Customer Reviews

Digital Certificates: Applied Internet Security

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a valuable help for everybody involved in digital certificates based systems design and implementation. It covers both digital certificates technical matter (strating from crypto basics) and the most popular certification based applications of to-day. The book may be regarded as built up with three main sections plus appendixes. In the first section (including three chapters) are introduced, with clearness and property, basic terms and concepts reagarding data security in the Internet context (and beyond). A chapter is for cryptography, discussing for non math professionals, buth in reasonable depth, crypto basics and secret key, public key and message digest algorithms. A third, accurate chapter covers both the format and the functionalities of digital certificate. The consistent second section (chapters 3 to 15) covers the most popular digital certificate based applications, taking into account both technical and functional aspects: code authentication, secure e-mail, secure Web-site, Certification Authority services and so on. Some popular certification management platforms and engines are covered in detail. The third section (chapters 16 to 20) is the most system oriented part of the book, and may be see as a working companion for the system developer. It covers in depth, additionally supported by the included CD-ROM content, the usage of Microsoft Certificate Server to develop a complete C.A. Appendix contains Microsoft Certification Server related additional material and a short description of ASN.1, a popular abstract syntax notation language used to describe security mechanisms. The CD-ROM completes with a ful PKCS standard set. Plenty of useful security standard references, pertinent and well organised bibliography, intriguing Web site documentation sources are additional pay-off when buying this professional and highly commendable book.

This book is a classic example on how not to write a book.

First the authors were never clear on the intended audience. Sometimes they seem to be talking a grandmother touching a mouse for the first time, driving you crazy with obvious details. Other times they seem to be chatting to the boys in the backroom at Verisign, way over your head with undefined acronym soup.

The book constantly uses terms without defining them. The books explains in great detail how to do unspeakable acts to a certificate server without first explaining WHY you might want to do such things or why you might want your own certificate server in the first place.

Sometimes the book reads like a sales promo for Verisign where some of the authors work.

The book does not explain how to compute any of the digests or public/private key computations, but it does give a reasonable overview of how they work.

For a book on certificates, oddly it shows no examples, or their format.

The authors did a reasonable, if somewhat belaboured, job of explaining S/MIME email signing and encryption. I have not encountered one before.

I really got a lot out of this book. While I was not thrilled with the Microsoft-centricity of the book, I don't feel it detracted from the purpose of the book. They go at a reasonable pace, and do an excellent job at explaining complex subjects.

I do disagree with some of the other reviewers about it being a good book for learning about digital and/or network security. Digital certificates are a small albeit important component of computer security.

If you would like to get an overview of digital certificates - this is the book. It doesn't go much into the details, but as an interview it's great.

step-by-step get you in to the security arena, very well organized, teaches you things that you can use and work with in a very short period of time. Enjoyed especially the simple yet effective language used in explaining rather complex topic.

Look at the certificates from a Microsoft View, So be carefull when you buy. Examples are not good and practical.

This is a great book for those that know enough about the internet to know how dangerous it can be and what things are available to help increase your security and peace of mind.

I think it will appeal to a lot of people that are computer literate yet not as internet savvy as they would like to be. There are source code examples in the book, but don't let that scare you as programming skills are not a prerequisite of reading this book. (I just skipped over those parts!)

The authors really take their time and give you definitions as well as case study examples.

Well written and organized.

A Good book for someone wanting an overall picture about Internet Security. Excellent coverage on the concept of Digital Certificates, SSL and encryption. Examples depend heavily on Microsoft products but get the message accross.

This is surely a book I would recommend for those who are interested in learning about digital security without having to delve into complex algorithms and technicalities. The language is simple and objective, and the content provides a comprehensive overview, without being vague. There are a lot of clear examples and cases. A great work indeed !

This is not the definitive book about digital signatures and internet security, but one of the few of them available today, wrote by 3 experts. Interesting for programmers using Microsoft Platform.