today's world. What I enjoyed the most about this book is the fact that this book was written with everyone in mind. So, if your job is not cyber security or IT related, you can still understand everything that Mr. Finney is talking about in this book.
Mr. Finney breaks the fundamentals down into chapters with each focusing on a different aspect of security. Not with tons of facts like a reference book. No, Mr. Finney actually transports readers to a fairy tale world with fairies, kittens, and other magical creatures. At the end of each chapter is a summary of the topic, takeaways, and questions that everyone should be thinking about. A must read!
January 3, 2017
No More Magic Wands: Transformative Cybersecurity Change for Everyone by George Finney has taken the complex subject of cybersecurity and ‘translated’ it, if you will, into a fairy tale involving Honest Evergreen, a woodland elf with a penchant for whittling magical wands. The book discusses various issues of a company’s growth and vulnerabilities via this fairy tale. Finney’s message that it’s cheap and easy to be a cybercriminal today resonates loud and clear, since software isn’t difficult to hack and people make easy targets. He illustrates how companies aren’t prepared for a breach and examines how a company can change its security mindset from reactionary to proactive. While Finney’s approach in No More Magic Wands is certainly charming and unique, it may have a difficult time in finding its audience, given the manner in which the book is presented. Although the author states that his book is intended for technology professionals and for anyone and everyone who wants to make a difference and improve cybersecurity, it may have a difficult time attracting – and convincing – technology professionals to take the book seriously. A shame really, since No More Magic Wands offers some sound takeaways for each and every one of us.
September 13, 2017
This was a good book. It's cyber security meets a fairy tale that every reader can have no trouble reading. It's a fun read and anyone can enjoy this regardless of reading level.
*won as a GoodReads Giveaway*
*won as a GoodReads Giveaway*
May 30, 2017
MY THOUGHTS
What do you do when your data is stolen? Cyber Security is a major concern and the author puts a little fun into this serious subject as he gives information on the subject. Information the normal person can understand. It doesn't matter how good a security system you have, it's all in the people involved. It takes humans to operate the computers, the alarms, the intel, everything. Whenever there are people involved, mistakes are made, whether by accident or by purpose. Thee author shows how the system can be knowingly or unknowingly entered.. This was done by a virus called Stuxnet. Security doesn't land on one person's shoulders but on all. It takes a team to protect data and without that team, it's at stake. What I liked about the story was the combining of magic and animals into the technology. It all may seem rather technical but the author uses the animals and the magic as a way to learn with each chapter. It doesn't matter if it is one person's information or a big important company, data can be stolen, security systems can be hacked and information can be stolen. There is a moral to every story and this story certainly has one. The author gives summaries at the end of each chapter, tips and advice. It is written in a mythical way but that takes it into a level that the novice can grasp.
Excerpt:
“The paper man followed a crowd of elves and fairies onto the elevator. As he boarded, small pieces of paper in his knees and waist unfolded like an accordion, making him grow three inches taller. He adjusted the collar of his paper suit, allowing the newly folded pleats to fall nicely into place. He wiggled his shoulders, and a small paper flower popped joyfully out of his lapel. Nobody seemed to notice that he was made entirely of neatly folded pieces of paper. In fact, nobody noticed him at all—not the elves in uniforms or the ones in suits, not the fairies carrying their magic wands, and certainly not the turtle, who moved surprisingly quickly as he walked on his two back feet. The paper man slid to the back of the elevator, making room for several more straggling elves, before the elevator doors shut.”
I received a copy of this book from the author and PUYB and voluntarily decided to review it.
What do you do when your data is stolen? Cyber Security is a major concern and the author puts a little fun into this serious subject as he gives information on the subject. Information the normal person can understand. It doesn't matter how good a security system you have, it's all in the people involved. It takes humans to operate the computers, the alarms, the intel, everything. Whenever there are people involved, mistakes are made, whether by accident or by purpose. Thee author shows how the system can be knowingly or unknowingly entered.. This was done by a virus called Stuxnet. Security doesn't land on one person's shoulders but on all. It takes a team to protect data and without that team, it's at stake. What I liked about the story was the combining of magic and animals into the technology. It all may seem rather technical but the author uses the animals and the magic as a way to learn with each chapter. It doesn't matter if it is one person's information or a big important company, data can be stolen, security systems can be hacked and information can be stolen. There is a moral to every story and this story certainly has one. The author gives summaries at the end of each chapter, tips and advice. It is written in a mythical way but that takes it into a level that the novice can grasp.
