Halfway through 2011, the Wall Street Journal labeled it the "Year of the Security Breach." Victims ranged from small caps to multinationals, with two important things in common-a reliance on technology and vulnerable humans.

As we write this introduction, headlines such as the following declare the state of security:

? Multi-national Electronics Firm Grapples with U.S. Lawsuits after PSN Hack Heads Roll as Scandal Grows; Sr. Exec Arrested Chief of

Scotland Yard Resigns

? LulzSec and Anonymous Vow to Hack On

One may very well question whether the man-years of investment in firewalls, malware fixes, policies, and awareness made us more secure. A better question may be: Will a preponderance technology always make us less than 100 percent safe?

It seems that the ubiquity of computers and networks will always enable chance, motive, and means to do harm. And once a threat is deployed, the good guys are behind the eight ball, scrambling to install fixes that may or may not resolve the situation. Case in point: Buffer overflow was identified as a security issue several years ago, yet we still suffer from the effects of it today.

Moreover, current and future innovations such as cloud computing, mobile banking, digital wallets, and near-field communications to name a few-provide opportunities for exploitation. Thus, we continue to hear: "it's more a question of when, not if."

So, vigilance is key; awareness and action are indisputably essential. And, useful, constructive information at the ready is critical.

Hence, we offer the 2012 Information Security Management Handbook, with topics aligned to the profession's Common Body of Knowledge and encompassing all the requisite aspects of information security.