Author: William Stallings
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 0135278376
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 666
Book Description
The Comprehensive Guide to Engineering and Implementing Privacy Best Practices As systems grow more complex and cybersecurity attacks more relentless, safeguarding privacy is ever more challenging. Organizations are increasingly responding in two ways, and both are mandated by key standards such as GDPR and ISO/IEC 27701:2019. The first approach, privacy by design, aims to embed privacy throughout the design and architecture of IT systems and business practices. The second, privacy engineering, encompasses the technical capabilities and management processes needed to implement, deploy, and operate privacy features and controls in working systems. In Information Privacy Engineering and Privacy by Design, internationally renowned IT consultant and author William Stallings brings together the comprehensive knowledge privacy executives and engineers need to apply both approaches. Using the techniques he presents, IT leaders and technical professionals can systematically anticipate and respond to a wide spectrum of privacy requirements, threats, and vulnerabilities—addressing regulations, contractual commitments, organizational policies, and the expectations of their key stakeholders. • Review privacy-related essentials of information security and cryptography • Understand the concepts of privacy by design and privacy engineering • Use modern system access controls and security countermeasures to partially satisfy privacy requirements • Enforce database privacy via anonymization and de-identification • Prevent data losses and breaches • Address privacy issues related to cloud computing and IoT • Establish effective information privacy management, from governance and culture to audits and impact assessment • Respond to key privacy rules including GDPR, U.S. federal law, and the California Consumer Privacy Act This guide will be an indispensable resource for anyone with privacy responsibilities in any organization, and for all students studying the privacy aspects of cybersecurity.
Information Privacy Engineering and Privacy by Design
Author: William Stallings
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 0135278376
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 666
Book Description
The Comprehensive Guide to Engineering and Implementing Privacy Best Practices As systems grow more complex and cybersecurity attacks more relentless, safeguarding privacy is ever more challenging. Organizations are increasingly responding in two ways, and both are mandated by key standards such as GDPR and ISO/IEC 27701:2019. The first approach, privacy by design, aims to embed privacy throughout the design and architecture of IT systems and business practices. The second, privacy engineering, encompasses the technical capabilities and management processes needed to implement, deploy, and operate privacy features and controls in working systems. In Information Privacy Engineering and Privacy by Design, internationally renowned IT consultant and author William Stallings brings together the comprehensive knowledge privacy executives and engineers need to apply both approaches. Using the techniques he presents, IT leaders and technical professionals can systematically anticipate and respond to a wide spectrum of privacy requirements, threats, and vulnerabilities—addressing regulations, contractual commitments, organizational policies, and the expectations of their key stakeholders. • Review privacy-related essentials of information security and cryptography • Understand the concepts of privacy by design and privacy engineering • Use modern system access controls and security countermeasures to partially satisfy privacy requirements • Enforce database privacy via anonymization and de-identification • Prevent data losses and breaches • Address privacy issues related to cloud computing and IoT • Establish effective information privacy management, from governance and culture to audits and impact assessment • Respond to key privacy rules including GDPR, U.S. federal law, and the California Consumer Privacy Act This guide will be an indispensable resource for anyone with privacy responsibilities in any organization, and for all students studying the privacy aspects of cybersecurity.
