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End-to-End Network Security
Ben Rothke writes "One of the mistakes many organizations make when it comes
to information security is thinking that the firewall will do it all. Management often replies incredulously to a
hacking incident with the thought "but don't we have a firewall". Organizations need to realize a single appliance alone
won't protect their enterprise, irrespective of what the makers of such
appliances suggest and promise. A true strategy
of security defense in depth is required to ensure a comprehensive level of
security is implemented. Defense in
depth uses multiple computer security technologies to keep organizations risks
in check. One example of defense in
depth is having an anti-virus and anti-spyware solution both at the user's
desktop, and also at the gateway." Read on for the rest of Ben's review.
End-to-End Network Security: Defense-in-Depth
author
Omar Santos
pages
480
publisher
Cisco Press
rating
9
reviewer
Ben Rothke
ISBN
1587053322
summary
Excellent and comprehensive look at how to secure a Cisco infrastructure
End-to-End Network Security: Defense-in-Depth provides an in-depth look at the
various issues around defense in depth.
Rather than taking a very narrow approach to security, the book focuses
on the comprehensive elements of designing a secure information security
infrastructure that can really work to ensure an organization is protected
against the many different types of threats it will face on a daily basis.
The books 12 chapters provide a broad look at the various ways in which to secure a network. Aside from a minor mistake in chapter 1 where the author confuses encryptions standards and encryption algorithms (but then again, many people make the same mistake), the book provides a clear and to the point approach to the topic at hand. After reading the book, one will have a large amount of the information needed to secure their Cisco-based network.
While it is not in the title, the book is completely centered on Cisco hardware, software, and Cisco IOS. It is a Cisco Press title written by a Cisco employee, as you would expect, it has a heavy Cisco slant. For those that do not work in a Cisco environment, the information in the book will likely be far too Cisco centric for their needs. A review of the index shows that the book provides a near A-Z overview of information security. One of the only missing letters is 'J', but then again, that would require writing about Juniper.
Chapter 1 starts off with a detailed overview of the fundamentals of network security technologies. Chapter 2 details the various security frameworks and methodologies around securing network devices. The six-step methodology that the author writes of is comprised of preparation, identification, classification, traceback, reaction and postmortem.
The author mistakenly writes that manual analysis of complex firewall policies is almost impossible because it is very time-consuming. The truth is that the time-consuming aspect does not make it impossible. It can be done, but the author is correct that the use of automated tools makes such analysis much quicker and easier.
Chapters 5 and 6 provide an excellent overview of reacting to information security incidents. The chapters cover all of the necessary details, from laws, log finals, postmortem and more.
Chapter 9 provides and extensive overview of the various elements of IPT security. It includes various ways to protect the many parts of a Cisco IPT infrastructure. In this chapter and the others, the author does a very good job of detailing the various configurations steps necessary to secure a Cisco device, both at the graphical level and also at the ISO command line level.
Chapter 12 concludes the book with 3 case studies of using defense in depth a small, medium and large enterprise networks. Different size networks have different requirements and constraints and are not secured in the same manner.
Overall, End-to-End Network Security: Defense-in-Depth is an excellent and comprehensive book on how to secure a Cisco infrastructure. It details the many threats such an environment will face, and lists countermeasures to mitigate each of those threats. Anyone involved in securing Cisco-based networks will find this book to be quite helpful in their effort to secure their network.
Ben Rothke is a security consultant with BT INS and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.
You can purchase End-to-End Network Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The books 12 chapters provide a broad look at the various ways in which to secure a network. Aside from a minor mistake in chapter 1 where the author confuses encryptions standards and encryption algorithms (but then again, many people make the same mistake), the book provides a clear and to the point approach to the topic at hand. After reading the book, one will have a large amount of the information needed to secure their Cisco-based network.
While it is not in the title, the book is completely centered on Cisco hardware, software, and Cisco IOS. It is a Cisco Press title written by a Cisco employee, as you would expect, it has a heavy Cisco slant. For those that do not work in a Cisco environment, the information in the book will likely be far too Cisco centric for their needs. A review of the index shows that the book provides a near A-Z overview of information security. One of the only missing letters is 'J', but then again, that would require writing about Juniper.
