Book excerpt: Negotiating and understanding the nuance of IT threats and solutions is critical to all businesses, and professionals often need guidance when detailing IT security in contract negotiation. This handbook offers quicker and easier negotiation strategies for both buyers and sellers, and offers comprehensive insights into many issues as well as suggestions for resolutions. The business world is made of relationships between companies and their outside partners, such as suppliers, vendors, and customers. From a security perspective, these partnerships are not under the full control of any participant. Security strength is dependent on mutually-agreed upon solutions defined and provisioned in the contract language. The problem is how to ensure that these requirements are simultaneously mutually acceptable and thorough, delivering required protection to each partner. Every business wants to lower the cost of contract negotiation, and ensure a comprehensive agreement. This handbook is a guide to contract preparation, and is packed with wisdom only gained through extensive field experience and long-term work with the analysis of contradictions in security requirements.