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 0135278376
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 666
Book Description
The Comprehensive Guide to Engineering and Implementing Privacy Best Practices As systems grow more complex and cybersecurity attacks more relentless, safeguarding privacy is ever more challenging. Organizations are increasingly responding in two ways, and both are mandated by key standards such as GDPR and ISO/IEC 27701:2019. The first approach, privacy by design, aims to embed privacy throughout the design and architecture of IT systems and business practices. The second, privacy engineering, encompasses the technical capabilities and management processes needed to implement, deploy, and operate privacy features and controls in working systems. In Information Privacy Engineering and Privacy by Design, internationally renowned IT consultant and author William Stallings brings together the comprehensive knowledge privacy executives and engineers need to apply both approaches. Using the techniques he presents, IT leaders and technical professionals can systematically anticipate and respond to a wide spectrum of privacy requirements, threats, and vulnerabilities—addressing regulations, contractual commitments, organizational policies, and the expectations of their key stakeholders. • Review privacy-related essentials of information security and cryptography • Understand the concepts of privacy by design and privacy engineering • Use modern system access controls and security countermeasures to partially satisfy privacy requirements • Enforce database privacy via anonymization and de-identification • Prevent data losses and breaches • Address privacy issues related to cloud computing and IoT • Establish effective information privacy management, from governance and culture to audits and impact assessment • Respond to key privacy rules including GDPR, U.S. federal law, and the California Consumer Privacy Act This guide will be an indispensable resource for anyone with privacy responsibilities in any organization, and for all students studying the privacy aspects of cybersecurity.
Data Privacy
Author: Nishant Bhajaria
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1638357188
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 632
Book Description
Engineer privacy into your systems with these hands-on techniques for data governance, legal compliance, and surviving security audits. In Data Privacy you will learn how to: Classify data based on privacy risk Build technical tools to catalog and discover data in your systems Share data with technical privacy controls to measure reidentification risk Implement technical privacy architectures to delete data Set up technical capabilities for data export to meet legal requirements like Data Subject Asset Requests (DSAR) Establish a technical privacy review process to help accelerate the legal Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Design a Consent Management Platform (CMP) to capture user consent Implement security tooling to help optimize privacy Build a holistic program that will get support and funding from the C-Level and board Data Privacy teaches you to design, develop, and measure the effectiveness of privacy programs. You’ll learn from author Nishant Bhajaria, an industry-renowned expert who has overseen privacy at Google, Netflix, and Uber. The terminology and legal requirements of privacy are all explained in clear, jargon-free language. The book’s constant awareness of business requirements will help you balance trade-offs, and ensure your user’s privacy can be improved without spiraling time and resource costs. About the technology Data privacy is essential for any business. Data breaches, vague policies, and poor communication all erode a user’s trust in your applications. You may also face substantial legal consequences for failing to protect user data. Fortunately, there are clear practices and guidelines to keep your data secure and your users happy. About the book Data Privacy: A runbook for engineers teaches you how to navigate the trade-off s between strict data security and real world business needs. In this practical book, you’ll learn how to design and implement privacy programs that are easy to scale and automate. There’s no bureaucratic process—just workable solutions and smart repurposing of existing security tools to help set and achieve your privacy goals. What's inside Classify data based on privacy risk Set up capabilities for data export that meet legal requirements Establish a review process to accelerate privacy impact assessment Design a consent management platform to capture user consent About the reader For engineers and business leaders looking to deliver better privacy. About the author Nishant Bhajaria leads the Technical Privacy and Strategy teams for Uber. His previous roles include head of privacy engineering at Netflix, and data security and privacy at Google. Table of Contents PART 1 PRIVACY, DATA, AND YOUR BUSINESS 1 Privacy engineering: Why it’s needed, how to scale it 2 Understanding data and privacy PART 2 A PROACTIVE PRIVACY PROGRAM: DATA GOVERNANCE 3 Data classification 4 Data inventory 5 Data sharing PART 3 BUILDING TOOLS AND PROCESSES 6 The technical privacy review 7 Data deletion 8 Exporting user data: Data Subject Access Requests PART 4 SECURITY, SCALING, AND STAFFING 9 Building a consent management platform 10 Closing security vulnerabilities 11 Scaling, hiring, and considering regulations
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1638357188
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 632
Book Description
