Reviews (34)

Volumes vs editions
Some of the reviewers are confusing 'volumes' with editions.Each edition of this book contains several volumes.Each volume contains new papers, adding them to the current edition of the ISMH.

The current edition of the Information Security Management Handbook is the 5th.At present, it has only 2 volumes.This CD-ROM only contains the 1st volume of the 5th edition.There is a new CD-ROM of the ISMH with a 2005 date (ISBN 0849339422) which I *think* contains the new volume 2 of the 5th edition (ISBN 0849332109)

What makes this CD-ROM valuable over the 5thED-V1 book is that it contains the contents of the 3rd and the 4th editions!I know the 4th edition contained four volumes.

Excellent reference!
Excellent reference!

This is an excellent security reference!

If you are looking for a pure CISSP prep book, this is not the best.But for general info sec, this is an awesome book.

Reviews (19)

Good reference for the exam
Honestly folks, the exam is designed for somebody with 3 - 5 years of experience in security. All of the low reviews apply to the ability of this book to serve as a training guide for security - a task for which it is not designed. The book did an excellent job of isolating how the test would ask questions and how ISC2 expects a CISSP candidate to understand and answer questions about security as a security professional. Highly recommended for both a study review and a professional reference.

{For the curious, yes, I passed the test with the assistance of this book.}

plagerized and wrong
I am quite experienced in the computer and security field. I understand almost all of the information that these authors have provided and to the necessary depth. What is disturbing is that it does not seem that the authors understand these concepts to the depth they are trying to cover.

It is quite clear that this book is made up of portions of other resources. It has the feeling of slapping several different modules from other books, magazine articles, and web site data together into one entity.

There are many instances of plagerism in several of the different chapters - especially the cryptography chapter. There are paragraphs taken directly from Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography book and from RSA's web site.

The plagerism is certainly concerning and since (ISC)2 makes the students sign a set of ethics before they can sit the exam, it would seem that the authors may need to do the same.

But the even more concerning issue is that people who do not really understand these concepts, are seeing them for the first time, and are counting on this book to be accurate.I am concerned that they will learn several important concepts incorrectly.

For example, it states the Windows 2000 is a monolithic operating system. This is not true at all. There are several other examples, but instead of listing them all out in this forum - I will contact the authors directly.

I do not say these things out of malice and am not attempting to be disrespectful. But it is certainly "buyer beware". This is the first edition, so maybe in the next edition all of these issues will be addressed.

Reviews (4)

Good, but should have been edited
I just started developing InfoSec policies for my company, and was having a hard time getting started.The Web is filled with sample documents and articles for specific documents, but I needed a resource that assumed I was starting from scratch and would help me build up a good library of content to satisfy our auditors.

So I was a little excited to stumble across this book.It lays a good foundation for what's needed in a security policy library, and steps through the development of the major document types: policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines. It's filled with lots of samples, checklists, templates, and other starting points for everything I was looking for.

One glaring problem, though, which by itself drops the rating 1-2 stars:there is an embarrasingly high number of grammar, syntax, and occassionally even semantic, mistakes.Even though these kind of problems are one of my biggest pet peeves, I might overlook them ... except the author makes multiple statements about proofreading your work before submitting to management!! It seems pretty clear that the book was rushed to publication without a serious round of review (I wonder if I put more editorial time into this review than they did into the book...).Even though the book was written for techno-types, there is no excuse for such egregious errors.

Overall, though, this is a decent resource to help with infosec policy development.Just make sure it's not the only book you use.If they would issue an update, this would become a valuable addition to your library.However, the edition I purchased in Feb 2005 was released in 2002, so I wouldn't expect any updates soon.

Really good
Really good for anyone doing infosec policy dev.

this will save you a ton of time.

Excellent practical guidebook
This is the best book I've seen (so far!) about writing infosec policies and associated materials.Tom Peltier refers directly to the ISO 17799 structure and gives helpful advice on what to include under the ten sections.More than that, he guides the reader through the *process* of writing and implementing policies, even including a brief chapter on my own specialism, security awareness, and suggestions on writing style.

My main quibble with the book is its inconsistency in the level of detail e.g. 41 of the 191 main text pages are devoted to information classification.There are perhaps too many lists and tables for my liking, but these may be useful as reminders of things to include.

Reviews (34)

Volumes vs editions
Some of the reviewers are confusing 'volumes' with editions.Each edition of this book contains several volumes.Each volume contains new papers, adding them to the current edition of the ISMH.

The current edition of the Information Security Management Handbook is the 5th.At present, it has only 2 volumes.This CD-ROM only contains the 1st volume of the 5th edition.There is a new CD-ROM of the ISMH with a 2005 date (ISBN 0849339422) which I *think* contains the new volume 2 of the 5th edition (ISBN 0849332109)

What makes this CD-ROM valuable over the 5thED-V1 book is that it contains the contents of the 3rd and the 4th editions!I know the 4th edition contained four volumes.

Excellent reference!
Excellent reference!

This is an excellent security reference!

If you are looking for a pure CISSP prep book, this is not the best.But for general info sec, this is an awesome book.

Editorial Review

A strong system of defenses will save your systems from falling victim to published and otherwise uninventive attacks, but even the most heavily defended system can be cracked under the right conditions. Incident Response aims to teach you how to determine when an attack has occurred or is underway--they're often hard to spot--and show you what to do about it. Authors Kevin Mandia and Chris Prosise favor a tools- and procedures-centric approach to the subject, thereby distinguishing this book from others that catalog particular attacks and methods for dealing with each one. The approach is more generic, and therefore better suited to dealing with newly emerging attack techniques.

