Maximum Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting Your Computer Systems and Network, 4th Edition (Book and CD-ROM)

This book is written for system administrators who need to know how to keep their systems secure from unauthorized use. The anonymous author takes a hacker's view of various systems, focusing on how the system can be cracked and how you can secure the vulnerable areas.

The book makes it clear from the outset that you cannot rely on commercial software for security. Some of it is flawed, and even the best of it has to be used correctly to provide even the most basic security measures. The author scrutinizes such operating systems as Microsoft Windows, Unix, Novell, and Macintosh. He details many of the tools crackers use to attack the system, including several that have legitimate uses for system administration. Rather than merely cataloging areas of risk and showing how various flaws can be exploited, the author makes every effort to show how security holes can be avoided and remedied. Maximum Security tells you which software to avoid and then details which security tools are invaluable, providing the URLs necessary to acquire them. An enclosed CD-ROM provides links to many of the tools and resources discussed in the book. The CD-ROM also leads you to several online documents where you can learn more about Internet security in general and specifics for securing your own site. --Elizabeth Lewis

Customer Review: doesn't age well

The main problem with this book is that it's essentially a series of links to tools. Tools are known to age quickly, and what was a useful took a month ago is now obsolete. By being too tool heavy the book lends itself to the same problem - it quickly becomes dated and useless. Compare this for example to some other textbooks which delve into the underlying principles of crypto, networking, operating systems, etc., and you'll see that this is not a necessary evil.

Customer Review: Comprehensive. but lacks real examples

This book will give a LOT of information about all kinds of networking protocols, Operating Systems, and hardware from the security standpoint. However, it is way too theoretic. There are vurtually no real life examples, no code listings. This may or may not actually be a drawback, because some poeple do not want code in the text they are reading. Well, then this book is for beginners. Either way it does not deserve MY five stars.
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