Customer Reviews

Practical Internet Security

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Vacca has done it again. He has not only made a complex technology easy to understand, he also identifies the pitfalls and solutions that one has to be aware of in order to survive in this ever increasing world of network hacking, terrorism and identify theft. The book is extremely well organized and very consistent in the way it describes the various Internet and Intranet technologies, and the security issues and solutions associated with them. This book is a must for operating system and network managers, as well as information technology specialists that must develop and maintain distributed data management applications that operate in secure environments.

The book is in serious need of a good editor, as evidenced by sentences such as:

1) "Any characters in the header name are changed to characters" (p. 181)
2) "Solutions designed for Intranet or LAN only use often relies [sic] on proprietary protocols or heavyweight protocols that dynamically open communication ports cannot be protected or are very difficult to protect with a firewall. Internet security dynamic content use the language of the web (HTTP and HTTP-S) as its' [sic] primary means of communication" (p. 21)

Even thought the book was only published in 2007, the content seems dated, referring to public key encryption and SSL as "young security technologies", and listing gopher as a web service.

A lot of the chapter introductions are uninformative, containing nuggets such as "The internet provides a wonderful means of exchanging information" (p. 39), or "Today, the Bush administration is spying on all Americans full time" (p. 219). There is also a lot of repetition in the book, in particular in chapters 29-32, which cover Firewalls.

Overall, even though it contains some useful information, it is a painful book to read.

Highly organized, this text book takes one through a journey of all the functional aspects of today's Internet Security practices. I found this book easy to read and it is written with a practicioner in mind. Recommended for IT administrative personnel as well as anybody interested in how it all works. This one stays in my bookshelf.

The prolific technical author, John Vacca, has published this guide to the perils awaiting users on the Internet. Aimed at a general reader, who does not need to be an IT professional. Vacca describes at a high level, that is still technically accurate, of how the Internet is constructed. Focusing on crucial concepts like https or the Secure Sockets Layer, and how the cryptography of this works, without delving into the maths. Which leads to the idea of Certificates that validate a website that you might be visiting with a browser. And how there are various Certificate Authorities that issue those Certificates. Upon this is built the entire edifice of e-commerce.

On another level, Vacca describes how a virus might infiltrate your computer. Often via downloading and running [or installing] some file when using the browser. Then he explains spyware, which is sometimes more benign, but still often detested by many users. You are encouraged to regularly run an anti-virus program, as a conservative precaution.

The text is a solid guide. That does not take the facile narrative route of the Dummy's or Idiot's books.

All the information you need in one place to quickly and efficently secure your networks and computers . Easy to read and understand but yet very technical in nature. Highly recommended for all levels of users from students to professionals.

This is a very comprehensive Internet security book that details the nuts and bolts of the problems and solutions in elbow-deep detail. It also addresses specific causes of the issues we face; from government interventions and plans to terrorism and crime motivations. Great book, I highly recommend it.

Internet security is critical to most modern organizations--which have systems links across enterprisewide networks and VPNs, as well as exposure to customers, competitors, browsers, and hackers. This practical guide to Internet security provides the means for such organizations to effectively protect their sites from internal and external threats. It provides real-life scenarios and examples, as well as hands-on instruction for securing Internet communications.

An excellent book for anyone trying to secure their Web site. Mr. Vacca carefully explains all aspects of internet security. The chapters on firewalls, new threats and emerging technologies especially caught my interest, but the entire book was more than worthwhile. The appendices listing internet security products and implementation companies will be very helpful for any security administrator.

Practical Internet Security is an excellent resource for network administrators fighting to keep their systems secure. From establishing a network security policy to configuring authentication service on Windows servers, this book is an essential tool for networking professionals.

So many Internet security books focus on theory and concepts but miss the practical aspects of security. This book gives it all to you, theory, concepts and practical steps you can take to deal with Internet security. I highly recommend it.