Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think [Paperback]

Andy Oram (Editor), John Viega (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0596527489 | ISBN-13: 978-0596527488 | Edition: 1

In this thought-provoking anthology, today's security experts describe bold and extraordinary methods used to secure computer systems in the face of ever-increasing threats. Beautiful Security features a collection of essays and insightful analyses by leaders such as Ben Edelman, Grant Geyer, John McManus, and a dozen others who have found unusual solutions for writing secure code, designing secure applications, addressing modern challenges such as wireless security and Internet vulnerabilities, and much more. Among the book's wide-ranging topics, you'll learn how new and more aggressive security measures work--and where they will lead us. Topics include:

• Rewiring the expectations and assumptions of organizations regarding security
  
• Security as a design requirement
  
• Evolution and new projects in Web of Trust
  
• Legal sanctions to enforce security precautions
  
• An encryption/hash system for protecting user data
  
• The criminal economy for stolen information
  
• Detecting attacks through context

Go beyond the headlines, hype, and hearsay. With Beautiful Security, you'll delve into the techniques, technology, ethics, and laws at the center of the biggest revolution in the history of network security. It's a useful and far-reaching discussion you can't afford to miss.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andy Oram is an editor at O'Reilly Media, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. An employee of the company since 1992, Andy currently specializes in free software and open source technologies. His work for O'Reilly includes the first books ever published commercially in the United States on Linux, and the 2001 title Peer-to-Peer. His modest programming and system administration skills are mostly self-taught.

John is CTO of the SaaS Business Unit at McAfee, his second stint at McAfee. Previously, he was their Chief Security Architect, after which he founded and served as CEO of Stonewall Software, which focused on making anti-virus technology faster, better and cheaper. John was also the founder of Secure Software (now part of Fortify).

John is author of many security books, including Building Secure Software (Addison-Wesley), Network Security with OpenSSL (O'Reilly), and the forthcoming Myths of Security (O'Reilly). He is responsible for numerous software security tools and is the original author of Mailman, the GNU mailing list manager. He has done extensive standards work in the IEEE and IETF and co-invented GCM, a cryptographic algorithm that NIST has standardized. John is also an active advisor to several security companies, including Fortify and Bit9. He holds a MS and BA from the University of Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596527489
• ISBN-13: 978-0596527488
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Security: Bureaucratic drudgery or exciting career?, June 28, 2009

By 

Allen Stenger (Alamogordo, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think (Paperback)

This collection of essays is a very clearly written introduction to a number of current topics and techniques in computer security. It is not a how-to book, but it includes several case studies and gives you a good idea of what is happening in the field. For the most part the book does not assume prior knowledge in the field, although occasionally a bit of hacker or security jargon is used without being defined.

For me the most interesting chapters were the one with case studies. In this book you will learn how to steal people's credit card numbers at airports (run a cut-rate WiFi access point), how to scan for malicious websites without getting infected (harder than it looks, and a constant battle of measures and countermeasures), and the true history of Pretty Good Privacy, as told by its inventor, Phil Zimmermann (not as lurid as the versions you have probably heard, but still full of twists and turns). You'll learn the going rates for stolen personal and financial information (not that much, so if you're going to steal it, you need to steal a lot) and how to run your own cyber money-laundering network (which seems to be where most of the money and the risk is). Microsoft plays a prominent role in the book, sometimes as hero, sometimes as chump.

The layout and production of the book are very good, and it has a good index (a glossary would have been nice, too). I have a couple of minor gripes: the book is set in itty-bitty type (I measured it at 8 points on 12 point line spacing); and although the book has two editors, the preface is written in the first person singular (apparently by Oram, but this is not stated).

The book's title, "Beautiful Security", was probably modeled on Oram's previous collection Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)), but it doesn't really fit the content of this book. Some of the essays mention beauty in the body or the title, but this is usually a token appearance, or is explained as meaning that security should be built in rather than tacked on. The preface states that the purpose of the book is to convince the reader that security is not bureaucratic drudgery but is an exciting career, and I think the book is successful at this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book to give someone interested in getting in the security field, April 9, 2010

By 

Daniel D. Lohin "dremspider" (Northern VA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think (Paperback)

Recently I have been asked by a lot of people how do you get in the security field? I used to say a lot of hard work and a lot of luck. My new answer is going to be to read this book and see if you are interested in the field. The book covers a wide variety of subjects across all of information security that are really quite useful. Some of these areas you won't learn a lot if you are in that particular field, but even if you are in security I am sure you will learn a lot. I learned quite a bit on the sections on metrics and software security. This is a great book to have to be able to lend to people with an interest in entering the field.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Security is Timely, Important and Readable, July 6, 2009

By 

Jalna Oyman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think (Paperback)

Beautiful Security is full of pertinent information for all of us. The book is well written, covers topics we need to know about, is very readable. Start with the first entry by Mudge: his perspective is accurate and revealing and of course he writes well so enjoy the new insights you gain by reading this book. Highly recommended.