Engineer privacy into your systems with these hands-on techniques for data governance, legal compliance, and surviving security audits. In Data Privacy you will learn how to: Classify data based on privacy risk Build technical tools to catalog and discover data in your systems Share data with technical privacy controls to measure reidentification risk Implement technical privacy architectures to delete data Set up technical capabilities for data export to meet legal requirements like Data Subject Asset Requests (DSAR) Establish a technical privacy review process to help accelerate the legal Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Design a Consent Management Platform (CMP) to capture user consent Implement security tooling to help optimize privacy Build a holistic program that will get support and funding from the C-Level and board Data Privacy teaches you to design, develop, and measure the effectiveness of privacy programs. You’ll learn from author Nishant Bhajaria, an industry-renowned expert who has overseen privacy at Google, Netflix, and Uber. The terminology and legal requirements of privacy are all explained in clear, jargon-free language. The book’s constant awareness of business requirements will help you balance trade-offs, and ensure your user’s privacy can be improved without spiraling time and resource costs. About the technology Data privacy is essential for any business. Data breaches, vague policies, and poor communication all erode a user’s trust in your applications. You may also face substantial legal consequences for failing to protect user data. Fortunately, there are clear practices and guidelines to keep your data secure and your users happy. About the book Data Privacy: A runbook for engineers teaches you how to navigate the trade-off s between strict data security and real world business needs. In this practical book, you’ll learn how to design and implement privacy programs that are easy to scale and automate. There’s no bureaucratic process—just workable solutions and smart repurposing of existing security tools to help set and achieve your privacy goals. What's inside Classify data based on privacy risk Set up capabilities for data export that meet legal requirements Establish a review process to accelerate privacy impact assessment Design a consent management platform to capture user consent About the reader For engineers and business leaders looking to deliver better privacy. About the author Nishant Bhajaria leads the Technical Privacy and Strategy teams for Uber. His previous roles include head of privacy engineering at Netflix, and data security and privacy at Google. Table of Contents PART 1 PRIVACY, DATA, AND YOUR BUSINESS 1 Privacy engineering: Why it’s needed, how to scale it 2 Understanding data and privacy PART 2 A PROACTIVE PRIVACY PROGRAM: DATA GOVERNANCE 3 Data classification 4 Data inventory 5 Data sharing PART 3 BUILDING TOOLS AND PROCESSES 6 The technical privacy review 7 Data deletion 8 Exporting user data: Data Subject Access Requests PART 4 SECURITY, SCALING, AND STAFFING 9 Building a consent management platform 10 Closing security vulnerabilities 11 Scaling, hiring, and considering regulations
The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto
Author: Michelle Dennedy
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1430263563
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Book Description
"It's our thesis that privacy will be an integral part of the next wave in the technology revolution and that innovators who are emphasizing privacy as an integral part of the product life cycle are on the right track." --The authors of The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto: Getting from Policy to Code to QA to Value is the first book of its kind, offering industry-proven solutions that go beyond mere theory and adding lucid perspectives on the challenges and opportunities raised with the emerging "personal" information economy. The authors, a uniquely skilled team of longtime industry experts, detail how you can build privacy into products, processes, applications, and systems. The book offers insight on translating the guiding light of OECD Privacy Guidelines, the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP) and Privacy by Design (PbD) into concrete concepts that organizations, software/hardware engineers, and system administrators/owners can understand and apply throughout the product or process life cycle—regardless of development methodology—from inception to retirement, including data deletion and destruction. In addition to providing practical methods to applying privacy engineering methodologies, the authors detail how to prepare and organize an enterprise or organization to support and manage products, process, systems, and applications that require personal information. The authors also address how to think about and assign value to the personal information assets being protected. Finally, the team of experts offers thoughts about the information revolution that has only just begun, and how we can live in a world of sensors and trillions of data points without losing our ethics or value(s)...and even have a little fun. The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto is designed to serve multiple stakeholders: Anyone who is involved in designing, developing, deploying and reviewing products, processes, applications, and systems that process personal information, including software/hardware engineers, technical program and product managers, support and sales engineers, system integrators, IT professionals, lawyers, and information privacy and security professionals. This book is a must-read for all practitioners in the personal information economy. Privacy will be an integral part of the next wave in the technology revolution; innovators who emphasize privacy as an integral part of the product life cycle are on the right track. Foreword by Dr. Eric Bonabeau, PhD, Chairman, Icosystem, Inc. & Dean of Computational Sciences, Minerva Schools at KGI.