Excerpt:
“The paper man followed a crowd of elves and fairies onto the elevator. As he boarded, small pieces of paper in his knees and waist unfolded like an accordion, making him grow three inches taller. He adjusted the collar of his paper suit, allowing the newly folded pleats to fall nicely into place. He wiggled his shoulders, and a small paper flower popped joyfully out of his lapel. Nobody seemed to notice that he was made entirely of neatly folded pieces of paper. In fact, nobody noticed him at all—not the elves in uniforms or the ones in suits, not the fairies carrying their magic wands, and certainly not the turtle, who moved surprisingly quickly as he walked on his two back feet. The paper man slid to the back of the elevator, making room for several more straggling elves, before the elevator doors shut.”
I received a copy of this book from the author and PUYB and voluntarily decided to review it.
December 13, 2016
This is a delightful book, nominally about information and internet security, but as much as anything about how to manage people working for you, because as Finney points out, security is maximized when everyone in the company is doing their best to maintain it. Finney seems to be taken by Aesop, because this book illustrates the points more or less one by one by means of a sequence of fables, starting with the elf Honest Evergreen going into business making magic wands. Such a valuable commodity attracts IP thieves, hackers, etc, which have to be foiled by daughter Harmony, a porcupine, a pig, a groundhog, and a number of other players. You can learn a lot here, and be entertained while learning. Well done!
October 8, 2020
No More Magic Wands by George Finney is a book on cyber security for all level of readers. Finney is the Information Security Officer (ISO) and Director of Digital Interests for Southern Methodist University. He works in a variety of areas at SMU including facilitating IT Security and Compliance, increasing Regulatory Awareness, streamlining the IT Contracts process, as well as advocacy for Open Source software and processes. Finney earned his law degree from Southern Methodist University.
No More Magic Wands takes the very complex subject of cyber security and explains it in short fictional stories involving elves and forest animals. Finney does an excellent of making the stories cute without being cutesy and passes along information without talking below (or above) the readers level. Part of any successful security program is to have everyone involved and not make any exceptions. People are the weak link in any security system whether it is the military setting up a perimeter, a bank protecting its vault, or a company protecting its data. Perhaps on of the biggest security hacks was Stuxnet. The amazingly successful virus was discovered only by accident and was introduced by a person, intentionally or not. Finney gives examples of how the bad guys can get into the system through unknowing or overly helpful employees. Stressing, again,that security is everyone's responsibility, not just the IT department.
Combining technology with elfin magic and even the Tootsie Pop owl makes for enjoyable reading and much like parables there is a lesson to be learned with each chapter of the story. Finney includes take away points and also asks open-ended questions at the conclusion of each chapter. The appendix gives an outline of the important points of the book. Computer security is the main topic of the book, but it easily translates to any physical security situation. The reader can easily take away useful information for day to day life or computer security. The stories are easy to follow and the "morals" are not hidden too deeply in the story. Most people outside of the IT circle find security boring and not really part of their jobs and security training is a bitter time. The stories act as a sugar cube to the training distracting the employees from the fact they are learning security.
This book came as a recommendation and was read for free from Kindle Unlimited selections.
No More Magic Wands takes the very complex subject of cyber security and explains it in short fictional stories involving elves and forest animals. Finney does an excellent of making the stories cute without being cutesy and passes along information without talking below (or above) the readers level. Part of any successful security program is to have everyone involved and not make any exceptions. People are the weak link in any security system whether it is the military setting up a perimeter, a bank protecting its vault, or a company protecting its data. Perhaps on of the biggest security hacks was Stuxnet. The amazingly successful virus was discovered only by accident and was introduced by a person, intentionally or not. Finney gives examples of how the bad guys can get into the system through unknowing or overly helpful employees. Stressing, again,that security is everyone's responsibility, not just the IT department.
Combining technology with elfin magic and even the Tootsie Pop owl makes for enjoyable reading and much like parables there is a lesson to be learned with each chapter of the story. Finney includes take away points and also asks open-ended questions at the conclusion of each chapter. The appendix gives an outline of the important points of the book. Computer security is the main topic of the book, but it easily translates to any physical security situation. The reader can easily take away useful information for day to day life or computer security. The stories are easy to follow and the "morals" are not hidden too deeply in the story. Most people outside of the IT circle find security boring and not really part of their jobs and security training is a bitter time. The stories act as a sugar cube to the training distracting the employees from the fact they are learning security.
This book came as a recommendation and was read for free from Kindle Unlimited selections.
