Halting the Hacker: A Practical Guide to Computer Security

This review is a collaborative writing project completed by the students in a "Technology and Ethics" class at DeVry University in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is based on a quick look at the book under consideration. This book has several virtues. It provides a simple step-by-step process to keep hackers out. It also provides supportive links where you can download software to protect your hardware as well as business information. The simple wording allows you to concentrate on your work while helping you protect what you are working on. Although this book is outdated, it would still be helpful in setting up a security policy. The illustrations in this book would not be suitable for some business environments; however they would be useful for the individual computer user. I would recommend this book to beginners in the computer technology field. This book comes with a useful CD-ROM that contains software and added resources.

It is ironic that the advent of the computer promised to dramatically reduce paper usage; today's 1,000-page-plus computer-security tomes have probably single-handedly deforested whole regions of the earth. A happy exception to this trend of titanic texts is Halting the Hacker. Which is relatively concise yet highly informative. It provides a good overview of core information security issues and concepts. It takes a big-picture approach to information systems security, not bogging down the reader in arcane minutiae. Halting the Hacker delves into more intricate details and includes a CD-ROM with many security tools. Overall, it is valuable for anyone needing to know about information systems security without sacrificing a forest in the process.

This new expanded edition of Halting the Hacker came out in 2002 and is nearly double the size of the original edition. It takes the insight of how hackers attack systems from Pipkin's first edition and delves into the details of how to protect your Unix and Linux systems. Real-life stories about hackers and companies who were hacked are sprinkled throughout the book making it an easy read for anyone, not just techies. The tools discussed (and which come with it on the included CD-ROM) makes it a valuable resource for everyone who deals with Unix/Linux systems.Highly recommended!

This isn't a heavily technical book. Unlike many of the other security books I've reviewed, this isn't full of tcpdump traces and the like. It is, however, a really excellent overview of security that can introduce a system administrator or a general manager to the subject.There are actually a very few pages that deal with things like disabling unused services, but that's just 14 pages from a 337 page work, and those are really more illustrative than specific. Instead, this covers the who, the how and the why of hackers, the legal climate, and includes examples of actual incidents.Perhaps a good indication of the target audience is the Glossary, which includes definitions for "back door", "client/server", "Kerberos", "newsgroup" and "Trojan horse".If you are looking for programmer level information, this isn't what you want. On the other hand, this is much more technical and focused than something you might read in Newsweek or your Sunday newspaper.Recommended for business owners and managers who need to understand computer security even though others may actually implement it, or as a base introduction for technical people with no previous exposure.