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1430263563
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Book Description
"It's our thesis that privacy will be an integral part of the next wave in the technology revolution and that innovators who are emphasizing privacy as an integral part of the product life cycle are on the right track." --The authors of The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto: Getting from Policy to Code to QA to Value is the first book of its kind, offering industry-proven solutions that go beyond mere theory and adding lucid perspectives on the challenges and opportunities raised with the emerging "personal" information economy. The authors, a uniquely skilled team of longtime industry experts, detail how you can build privacy into products, processes, applications, and systems. The book offers insight on translating the guiding light of OECD Privacy Guidelines, the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP) and Privacy by Design (PbD) into concrete concepts that organizations, software/hardware engineers, and system administrators/owners can understand and apply throughout the product or process life cycle—regardless of development methodology—from inception to retirement, including data deletion and destruction. In addition to providing practical methods to applying privacy engineering methodologies, the authors detail how to prepare and organize an enterprise or organization to support and manage products, process, systems, and applications that require personal information. The authors also address how to think about and assign value to the personal information assets being protected. Finally, the team of experts offers thoughts about the information revolution that has only just begun, and how we can live in a world of sensors and trillions of data points without losing our ethics or value(s)...and even have a little fun. The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto is designed to serve multiple stakeholders: Anyone who is involved in designing, developing, deploying and reviewing products, processes, applications, and systems that process personal information, including software/hardware engineers, technical program and product managers, support and sales engineers, system integrators, IT professionals, lawyers, and information privacy and security professionals. This book is a must-read for all practitioners in the personal information economy. Privacy will be an integral part of the next wave in the technology revolution; innovators who emphasize privacy as an integral part of the product life cycle are on the right track. Foreword by Dr. Eric Bonabeau, PhD, Chairman, Icosystem, Inc. & Dean of Computational Sciences, Minerva Schools at KGI.
The Architecture of Privacy
Author: Courtney Bowman
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1491904526
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Annotation Technology's influence on privacy has become a matter of everyday concern for millions of people, from software architects designing new products to political leaders and consumer groups. This book explores the issue from the perspective of technology itself: how privacy-protective features can become a core part of product functionality, rather than added on late in the development process.
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 1491904526
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Annotation Technology's influence on privacy has become a matter of everyday concern for millions of people, from software architects designing new products to political leaders and consumer groups. This book explores the issue from the perspective of technology itself: how privacy-protective features can become a core part of product functionality, rather than added on late in the development process.
Strategic Privacy by Design, Second Edition
Author: R. Jason Cronk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781948771573
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781948771573
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Data Protection and Privacy: (In)visibilities and Infrastructures
Author: Ronald Leenes
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319507966
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
This book features peer reviewed contributions from across the disciplines on themes relating to protection of data and to privacy protection. The authors explore fundamental and legal questions, investigate case studies and consider concepts and tools such as privacy by design, the risks of surveillance and fostering trust. Readers may trace both technological and legal evolution as chapters examine current developments in ICT such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Written during the process of the fundamental revision of revision of EU data protection law (the 1995 Data Protection Directive), this volume is highly topical. Since the European Parliament has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679), which will apply from 25 May 2018, there are many details to be sorted out. This volume identifies and exemplifies key, contemporary issues. From fundamental rights and offline alternatives, through transparency requirements to health data breaches, the reader is provided with a rich and detailed picture, including some daring approaches to privacy and data protection. The book will inform and inspire all stakeholders. Researchers with an interest in the philosophy of law and philosophy of technology, in computers and society, and in European and International law will all find something of value in this stimulating and engaging work.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319507966
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
This book features peer reviewed contributions from across the disciplines on themes relating to protection of data and to privacy protection. The authors explore fundamental and legal questions, investigate case studies and consider concepts and tools such as privacy by design, the risks of surveillance and fostering trust. Readers may trace both technological and legal evolution as chapters examine current developments in ICT such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Written during the process of the fundamental revision of revision of EU data protection law (the 1995 Data Protection Directive), this volume is highly topical. Since the European Parliament has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679), which will apply from 25 May 2018, there are many details to be sorted out. This volume identifies and exemplifies key, contemporary issues. From fundamental rights and offline alternatives, through transparency requirements to health data breaches, the reader is provided with a rich and detailed picture, including some daring approaches to privacy and data protection. The book will inform and inspire all stakeholders. Researchers with an interest in the philosophy of law and philosophy of technology, in computers and society, and in European and International law will all find something of value in this stimulating and engaging work.
