Customer Reviews

Mechanics of User Identification and Authentication: Fundamentals of Identity Management

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

 

 

If you are a practicing security professional, buy this book! Todorov has spent a lot of time in the lab working through how our authentication technologies work and offers clear descriptions and sage advice on how they actually work and should be used in practice.

This is not a rehash of vendor documentation and RFCs but a real look "under the covers" at a core capability our security infrastructure must support.

It's probably not a book you'll read from cover to cover as it's too detailed. But I would strongly encourage you to read the indtroductory material and then dip into the chapters dealing with the particular methods you use (or are thinking about using) in your own work.

Then place the book on your shelf as a ready reference when you need a well-organized reference to a particular technology.

The book "Mechanics of User Identification and Authentication Fundamentals of Identity Management" Provides a good baseline and framework for any junior security expert and can also improve the knowledgebase of regular IT person.
Although the information in this book doesn't provide the "latest news" - In the technology field, the current news usually can be considered as an old news.
So the conclusion is simple: Start from the basis and move forward.
After obtaining a good baseline, learning a new information will be more
easier.
I hope that the new edition of this book will be published with a Paperback so the book price will be dropped and from my point of view,
it's more easier to learn from a Paperback books.

Recommended for all Administrators and Designers of IT Infrastructures!!!
I must say this book is well worth the read and for me has taken its place on the bookshelf along side other bibles of Networking (Routing TCP/IP v1 and v2 - Jeff Doyle). As a forgotten area of many Infrastructures - where most people look simply to vendor recommendations, without fully understanding what it is they are implementing (or recommending to others)- finally someone has written a book that explores the mechanics of the many different authentication methods available on the market today. Whether it be UNIX, Windows, TACACS+, RADIUS or SSL, now I have one place to look for the technical details.

This is a great reference book for those in the IT field. This really helps develop an understanding of how authentication technologies work under the hood in a clear and concise manner. There really aren't many other sources out that explain the amount of technologies covered in this book...

To those who say this is old, the computer security field is too fast paced to keep up with! Read this book so you develop an understanding of how the technologies operate under the hood and it will be easier to understand the new stuff.

Mr. Todorov, I tip my hat to you! Thanks!

I apply Enterprize Architecture techniques to my work and in short this considers the interlinking importance of business, information, applications, and technology in any analysis. Mechanics of User Identication and Authentication is firmly in the technology layer with some overlap in the application layer. It includes considerable depth in this area not only based on its 726 page count but also in the considerable detail provided and therefore provides a high degree of value for the dollar. If you are looking for one identity management technical reference book then you should consider this one. However if you are looking for an introductory book in identity management then this book is not for you. It offers separate chapters on UNIX and Windows and subsequent chapters drill into considerable detail into other authentication and related protocols. I do not have the knowledge to comment on the technical accuracy of this book but it will be the first one I reach for as my identity management project proceeds.

In spite of its recent publication, much of the detailed Windows security information in this volume is seriously out of date. The versions of the OS described in this book are Win 2K and Server 2K3. There were *major* security enhancements in both XP SP2 and Windows Vista that invalidate much of what the author says in this book.