Puzzle


What does this paragraph say to a system administrator or security officer seeking insight to defend her systems?

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to capture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment, or a company entire than to destroy it.

From Sun Tzu, The Art of War, translated by James Clavell, Dell Publishing, New York, NY (1983), p. 15.


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Matt Bishop
Office: 2209 Watershed Sciences
Phone: +1 (530) 752-8060
Email: [email protected]
ECS 153, Computer Security
Version of May 31, 2018 at 3:47PM

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