Network Security: A Beginner's Guide

A great book for network and system administrators who find themselves not only responsible for running a network, but securing it as well. The book s lucid and well-planned chapters thoroughly explain all of the latest security technologies beginning with the basics and building upon those concepts. --Mike Schiffman, Director of Research and Development, Guardent, Inc. Get security best practices from one practical resource. Network Security: A Beginner's Guide explains the steps you need to take to effectively establish a security program appropriate for your organization. You'll get details on Internet architecture, e-commerce security needs, encryption, hacker techniques, and intrusion detection. The book covers Windows NT/2000, UNIX/Linux, and Novell Netware."

About the Author :
Eric Maiwald (Gaithersburg, MD) is the Director of Security Services for Fortrex Technologies. Mr. Maiwald oversees all security consulting and product implementations for Fortrex clients. He has personally been involved in performing assessments, developing policies, and implementing securit solutions for large financial institutions, service firms, and manufacturers. Mr. Maiwald is also the lead instructor for Fortrex Security Training including the ISS Certified Engineers (ICE) training class. And has been certified as an Information Systems Security Professional by the International Information Systems Securit Certification Consortium. He has written several white papers on Intrusion Detection for conference proceedings and holds several patents.

Review :
Books for beginners fall into two categories: the Dummies or Idiot s Guide books that treat the reader like an imbecile, and those that treat novices as mature and intelligent. Network Security: A Beginner s Guide falls into the second category. The reader comes away with a lucid understanding of the fundamentals of network security without being talked down to. Information security managers have a rough job. Although more money is being spent on information systems security, systems are increasingly complex, and complex systems are difficult to protect. This book is a good starting point for network managers and systems administrators who need clear instruction on how to create and run a secure technology infrastructure. As security of information systems increases in importance, it is becoming critical for everyone in the IT department to understand how all the components work. While not every member of manager needs to know how to install and configure firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and e-mail filters, they must nonetheless understand the significance of such technologies. This book covers those issues along with other significant information. Besides security products, the book gets into the nitty-gritty of security architectures, hacking, encryption, and operating systems. It includes a set of blueprints that describe key systems for designing an effective security architecture. The book concludes with the question of whether UNIX of Windows NT is more secure, a topic that has been fodder for countless debates. Avoiding a discussion of the minutiae of each operating system, the author astutely note that the answer to the question is not within the operating system itself but rather with the system administrator. That s good counsel from a good book. Reviewer: Ben Rothke is a New York-based senior security analyst with Camelot Information Technologies. He is a member of ASIS.--Adams, David "Security Management ""