Security Requirements Engineering
Author: Fabiano Dalpiaz
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262034212
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
A novel, model-driven approach to security requirements engineering that focuses on socio-technical systems rather than merely technical systems. Security requirements engineering is especially challenging because designers must consider not just the software under design but also interactions among people, organizations, hardware, and software. Taking this broader perspective means designing a secure socio-technical system rather than a merely technical system. This book presents a novel, model-driven approach to designing secure socio-technical systems. It introduces the Socio-Technical Modeling Language (STS-ML) and presents a freely available software tool, STS-Tool, that supports this design approach through graphical modeling, automated reasoning capabilities to verify the models constructed, and the automatic derivation of security requirements documents. After an introduction to security requirements engineering and an overview of computer and information security, the book presents the STS-ML modeling language, introducing the modeling concepts used, explaining how to use STS-ML within the STS method for security requirements, and providing guidelines for the creation of models. The book then puts the STS approach into practice, introducing the STS-Tool and presenting two case studies from industry: an online collaborative platform and an e-Government system. Finally, the book considers other methods that can be used in conjunction with the STS method or that constitute an alternative to it. The book is suitable for course use or as a reference for practitioners. Exercises, review questions, and problems appear at the end of each chapter.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262034212
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
A novel, model-driven approach to security requirements engineering that focuses on socio-technical systems rather than merely technical systems. Security requirements engineering is especially challenging because designers must consider not just the software under design but also interactions among people, organizations, hardware, and software. Taking this broader perspective means designing a secure socio-technical system rather than a merely technical system. This book presents a novel, model-driven approach to designing secure socio-technical systems. It introduces the Socio-Technical Modeling Language (STS-ML) and presents a freely available software tool, STS-Tool, that supports this design approach through graphical modeling, automated reasoning capabilities to verify the models constructed, and the automatic derivation of security requirements documents. After an introduction to security requirements engineering and an overview of computer and information security, the book presents the STS-ML modeling language, introducing the modeling concepts used, explaining how to use STS-ML within the STS method for security requirements, and providing guidelines for the creation of models. The book then puts the STS approach into practice, introducing the STS-Tool and presenting two case studies from industry: an online collaborative platform and an e-Government system. Finally, the book considers other methods that can be used in conjunction with the STS method or that constitute an alternative to it. The book is suitable for course use or as a reference for practitioners. Exercises, review questions, and problems appear at the end of each chapter.
Designing for Privacy and its Legal Framework
Author: Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319986244
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
This book discusses the implementation of privacy by design in Europe, a principle that has been codified within the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While privacy by design inspires hope for future privacy-sensitive designs, it also introduces the need for a common understanding of the legal and technical concepts of privacy and data protection. By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach and comparing the problem definitions and objectives of both disciplines, this book bridges the gap between the legal and technical fields in order to enhance the regulatory and academic discourse. The research presented reveals the scope of legal principles and technical tools for privacy protection, and shows that the concept of privacy by design goes beyond the principle of the GDPR. The book presents an analysis of how current regulations delegate the implementation of technical privacy and data protection measures to developers and describes how policy design must evolve in order to implement privacy by design and default principles.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319986244
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
This book discusses the implementation of privacy by design in Europe, a principle that has been codified within the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While privacy by design inspires hope for future privacy-sensitive designs, it also introduces the need for a common understanding of the legal and technical concepts of privacy and data protection. By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach and comparing the problem definitions and objectives of both disciplines, this book bridges the gap between the legal and technical fields in order to enhance the regulatory and academic discourse. The research presented reveals the scope of legal principles and technical tools for privacy protection, and shows that the concept of privacy by design goes beyond the principle of the GDPR. The book presents an analysis of how current regulations delegate the implementation of technical privacy and data protection measures to developers and describes how policy design must evolve in order to implement privacy by design and default principles.
