Engineering Trustworthy Systems

Engineering Trustworthy Systems: Get Cybersecurity Design Right the First Time reads like a comprehensive textbook because that is exactly what it is. It was built for cybersecurity leaders who need to put the pieces of the profession together into one coherent design discipline.

O. Sami Saydjari currently teaches cybersecurity systems engineering at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Purdue and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Rice. He spent years as a Department of Defense researcher, including time at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That research background shapes the book’s methodical, almost military approach to structuring a defense.

The chapters cover the building blocks of risk mitigation, including countermeasures, cryptography, authentication, and authorization. From there they move up to how an organization orchestrates cybersecurity at scale: risk assessment, architecture, and command and control during an active attack. Each chapter closes with questions, which makes the book genuinely useful for certification study, not just reading.

Readers without a military background may find some of the terminology and analogies less familiar, but the underlying design principles hold up regardless. Despite being published in 2018, the material still matches what current conferences and technical briefings are discussing today.

Recommended for cybersecurity leaders and any executive who wants to speak the same language as their CISO. This book earns its place as a reference, not a one-time read.

Originally published in ISSA Journal’s "The Cyber Library" column, May-June 2026 issue, by Jay Carson, Semper Sec’s Cyber Librarian. Read more at issa.org.