Information Security Illuminated

The maintenance of the security of information is rapidly emerging as one of the greatest problems in the area of information technology. The amount of data that is being stored is rising at almost an exponential rate and to be usable it must be made readily available, in many cases 24/7 and on a network. These networks are most commonly connected to the Internet, so in essence everyone in the online world has a shot at accessing it. This book is an excellent candidate for a text in an overview or beginning course in information security or as a self-study guide. All of the basics are covered in overview form, there is very little in the way of technical depth. A set of multiple choice challenge questions, and small sets of challenge exercises and challenge scenarios appear at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, no solutions are included, however they are available in the instructor's guide. The titles of the chapters are: *) Introducing computer and network security *) Access control methodologies *) General security principles and practices *) The business of security *) Cryptographic technologies *) Securing TCP/IP *) Handling security incidents *) Firewall security *) Operating system security *) Securing operating systems *) Security audit principles and practices *) Network and server attacks and penetration *) Intrusion detection systems and practices *) System security scanning and discovery If you are teaching a course covering this increasingly important skill or need to learn the basics, then this book will serve your needs.

This book provides a decent overview of the different aspects of computer/information security, and is an easy read, but if you are a software developer or IT professional, you may want to consider purchasing a few more specialized books instead.

I had the good fortune to study under the co-author of this book Mike Chapple and we used this book as a text for the course. The book is layed out well for a class text on the subject matter. Over all it is clear and concise. This is not to say that anyone won't gain knowledge from this book. I ended up reading the entire book (which was not covered in the class) and have picked up just as much information from the book. For those out there attempting to gain security knowledge, this book gives you just that very well.

Solomon gives a pretty good summation of the topic. Little is assumed of the reader except a general background in computing. He covers the main aspects in enough detail for you to understand the gist. Intrusion Detection Systems get good play. So too are their logical successors - Intrusion Prevention Systems. Both defend against malware attacks. Though sadly, he refrains from using the commonly accepted term malware. In the context of spam, he warns against running an open mail relay. Because spammers can detect this and shovel their spam through it. With the likely consequence that your machine and network can get blacklisted by irate recipient networks. There's much more in the book. But the above should give the flavour of what he covers.