Customer Reviews

Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls

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

 

 

Oh if life were only easier. The web must be a lot like the old west was rumored to be. Except that there doesn't even appear to be a sheriff anywhere around. All of us have to build our own little forts for protection against the bad guys. One of the best forts you can build uses the Cisco ASA/PIX Security Appliance.

You can, of course, set up the equipment without anything but the manual. But this book goes into a lot more background that is very nice to know. It starts with why they might want into your network. (I couldn't imagine why anyone would want into mine until they started attacking to use my equipment for re-mailing and bandwidth.) It then goes into they types of attacks that might be used against you.

It's probably impossible to build a totally secure system unless it isn't connected to the outside world in any way at all. But when your users want things like e-mail, web access and more, you've got to do something. The Cisco approach at least makes it very difficult for all but the most determined bad buy to get into your system.

The author has been working on the Cisco approach to security since 1996, he understands it pretty well and has a good writing style to make it understandable to you. Highly Recommended!

I'm a system admin in a medium size company, 800 epmloyees in 4 locations across the US. Our Security Admin position was eliminated because of budget considerations. I was forced into the role (opportunity) without any training and have been learning as I go. I needed to deploy firewall in all four locations so I bought this book- Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls by Greg Abelar. It was a life saver. Not only was it comprehensive in it's deployment instructions but it did such a great job of explaining internet threats and why deploying these devices are so important. It also made me aware of Host Intrusion Prevention, I am going to go out and evaluate CSA.

I would recommend this book to anyone deploying ASA or anyone who would just like to understand security, why it is neccessary, what ASA will do for you and most of all how it fits into the concept of defense in depth.

This book is well written and organized. It provides all the necessary information and details that you need to setup and manage ASA/PIX and ASDM. This book will not teach you the command line configurations, but it will give you great instructions for the operation and installation.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has the PIX firewall at his office, and he is dealing with the Cisco host base intrusion prevention system.

The book is well written - a good focus on the ASDM. I would like to say the information is well compacted into 188 pages but I cannot. Including the index and table of contents it barely sqeaks by with 160 pages. A bit more command-line would have certainly filled the missing 28 pages. I still like the way the content was presented; 4 stars.

This book 'Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls' is absolutely awesome, I wish I could give it siz stars. The sections that VERY CLEARLY explian problems that you can run into on the internet and the sections on how to deploy a new ASA device are fantastic. The Step-by-step, saved me about $2,500 - $3,000 dollars because I didn't have to hire a consultant to do the installation for me. I looked at the ASA Handbook as suggested by another reviewer, although that book is pretty good, I found this book to be much more simple and to the point.

I've been in the security business for quite some time. This book is excellent. It not only covers network security basics in a very understandable way, but also provides you with a step-by-step process on how to deploy network security, in this case using Cisco's new ASA device. Well done, it's a great read. Hats off to Cisco Press.

Sadly, this think book is all but useless for anything beyond a very standard configuration of Cisco's (new) ASA devices.

It hardly provided more information than what you get with the Quickstart guide that's included with the appliance itself. That means some simple scenarios with an Internet connection, a DMZ and a main LAN, with a bit of NAT thrown in.

Half the book is generics, such as the importance of protecting your network and other such items. No explanation of the how's and why's. You're better off downloading the technical documents and white papers off Cisco's website. Or even poring over the PIX/ASA command line guide, even if you intend to use ASDM.

A much better choice is the "Cisco ASA and PIX Firewall Handbook".