Securing the Borderless Network: Security for the Web 2.0 World [Paperback]

Tom Gillis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1587058863 | ISBN-13: 978-1587058868 | Publication Date: April 19, 2010 | Edition: 1

Securing the Borderless Network: Security for the Web 2.0 World

Tom Gillis

 

Securing the Borderless Network reveals New techniques for securing advanced Web 2.0, virtualization, mobility, and collaborative applications

 

Today’s new Web 2.0, virtualization, mobility, telepresence, and collaborative applications offer immense potential for enhancing productivity and competitive advantage. However, they also introduce daunting new security issues, many of which are already being exploited by cybercriminals. Securing the Borderless Network is the first book entirely focused on helping senior IT decision-makers understand, manage, and mitigate the security risks of these new collaborative technologies.

 

Cisco® security technology expert Tom Gillis brings together systematic, timely decision-making and technical guidance for companies of all sizes: information and techniques for protecting collaborative systems without compromising their business benefits. You’ll walk through multiple scenarios and case studies, from Cisco Webex® conferencing to social networking to cloud computing. For each scenario, the author identifies key security risks and presents proven best-practice responses, both technical and nontechnical.

 

Securing the Borderless Network reviews the latest Cisco technology solutions for managing identity and securing networks, content, endpoints, and applications. The book concludes by discussing the evolution toward "Web 3.0" applications and the Cisco security vision for the borderless enterprise, providing you with a complete security overview for this quickly evolving network paradigm.

 

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Gillis is the vice president and general manager for the high-growth Security Technology Business Unit (STBU) at Cisco, where he leads the company’s businesses for security management, appliances, applications, and endpoint services.

 

Formerly vice president of product management for the Cisco STBU, Gillis was promoted to the VP/GM position after significantly growing its security business and market share. During this time, Gillis successfully led the Cisco product management team and outbound marketing, technical marketing engineering, technical publications, and training organizations.

 

Prior to his role at Cisco, Gillis was part of the founding team at IronPort Systems and served as senior vice president of marketing when the company was acquired by Cisco. Under his guidance, IronPort grew an average of 100 percent year-on-year for seven years. During his tenure, IronPort rose to become the leading provider of antispam, antivirus, and antimalware appliances for organizations ranging from small businesses to the Global 2000. Before joining IronPort, Gillis worked at iBEAM Broadcasting, Silicon Graphics, and Boston Consulting Group.

 

Gillis is a recognized leader in the dynamically charged and high-growth Internet security industry, with in-depth knowledge of the challenges surrounding secure network infrastructure. As an author, speaker, and industry executive, he has made invaluable contributions to the security technology community. He has presented at major conferences and events ranging from Gartner Symposiums to Fox News Live. Gillis is also the author of two books, Get the Message and Upping the Anti, a business guide to messaging security.

 

Gillis holds an M.B.A. degree from Harvard University, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an M.S.E.E. degree from Northwestern University and a B.S.E.E. from Tufts University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Cisco Press; 1 edition (April 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587058863
• ISBN-13: 978-1587058868
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,472,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent snapshot of our world, June 18, 2010

By 

Stephen Northcutt (Kauai, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Securing the Borderless Network: Security for the Web 2.0 World (Paperback)

I am giving this four stars because in June 2010, this really helps me see the big picture from a seasoned tech executive, Harvard MBA's point of view. Through no fault of his own, the manuscript will age fast and be less valuable fast. For instance, chapter 6 doesn't have the iPad however, it does have the Apple Newton from 1993. There is a lot of history built into Gillis's research and I found that really helpful, we have to know where we have been to understand where we are going. If you need to understand the emerging trends in security and computing in general and it is still 2010, I recommend you buy this book. If it is later than 2010 and it is not second edition or updated, ask around for a copy to borrow. I guess I am a bit of a Gillis fan, I only recycled his Get the Message from 2004 last month.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid intoduction to Web 2.0, Cloud Computing and Security challenges posed by them, April 25, 2010

By 

Shahid Shafi (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Securing the Borderless Network: Security for the Web 2.0 World (Paperback)

This book is an entertaining and fun read and any technology enthusiast should read it. I was able to read this book in two nights and enjoyed it like I was reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. The author Tom Gillis clearly explains new challenges faced by IT Security Managers due to Web 2.0, Cloud Computing and mobile workforce. The author clearly explains why Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing are Enterprise management's biggest fear and clearly expose IT's inflexibility. Web 2.0 gives rise to Work 2.0 and whether IT departments like it or not, this trend is here to stay. Today employees work anytime from anywhere using any device and need connectivity 24x7x365 which increases their productivity and job satisfaction. But this trend is major headache for C-Level enterprise executives and IT Security managers as they don't know how to secure this information flow when communication may not even touch their networks like Salesforce hosting your company's CRM and employee access this data using his iPhone. Traditional network boundaries are blurring and it is becoming very difficult to protect data whether it is in motion or rest. Tom also explains Next Generation Firewalls that will not do filtering based on port, protocol and IP but instead will be Content, Application and User Identity aware. How about writing a firewall policy saying "John Doe" from "Engineering" department can access "[...]" and cannot exceed "2 Mbps"instead of IP address x.x.x.x/32 can access y.y.y.y/32 on port 80. I think you got the point :-)

The problem statement is clearly defined with many excellent examples and interview excerpts from real enterprises. Last few chapters are fully focused on highlighting solutions for Web 2.0 security challenges and I have to admit, Cisco vision is neat and they are focusing on both On-Prem and Cloud based security solutions. The author didn't go into implementation or design details but ideas like Flexible Identity Fabric and multilayer scanning engines are pretty encouraging. The concept of Policy Management consoles (where enforcement and Policy management functions are decoupled) along with Security Intelligence Operations (SIO) are good initiatives by Cisco.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and in my opinion the content is very well organized, timely and fresh. Tom Gillis is very knowledgeable and he certainly delivered a book that will benefit many IT managers,executives and staff members.

Shahid Shafi CCIE#12665 (RS,Security,SP)

4.0 out of 5 stars An executive level introduction to security, July 11, 2011

By 

Brian - See all my reviews

This review is from: Securing the Borderless Network: Security for the Web 2.0 World (Paperback)

"Securing the Borderless Network" is a good executive level summary of the issues that any IT manager needs to understand. At only 148 pages it can be read fairly quickly and the author has a writing style that made the subject engaging. I have read books that made their subjects more boring than was needed and luckily the author does a fine job of making security sound interesting and critical for an organization.

The topics range from cloud computing, smart phones, malware, identity management, data backup and loss, and real world security policies. Each topic does a good job showing enough history for understanding how a subject came to be relevant today. I had not seen a picture of an Apple Newton in a long time, but there it was in the history section of the smart phone chapter.

It should be pointed out that this is by Cisco Press and they do modestly discuss their own products as ways to address pretty much all of the issues brought up in the book. The author made this reasonably unobtrusive and I was left with a better appreciation for Cisco products without feeling intruded upon during the presentation of any issues.

Also, this is not a technical book. A programmer wanting to better secure their database programming will not necessarily need this book, but their manager and executive staff will be well served by it. While there are some graphs, the diagrams are usually screenshots, product pictures, and bullet points. Actual implementation is left as an exercise for the reader or, certainly, the subject of a much more technical book. Instead, get this book for decision makers who need to understand why the IT staff wants more emphasis on securing their network rather than simply providing services.