Customer Reviews

Mastering Network Security with CDROM

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Technical books tend to bore me to death but I managed to worked my way through this one. The author didn't write it in typical egghead-ese that one might see with any book focused on a such a complex arena of computing. I learned quite a few concepts with this one.

I purchased the book primarily based on the ratings here and want to thank the other reviewers. They were right on with their reviews. This one is a must-read if you're even remotely interested in network security.

I imagine Chris didn't choose the exact title of this book, as it is another of Sybex's "Mastering..." series. He would probably agree that no single book or combination of books will produce a security "expert." Regardless, I was surprised at the scope of material and Chris' ability to explain it well. I am trying to broaden my security horizons beyond intrusion detection, and I found this book well organized, logical, and amazingly pertinent almost two years since it was written. I found what I believe are very minor errors (e.g., details of a FIN scan), but I can't fault anyone who attempts to capture so much information in one volume. I will recommend my intrusion detection analysts add this book to their reading lists. Thanks Chris!

Mr. Brenton does a good job of giving the uninitiated a good starting point in network security. The majority of his examples are NT-based (which is good because the majority of the people reading this are going to be NT-centric as well) but he also gives some excellent insight into NetWare and UNIX/LINUX as well. Although I was looking for something a bit more advanced, I thought that this book was an excellent book to begin the long road of network security with.

I agree with a previous reviewer, the word "Mastering" could be substituted by "Introducing". The book gives you a good overview on all aspects related to network security and it assumes only minimal previous knowledge from the reader. There are specific chapters covering Cisco ACL configuration and Firewall-1 setup, OK for the first but I found the FW-1 chapter tedious.

All in all a good book for learning the fundamentals but if you are serious about security you'd have to read more.

This is a very cool book. The first couple of chapters contain a lot of ammunition that can be used to justify extra $$$ for securing your environment.

The book then gets into how all the pieces of a network fit together. I thought this was a little odd for a security book but found it much easier to follow the later material than I have with other books. The author lays down a great foundation so that its much easier to follow the higher end stuff like locking down a particular operating system and why certain steps are important.

This book is definitely one to keep handy long after its been read!

After reading the author's long list of covered subject matter, I really expected this to be mostly a theory book. While the book does include theory (I think I finally understand passive and active FTP and how they work), I was really surprised at how much hands on material the book has. For example there is step by step instructions on how to setup and use the included IDS and firewall software. I would say the instructions are even better than the product manuals! This type of step by step instruction continues as the author walks you through creating Cisco access lists, VPNs and even securing different operating systems. This is a great book for someone like me who does not consider themselves to be a "security guru" but still needs to lock down their network.

Overall this text is slightly better than good. After reading almost the whole book I found that for someone interested in theory and not so much in technique, this is a good read. It does go over some good points about planning your security model and gives good advice on how to approach security in your organization. It even goes through a basic install of CheckPoint FW-1 for NT. Topics including policy, legal issues and the user's ability to comply with policy are interesting but not why I bought this book. I thought Chris put some good information in this text but the title doesn't accurately match the content.

Excellent book for people who wish to get a good introductory course to Network Security. I found it a valuable resourse for understaning major fundamental concepts. It is definately NOT oriented for people experienced in security, so the word MASTERING is not suitable. In every other aspect I found Mr Brenton an excellent writer who is impossible not to understant the topics he covers (if you know a bit of networking that is). Good job Mr Brenton...

Finally, a *REAL* book on how to lock down your NT, Unix, and Novell network. I love the O'Reilly books but they are primarily Unix only. This one not only tells you how to hack your system, but tells you where the tools are on the Internet to download and use to cover your a**.

I originally bought the book because for less than $40 I could have one CD-ROM with every major Firewall program on it to "try" at home for sys admin stuff. (Checkpoint Firewall-1, Guardian, Real Secure, etc). As it turns out, I haven't even loaded the CD yet because the content in the book is so exciting and to the point.

Obviously this author could be a top-notch hacker if he wanted to. I bet he is one of the best Network Securiy Administrators on the planet!

I'm a SSO, and while experienced, I found this a valuable book. Others with experence may find it tedious, because it deals with the "simple stuff" in great detail as well, and is tedious at times. But the way points are illustrated I have found useful in my rolse of communicating security issues to others. If you're an experienced security oriented sysadmin, on't buy this book, it will irritate you. It only covers the technical aspects in detail, and, as I say, the detail seems predantic at times.

This is definitely a book that you need to browse before deciding if it will be of value to you other than a 'read once'.