January 21, 2019
So I won this book some time ago as a Goodreads giveaway. It finally made it to the top of a pile, so I read it.
My initial thoughts about this book, before I've even read any of the content mind you, is that the author needs to lay off the ASCII. Holy shit... The title and every chapter title has all the characters in some ASCII symbol instead of just plain Roman letters. It's hard to read for one, but for two, it doesn't say hacker. It says griefer -- someone who will happily gank or corpse camp you. It says I have far too much time on my hands because I'm unemployed and live in my mom's basement playing video games all day, and wanted to name my avatar Sephiroth, but there were 102 other Sephiroths on the server and so I had to change every letter to a symbol to get my wish...
Now that I'm done the book I can comment on the rest of it. This is a self-published book, and, unfortunately, it reads and looks like it. From my initial thoughts above, to the poor formatting, and to the actual content itself, it just isn't very professional looking.
And speaking to the content, in a lot of cases, I just didn't get the correlation between the cutesy stories with the summary and takeaways from them.
I guess I just expected more from this book. I guess in the end it did deliver a message, but you just had to wade through a lot of unnecessary filler to get to it.
My initial thoughts about this book, before I've even read any of the content mind you, is that the author needs to lay off the ASCII. Holy shit... The title and every chapter title has all the characters in some ASCII symbol instead of just plain Roman letters. It's hard to read for one, but for two, it doesn't say hacker. It says griefer -- someone who will happily gank or corpse camp you. It says I have far too much time on my hands because I'm unemployed and live in my mom's basement playing video games all day, and wanted to name my avatar Sephiroth, but there were 102 other Sephiroths on the server and so I had to change every letter to a symbol to get my wish...
Now that I'm done the book I can comment on the rest of it. This is a self-published book, and, unfortunately, it reads and looks like it. From my initial thoughts above, to the poor formatting, and to the actual content itself, it just isn't very professional looking.
And speaking to the content, in a lot of cases, I just didn't get the correlation between the cutesy stories with the summary and takeaways from them.
I guess I just expected more from this book. I guess in the end it did deliver a message, but you just had to wade through a lot of unnecessary filler to get to it.
September 17, 2017
I chose to read this book after receiving a free copy from the author. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.
For most of us, the subject of cybersecurity is boring and technical but George Finney has written this book for those of us who aren't so technical. This isn't a reference book on cybersecurity. This is a book that anyone can read and understand. It contains stories of a magic world with elves and fairies and a business of magic wands and relates it to the business world. It's an entertaining way to learn!
At the end of each chapter, there are key points (takeaways) and questions to ponder or discuss. The most important thing to remember is that security is everyone's job from the top down and it should begin from the startup of the company. To implement and keep security ongoing and up-to-date, communication within and outside the company is vital.
This is a book is directed at management but I think all employees would benefit from reading it and learning how important everyone's role is in cybersecurity.
For most of us, the subject of cybersecurity is boring and technical but George Finney has written this book for those of us who aren't so technical. This isn't a reference book on cybersecurity. This is a book that anyone can read and understand. It contains stories of a magic world with elves and fairies and a business of magic wands and relates it to the business world. It's an entertaining way to learn!
At the end of each chapter, there are key points (takeaways) and questions to ponder or discuss. The most important thing to remember is that security is everyone's job from the top down and it should begin from the startup of the company. To implement and keep security ongoing and up-to-date, communication within and outside the company is vital.
This is a book is directed at management but I think all employees would benefit from reading it and learning how important everyone's role is in cybersecurity.
September 6, 2017
I will admit I was not immediately drawn into this book, but once I gave it a fair chance I could appreciate its message. The use of humor and pop culture references made it a quick, lighter read.
The book begins by telling us what we are going to learn. It is spelled out for us from the beginning so those of us slow to catch on have handholds to grasp from the beginning.
I actually read this book twice because once I got to the part I really felt I understood the story and the implications, I wanted to go back and catch what I had missed in the beginning.
Written in allegorical form, each section is followed by a summary and follow up questions to make it applicable to the readers' own situation. I can see value in this book for both students and older executives who delegate their cyber security without understanding how it works or why.
I voluntarily read this book. The review opinions are my own.
The book begins by telling us what we are going to learn. It is spelled out for us from the beginning so those of us slow to catch on have handholds to grasp from the beginning.
I actually read this book twice because once I got to the part I really felt I understood the story and the implications, I wanted to go back and catch what I had missed in the beginning.
Written in allegorical form, each section is followed by a summary and follow up questions to make it applicable to the readers' own situation. I can see value in this book for both students and older executives who delegate their cyber security without understanding how it works or why.
