I would recommend this for "non-security" software engineers. i.e. those that don't specifically work in your field, but who must (I'm sure you'll agree) have a

I would recommend this for "non-security" software engineers. i.e. those that don't specifically work in your field, but who must (I'm sure you'll agree) have a basic overview of what comprises a secure system, and a flavour of the kind of problems security engineers face. That's it though. It covers the essentials. It will not teach you cryptanalysis. But it may inspire a student to choose a career in security, as it is well-written and has interesting stories from history. I particularly recommend Chapter 13: Nuclear Command and Control - it's not at all relevant to what my job is (I'm sure you couldn't say), but I found the problem of balancing "absolutely must not go off by accident" and "absolutely must go off if the president says so" quite fascinating. So I can't recommend it to you, as you're not its target audience. But I recommend it to every other software engineer - the chapters are quite self-contained so you can easily spread the reading out over several months (as I did).