Privacy Engineering
Author: Ian Oliver
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781497569713
Category : Computer security
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Information privacy is the major defining issue of today's Internet enabled World. To construct information systems from small mobile 'apps' to huge, heterogeneous, cloudified systems requires merging together skills from software engineering, legal, security and many other disciplines - including some outside of these fields! Only through properly modelling the system under development can we full appreciate the complexity of where personal data and information flows; and more importantly, effectively communicate this.This book presents an approach based upon data flow modelling, coupled with standardised terminological frameworks, classifications and ontologies to properly annotate and describe the flow of information into, out of and across these systems. Also provided are structures and frameworks for the engineering process, requirements and audits; and even the privacy programme itself, but takes a pragmatic approach and encourages using and modifying the tools and techniques presented as the local context and needs require.
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781497569713
Category : Computer security
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Information privacy is the major defining issue of today's Internet enabled World. To construct information systems from small mobile 'apps' to huge, heterogeneous, cloudified systems requires merging together skills from software engineering, legal, security and many other disciplines - including some outside of these fields! Only through properly modelling the system under development can we full appreciate the complexity of where personal data and information flows; and more importantly, effectively communicate this.This book presents an approach based upon data flow modelling, coupled with standardised terminological frameworks, classifications and ontologies to properly annotate and describe the flow of information into, out of and across these systems. Also provided are structures and frameworks for the engineering process, requirements and audits; and even the privacy programme itself, but takes a pragmatic approach and encourages using and modifying the tools and techniques presented as the local context and needs require.
Information Management for Engineering Design
Author: Randy H. Katz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642824382
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Computer-aided design syst,ems have become a big business. Advances in technology have made it commercially feasible to place a powerful engineering workstation on every designer's desk. A major selling point for these workstations is the computer aided design software they provide, rather than the actual hardware. The trade magazines are full of advertisements promising full menu design systems, complete with an integrated database (preferably "relational"). What does it all mean? This book focuses on the critical issues of managing the information about a large design project. While undeniably one of the most important areas of CAD, it is also one of the least understood. Merely glueing a database system to a set of existing tools is not a solution. Several additional system components must be built to create a true design management system. These are described in this book. The book has been written from the viewpoint of how and when to apply database technology to the problems encountered by builders of computer-aided design systems. Design systems provide an excellent environment for discovering how far we can generalize the existing database concepts for non-commercial applications. This has emerged as a major new challenge for database system research. We have attem pted to avoid a "database egocentric" view by pointing out where existing database technology is inappropriate for design systems, at least given the current state of the database art. Acknowledgements.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642824382
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Computer-aided design syst,ems have become a big business. Advances in technology have made it commercially feasible to place a powerful engineering workstation on every designer's desk. A major selling point for these workstations is the computer aided design software they provide, rather than the actual hardware. The trade magazines are full of advertisements promising full menu design systems, complete with an integrated database (preferably "relational"). What does it all mean? This book focuses on the critical issues of managing the information about a large design project. While undeniably one of the most important areas of CAD, it is also one of the least understood. Merely glueing a database system to a set of existing tools is not a solution. Several additional system components must be built to create a true design management system. These are described in this book. The book has been written from the viewpoint of how and when to apply database technology to the problems encountered by builders of computer-aided design systems. Design systems provide an excellent environment for discovering how far we can generalize the existing database concepts for non-commercial applications. This has emerged as a major new challenge for database system research. We have attem pted to avoid a "database egocentric" view by pointing out where existing database technology is inappropriate for design systems, at least given the current state of the database art. Acknowledgements.