No. 33 George Kurtz, Stuart McClure and Joel Scambray, authors of Hacking Exposed

Last year's position: Not placed

The authors of Hacking Exposed are important on all sides of the hacking debate. The book is read by hackers and security professionals alike and has become a staple on reading lists for ethical hacking courses.

The reasoned consensus is that the book has challenged traditional thinking in this space, despite the corporate background of its authors, and aired many issues which had previously gone unspoken except in tight criminal circles. Since the book's appearance, hackers have become more sophisticated - and so it's raised the bar for how companies and the greater IT industry must react.

Of course there will be other books, and the issues addressed in each one soon become outdated but the Agenda Setters panel believes Hacking Exposed has lit the blue touch paper for a new way of looking at internet security.