A Vulnerable System

Stewart has written an easy-to-read history of computer security. He continues his marvelous story telling, covering human weaknesses, perhaps the most reliable way of gaining access to networks, then to massive data breaches. Altogether, I consider this book very much worth reading.

~Login

The author writes in an easily accessible style, allowing the reader to gain a good overview of computer security at various stages of development, from the mid-20th-century events to the late 2010s, and to delve deeper by following the notes at the back of the book (there are over 70 pages of them!). Most topics are covered this way and this lends a curious reader to complement their scientific knowledge with amusing or eye-opening anecdotes.

~Cipher Newsletter

A Vulnerable System provides an accessible and engaging overview of many major developments in the history of computer security. It should be useful for teaching courses on the history of computer security, as well as for providing historical perspective to information security practitioners and general readers.

~Technology and Culture

Andrew J. Stewart's A Vulnerable System: The History of Information Security in the Computer Age is a comprehensive review of the evolution of information security within the overall context of the remarkable level of information technological advancement in the twentieth century. Using carefully researched sources combined with an insightful analysis, Stewart takes readers on a journey through the history of safeguarding digital systems.

~California History