I voluntarily read this book. The review opinions are my own.
August 8, 2017
A look on how to improve (from top down, and vice versa) cyber security in your company. It was full of very helpful tips and summations of very real cyber problems, and I think it's an interesting, easy-to-understand handbook on how to deal with security and employees.
The only thing wrong with it, and that's just because I was hoping for magical stories analogous to, but not heavy-handed, cyber issues; the stories were, ostensibly, analogies, but they became so muddled in places that they were difficult to understand and did not flow well together.
It's short, and really helpful— I think this would be true, especially for those who do have to worry about more than just individual cyber security.
The only thing wrong with it, and that's just because I was hoping for magical stories analogous to, but not heavy-handed, cyber issues; the stories were, ostensibly, analogies, but they became so muddled in places that they were difficult to understand and did not flow well together.
It's short, and really helpful— I think this would be true, especially for those who do have to worry about more than just individual cyber security.
September 12, 2017
Going into this book I first thought more of a child's book was pretty shocked once I realized that it was just the opposite. Even though it does seem as such, it truly isn't but the way it's written will help you understand and see things more clearly with a full understanding. Really appreciate the way this book was written. Pretty enjoyable as well!
September 13, 2017
This is a free book from the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.
A corporate fable reminiscent of "Who Moved My Cheese?" that focuses on cybersecurity. This book shows that different parts are all involved in keeping a company safe and functioning. My takeaway is that communication and everyone's participation is required.
A corporate fable reminiscent of "Who Moved My Cheese?" that focuses on cybersecurity. This book shows that different parts are all involved in keeping a company safe and functioning. My takeaway is that communication and everyone's participation is required.
September 3, 2017
I received a free copy from Goodreads for an honest review.
It seemed like Computer Security was what most of the stories were about. Each story had something for you to learn something From. I loved every story. Very good. Only complaint was it was to short :)
It seemed like Computer Security was what most of the stories were about. Each story had something for you to learn something From. I loved every story. Very good. Only complaint was it was to short :)
September 23, 2017
I found this book to be quite enlightening. It did not talk "down" to me and gave me lots of good information.
December 13, 2016
No More Magic Wands isn’t only unique in its topic, but also in how it is written. George Finney’s insight on Cybersecurity is very impressive, blending that with mystical elves, fairies, and witches to make this a fun book to read.
George uses an elf that produces magical wands as an example of real live businesses that produce a unique, but useful product to the public. Honest Evergreen gets complaints that his wands are faulty but further study shows that the wand was an inferior copy, or fraud. Often a business will spring up that mirrors a popular item but it doesn’t offer the same quality, therefore hurt both companies.
I love the “summary”, “takeaways”, and “questions” at the end of each chapter. This makes the book more personal to the individual, not just companies that need to protect their cybersecurity.
George uses an elf that produces magical wands as an example of real live businesses that produce a unique, but useful product to the public. Honest Evergreen gets complaints that his wands are faulty but further study shows that the wand was an inferior copy, or fraud. Often a business will spring up that mirrors a popular item but it doesn’t offer the same quality, therefore hurt both companies.
I love the “summary”, “takeaways”, and “questions” at the end of each chapter. This makes the book more personal to the individual, not just companies that need to protect their cybersecurity.
December 16, 2016
No More Magic Wands: Transformative Cybersecurity Change for Everyone by George Finney is a timely book that is written in a simple fashion to present a rather complex topic; cyber security. Finney uses magical terms and imaginative scenarios to explain that it is indeed everyone's responsibility to be cyber aware and keep cyber activity secure. With the addition of the summaries, takeaways, and questions at the end of each chapter, Finney makes the book approachable and easy to understand. This makes the book quite appealing and more personal not only to an individual, but to companies who need to protect their cyber space as well. A well rounded and uniquely presented book that takes on complex security issues. Recommend highly.
April 26, 2018
I won this book as part of a goodreads giveaway. It is a fast read; however, I found the fairy tale story disjointed and forces to showcase a cybersecurity point. I love the idea of storytelling to get across lessons, but the story was not compelling enough to pull me in such that I remember the lessons. However, the tips at the end of each chapter are great IT security reminders and practises.
February 4, 2018
I won a kindle version #GoodreadsGiveaway
February 5, 2018
I am not sure who the market for this book is, maybe middle school students? I work in IT and I am all for cyber security awareness, but this book would not appeal to any professional IT people.
July 16, 2018
Goodreads giveaway
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