The increasing vulnerability of organizations and businesses in the information era is highlighted by the news that NATO has announced the creation of a 24-hour emergency response team to manage CyberAttacks, in the same way that it responds to chemical, biological or radiological attacks. 'CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime', a new book by defense and commercial security expert Dr Julie Mehan, published by IT Governance, gives a practical introduction to the defensive strategies that can be employed in response, and provides a stark and timely analysis of the increasingly hostile online landscape that today's corporate systems inhabit.

This timely, balanced and far-sighted book, while targeted at professionals with a general understanding of security engineering, should provide sobering yet illuminating reading for business, technology and security leaders around the world. Layman and specialist alike will be engrossed by Dr Mehan's insights into the psyche and modus operandi of the CyberTerrorist and the CyberCriminal. The chapters addressing Governance, CyberDefence, Laws and Standards, which discuss the current regulatory landscape and suggest practical methods for applying international standards and best practices to create a culture of security within organizations, are of particular value to security professionals.

Dr Mehan, to demonstrate the scale of the problem, points to recent cases such as the 2007 CyberAttack by Russia on Estonia's state and financial IT infrastructure which brought the country to a standstill for two months. She also highlights the high cost of malware attacks by groups such as the Storm Trojan gang, whose efforts infected millions of computers and cost companies billions of dollars.

'CyberWar, CyberTerror, CyberCrime', in the course of 280 pages, makes a convincing case for the application of international standards and practices as the key counter-measure to the global threat of CyberAttacks, while also provides a useful glossary of wider reading and current international standards.