Hagai Bar-El on Security

I will be speaking at the GSA Israel Executive Forum on October 14,2015.

The keynote I will deliver is titled: "Security: the Key Challenge to IoT Adoption".

For more information visit the event website.

Added on 2015-10-15: You can find the keynote slide-deck attached to this post.

This is an untypical management book. Aside of the fact that it is very well written, it is full of insights that you can actually relate to and use. It makes sense, and unlike other management books that "make sense" because they preach obvious trivialities, this one brings up points that are truly insightful.

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TED published an excellent talk: Why Privacy Matters, by Glenn Greenwald.

Seldom do I call an online lecture "a must for all audience", but the TED lecture by Glenn Greenwald is worth such an enforcement. Glenn Greenwald is one of the key reporters who published material based on the leaks of Edward Snowden. He also wrote a good book about it called "No Place to Hide"; a book on which I wrote a review about 6 months ago.

If you know that privacy is important, but cannot explain why people who've done nothing wrong need it, or worse yet, if you really do not see why a surveillance state is bad also for law-abiding citizens, then you must listen to this. It packs hours of social, psychological, and public policy discussions into a few minutes.

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I just finished reading the book "No Place to Hide", by the journalist Glenn Greenwald. The book talks about the revelations from Edward Snowden on the actions taken by the NSA, as well as about their implications. It is not the  book you can't take your hands off, but it is certainly a worthy read and conveys a very well elaborated message.

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I have just finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. This book presents the story of a typical but tech savvy teenager who falls victim to harassment by the Department of Homeland Security and the police state, where every citizen is constantly tracked and monitored as a potential terrorist. The story is fictitious, of course, but those who follow the reaction of some nations to the terrorism threat and the ever increasing amplitude and sophistication of wholesale surveillance, cannot miss that while the story is factually fictitious, it is not at all implausible.

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I finally got to read Bruce Schneier's new book: "Liars and Outliers". The book is pleasant to read, but truth be told, I was slightly, just slightly, disappointed.

The book is written in Bruce's style, which I like and appreciate. Like all of his books and essays, it is crystal clear, and is extremely well-written. It is written in a way that makes it comprehensible by absolutely everyone. Not too many people with Bruce's knowledge can write in such clear style.

What I less liked about this book is its overall triviality. Bruce Schneier is excellent in using trivial down-to-earth facts and notions to get his point across. This is one of the best features of his texts. However, in "Liars and Outliers" I feel it went a bit too far. The book does not take you from the trivial to the "Wow!" but mostly repeats the discussion of trivial phenomenons that bring to trivial conclusions. The discussions are interesting, and the points made are valid and worthy, but I cannot avoid suspecting that the book could be cut down to half of its length without losing much of its substance.

I have just finished reading The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun. This 248-pages book describes how the work on innovation, and innovation in general, deviate from how we often perceive it, and from how it is presented by the media. It essentially carries the message that innovation is not some “magic” happening, but rather it is a lot of hard work, often carried out by many people.

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