Anti-attack procedures are presented with the goal of identifying, apprehending, and successfully prosecuting attackers. The advice on carefully preserving volatile information, such as the list of processes active at the time of an attack, is easy to follow. The book is quick to endorse tools, the functionalities of which are described so as to inspire creative applications. Information on bad-guy behavior is top quality as well, giving readers knowledge of how to interpret logs and other observed phenomena. Mandia and Prosise don't--and can't--offer a foolproof guide to catching crackers in the act, but they do offer a great "best practices" guide to active surveillance. --David Wall

Editorial Review

The world's most business-critical transactions run on Unix machines, which means the machines running those transactions attract evildoers. Furthermore, a lot of those machines have Internet connections, which means it's always possible that some nefarious remote user will find a way in. The third edition of Practical Unix & Internet Security contains--to an even greater extent than its favorably reputed ancestors--an enormous amount of accumulated wisdom about how to protect Internet-connected Unix machines from intrusion and other forms of attack. This book is fat with practical advice on specific defensive measures (to defeat known attacks) and generally wise policies (to head off as-yet-undiscovered ones).

The authors' approach to Unix security is holistic and clever; they devote as much space to security philosophy as to advice about closing TCP ports and disabling unnecessary services. They also recognize that lots of Unix machines are development platforms, and make many recommendations to consider as you design software. It's rare that you read a page in this carefully compiled book that does not impart some obscure nugget of knowledge, or remind you to implement some important policy. Plus, the authors have a style that reminds their readers that computing is supposed to be about intellectual exercise and fun, an attitude that's absent from too much of the information technology industry lately. Read this book if you use any flavor of Unix in any mission-critical situation. --David Wall

Reviews (4)

The Definitive Guide to Computer Security
Susan has presented a thorough guide to computer security and how to guard against internal and external vulnerabilities.She allows the reader to get inside the mind of both the nefarious hacker and the seasoned defender.

Recommended for the beginner through the advanced security consultant.....

Make sure you have a copy of this handbook close at hand!
...This book covers a wide array of topics, focusing on three aspects of each topic: technical background, hacking, and security. The coverage is both comprehensive and practical. The book explains the technical and conceptual foundations of computer security. Its information is organized in a way that makes it easy to find material relevant to any questions you may have regarding hacking and security. And every chapter points to additional materials if you want to investigate further.

You'll learn all about the anatomy of various types of attacks, including the five elements of attack strategy: reconnaissance, mapping targets, system or network penetration, denial-of-service, and consolidation. You'll also learn about the tools you'll need to defend your network, how they all work within a security framework, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Included are tools for the purposes of access control, authentication, auditing, privacy, intrusion detection, data integrity, and more.

If you are a network or security administrator, protecting your network's integrity is one of your most important tasks. Before you begin your chess match with the world's hackers, make sure you know the rules, the tools, and the possibilities of the game. Make sure you understand the strategies that will be used against you and that you can use against your opponents. Make sure you have a copy of The Hacker's Handbook close at hand. Hey, I do! - Raffiudeen Illahideen, IL, USA

Good solid work
"The Hacker's Handbook" is a comprehensive and entertaining volume on security. It has most of the defining traits of a great book, such as clearly stated goal (authors realize that lots of security books are out there and one needs to differentiate) as well as some unique content on application attacks.

The book is a technically sound volume, I found very few factual mistakes. I found some interesting content on central auth servers such as radius, which I haven't seen described well elsewhere. Defensive tool info is a bit jumbled and not new. For example, IDS coverage is too non-specific to be useful. I also found a couple of other chapters a bit weak on interesting content.

The book covers the security field on many levels - from concepts to scripts - and can be successfully used by entry-level people as well as experts. The book is better suited for technologists rather than managers. Security analysts/admins, hands-on security managers, security savvy system and network admins, students of computer security can benefuit from a book.

Reviews (10)

Handy CISSP prep guide
This is a handy CISSP prep guide.

Not perfect, but a good guide.

Think Twice
I used this book alone to study for the CISSP exam.It didn't come close to preparing me.The questions on the exam were much harder.There are not enough sample questions in this book.
And the questions on the free on-line practice exam are too easy.After taking the exam (which I didn't pass), I couldn't recall a single question from the book that was on the exam.

Reviews (6)

One of the best Unix/Linux security books I own
I own a lot of security books and I try to keep up with what his happening. After reading a few reviews I had been wanting to buy this book until I attended a conference where the author was singing books. So I got my signed copy and I have to say I am pretty impressed with the material. As other people have mentioned here, the author's attitude is to get right to the point and to provide useful examples wherever possible. Part 1 seems to be the where most of the material for this book exists, specially chapter 4 "Remote Hacking". I was pleasantly surprised to read the end of chapter 4 where the author describes how to use my favourite Unix tool Zebedee to do remote port forwarding! I had used this tool to do many things but I wasnt aware how it could be used to perform port forwarding tricks. Hacking tips are arranged in the order of ports and so it is easy to look up vulnerabilities. The entire book is very well arranged . If there is ever a 2nd edition to this book, I will buy it.

Well done
Got this book after I read a recent review. I found this book to contain some pretty cool attack & penetration techniques. Chapters like the one on NASL and the Zaurus PDA hacking are a nice addition.

Since this is a hacking book, I disagree with the one review on here that complained about it not being complete. As far as the a&p techniques go, this book packs in more info than most 400+ hacking books I own. Saves a lot of desk real estate and also time. I really dont want to read 5 pages telling me what a portscan is, just tell me how to do it. I prefer it over the Hacking Exposed Linux book when I need quick and precise answers. This book helps me with just this.Right to the point, and some very cool techniques!

5 thumbs up.