Book Review: Cybersecurity Leadership

Book Review:  Cybersecurity Leadership by Mansur Hasib

Disclaimer:  I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.

Update:  A revised and updated version with black and white printing is now available on Amazon for $18.05.

Mansur Hasib has been a Chief Information Officer in the healthcare and biotechnology fields for a dozen years.  His special expertise is in cybersecurity.  Most of the essays in this book come from his blog with some editing.

Cybersecurity and leadership are only two of the subjects covered in this book; it ranges over several areas of IT and corporate culture.  A particularly interesting topic is how electronic records and compliance with the Affordable Care Act are affecting healthcare organizations from an IT standpoint.   There’s a lot of good information in bits and pieces throughout, and the essay format allows a quick read of relevant material.

Overall, the book is poorly organized; the essays could have done with more editing and perhaps some consolidation to reduce redundancy.  There are several takes on why a CIO should be a direct report to the CEO rather than the CFO, for example.  There’s a lot of jargon that will tend to make the prose opaque to the layperson.   There’s a list of references at the end, but no index.

I cannot recommend the paperback edition because it’s $30.00  for 175 pages, yet has several proofreader typos.  It could be slightly less expensive without color printing, since the color illustrations add little.  I’d recommend the ebook for cabinet level corporate executives and those planning to reach that position, particularly in the IT field.