Chapter 1 starts off with a detailed overview of the fundamentals of network security technologies. Chapter 2 details the various security frameworks and methodologies around securing network devices. The six-step methodology that the author writes of is comprised of preparation, identification, classification, traceback, reaction and postmortem.
The author mistakenly writes that manual analysis of complex firewall policies is almost impossible because it is very time-consuming. The truth is that the time-consuming aspect does not make it impossible. It can be done, but the author is correct that the use of automated tools makes such analysis much quicker and easier.
Chapters 5 and 6 provide an excellent overview of reacting to information security incidents. The chapters cover all of the necessary details, from laws, log finals, postmortem and more.
Chapter 9 provides and extensive overview of the various elements of IPT security. It includes various ways to protect the many parts of a Cisco IPT infrastructure. In this chapter and the others, the author does a very good job of detailing the various configurations steps necessary to secure a Cisco device, both at the graphical level and also at the ISO command line level.
Chapter 12 concludes the book with 3 case studies of using defense in depth a small, medium and large enterprise networks. Different size networks have different requirements and constraints and are not secured in the same manner.
Overall, End-to-End Network Security: Defense-in-Depth is an excellent and comprehensive book on how to secure a Cisco infrastructure. It details the many threats such an environment will face, and lists countermeasures to mitigate each of those threats. Anyone involved in securing Cisco-based networks will find this book to be quite helpful in their effort to secure their network.
Ben Rothke is a security consultant with BT INS and the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know.
You can purchase End-to-End Network Security from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Well for one there are sky high system requirements for Vista at least and unless you are buying computers online, you will be stuck with Vista which needs around 1-2 Gigs of RAM for sub-XP level performance and 4 gigs for decent performance, while a more recent Ubuntu then Vista (7.10 which came out a month ago in October 2007) runs happily on my 1.8 GHZ processor with 512 MB of slow RAM while Vista is unbelievably slow on my friend's Intel Dual Core (1.6 GHZ) with 512 MB of RAM thats about 3-4 years newer then my Dell which cost me $25 at a garage sale. Not to mention how slow running
1. A third party antivirus
2. A third party firewall
3. A third party anti-spyware
4. Adobe reader that preloads itself on Windows startup
Secondly, the license is barbaric,
Here are some examples from the Windows XP professional where you can pick up a PDF from http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx
Internet Gaming/Update Features. If you choose to utilize the Internet gaming or update features within the Product, it is necessary to use certain computer system, hardware, and software information to implement the features. By using these features, you explicitly authorize Microsoft or its designated agent to access and utilize the necessary information for Internet gaming and/or updating purposes. Microsoft may use this information solely to improve our products or to provide customized services or technologies to you. Microsoft may disclose this information to others, but not in a form that personally identifies you.
So in other words, MS or any one of it's partners can spy on you as long as its for "internet games" and "Windows update" but they can't use it to identify you but anyone who is a "MS partner" can do it. How nice.
Security Updates. Content providers are using the digital rights management technology ("Microsoft DRM") contained in this Product to protect the integrity of their content ("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Owners of such Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may, from time to time, request Microsoft to provide security related updates to the Microsoft DRM components of the Product ("Security Updates") that may affect your ability to copy, display and/or play Secure Content through Microsoft software or third party applications that utilize Microsoft DRM. You therefore agree that, if you elect to download a license from the Internet which enables your use of Secure Content, Microsoft may, in conjunction with such license, also download onto your computer such Security Updates that a Secure Content Owner has requested that Microsoft distribute. Microsoft will not retrieve any personally identifiable information, or any other information, from your computer by downloading such Security Updates.
So whoever owns a DRM scheme, can force MS to download a "security update" that can make it so all your DRMed media can't play. How nice of them, you bought the content but now can't watch it.
Consent to Use of Data. You agree that Microsoft and its affiliates may collect and use technical information gathered in any manner as part of the product support services provided to you, if any, related to the Product. Microsoft may use this information solely to improve our products or to provide customized services or technologies to you. Microsoft may disclose this information to others, but not in a form that personally identifies you.
So any information about you thats deemed "technical" can be sent to other "Microsoft Partners"
So in other words, MS owns your computer. Linux doesn't have *any* of those problems, yes XP is broken and yes Linux does solve all of those problems.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes