Securing Im and P2P Applications for the Enterprise

I had high hopes for Securing IM and P2P Applications for the Enterprise (SIAPAFTE), and thankfully this book delivers. SIAPAFTE is a modern, well-written, thorough guide to instant messaging (IM), peer-to-peer (P2P), and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks and related security issues. I recommend all network and security administrators read this book. SIAPAFTE is helpful in many respects. First, the book is up-to-date. It covers events as recent as the fall of 2005. The book also takes a historical approach to describing technologies by describing when and how they were introduced. Readers learn of the evolution of various IM and P2P clients and networks, as IM network owners seek to shut out rival clients and industry groups shut down P2P infrastructure. Second, SIAPAFTE takes a comprehensive look at IM, P2P, and IRC technologies. I believe the authors picked the right networks and clients to discuss. IM is fairly simple to understand, since the clients are closely tied to the networks. P2P is less clear, since people often refer to clients like KaZaA (or Kazaa) without understanding that FastTrack is the underlying network. I learned of many technologies for the first time reading this book. Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and Kademlia are two examples. Third, SIAPAFTE is well-written. The text is clear and the authors communicate their points in an organized and coherent manner. This does not mean the book is without flaws. Although Zeveck's one-star review (after reading just 40 pages -- please) is ridiculous, he is correct about a bad figure reference on p 27. The bottom of p 235 features a similar problem, and some pages have large chunks of inexplicable white space. I also thought the large lists of IM threats was not needed, especially when some of them ran several pages. I liked the protocol analysis of various networks, particularly those for P2P. It seemed some protocols got more attention than others, however. The inclusion of IPTables and Snort rules was a nice touch. I would have liked to see that for the IM and IRC parts too. The IRC section could have used an IRC command reference. Since this is a book about IM and such in the enterprise, it would have been helpful to learn how to set up a secure internal IM system like Jabber or even a local IRC server. For those keeping track of Syngress' recent tendency to reprint chapters from other books, SIAPAFTE is no exception. The last 20 pages in Ch 7 are Ch 13 from Skype Me! Oddly, no credit is given in SIAPAFTE for that other book's material. Overall, I think anyone involved with networks or security will find SIAPAFTE a great resource. I found the book to be highly informative, and I recommend you read it. Addressing the issues in this review would merit a five star review for a second edition.

This book is a great source for information on the dangers of instant messaging and p2p networks. Although this material can apply to personal use, it is geared more towards system administrators and networked environments. The structure of the book is very well laid out, giving you the ability to jump from product to product or area of interest (such as AIM, eDonkey, or IRC as a whole). This approach makes it easy to locate the information you are looking for quickly, making it an excellent reference. The author has done a great job in being realistic is the approach to these systems. Rather than totally restricting their use, this book helps you to live with these systems, recognizing that they are often used or required for businesses. If you are running a network, you almost definitely have this type of traffic on it. This book is definitely an excellent resource with large amounts of information on multiple types of systems

There are not a lot of books that cover IM and P2P security - when I found this I was skepitcal at first, but quickly found it to be a great reference, and the definitive source of information on SEcuring IM and P2P. The book is very well organized with Chapters dedicated to each major program, making it easy to educate yourself on the common pitfalls of having IM and P2P in your environment.

Noted security veteran Bruce Schneier has observed that for those organizations that have incorrectly deployed cryptography, it is akin to putting a big flagpole in front of your facility and hoping that it will stop any attackers from breaking in. Of course, any attacker with intelligence will simply go around the flagpole rather than running into it." Similarly, many organizations have deployed myriad security hardware and software products in their infrastructure. But when it comes to instant messaging and peer to peer applications, these applications often execute below the radar of many security products. This is due to the fact that the security infrastructure in many organizations was not architected to deal with such applications. These applications often have so much functionality that it obviates much of the security afforded by the security hardware and software products. Using file transfer as an example, many organizations have policies and controls in place to stop the use of protocols such as ftp and tftp. This is fine, but that will only work for the ftp protocol. File transfer can still be carried out by most instant messaging clients, and that can pose serious security risks. With that, Securing IM and P2P Applications for the Enterprise provides an excellent overview on how to handle, manage and secure IM, P2P, and IRC applications. This book is written for security and system administrators that need specific details on how to control and secure IM, P2P and IRC applications in their organization. The need to get a handle on IM and P2P is crucial given that IM has turned into a global communications medium with most organizations today reported that they allow it for business usage. Many marketing and technical support calls are now handled via IM and this translates in to well over 250 million IM users worldwide. P2P is great for downloading music and movies, but that that poses serious security and legal liability risks when done on most corporate networks. But with all the benefits that IM provides, it introduces many security and privacy risks. IM viruses, identity theft issues, phishing, spyware and SPIM (SPAM over IM) are just a few of the many risks. These risks can turn into intellectual property losses and legal liability issues especially when they are combined with targeted attacks on corporate IM users. Companies that don't have an effective way in which to deal with IM and P2P are in serious danger as most IM and P2P threats fly under the radar of many traditional security solutions. The book has a fairly straightforward approach. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to IM and the most common security issues that IM brings into an organization. The bulk of the remainder of the book details various different IM applications in Part 1 (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Google, Skype), P2P applications in Part 2 (Gnutella, eDonkey/eMule, BitTorrent, FastTrack) and IRC networks and applications in Part 3. Each chapter detail

There are two schools of thought on allowing the use of public instant messaging (IM) and peer-to-peer (P2P) applications in the business enterprise. One, that I subscribe to, is that you just do not do it. There are too many risks that make it problematic, even if you feel they can be managed. Another school of thought says "sure, we can manage the risks associated with that". So enter into the discussion Paul Piccard's "Securing IM and P2P Applications for the Enterprise" (Syngress Press, 2005, 454 pages, ISBN 1597490172). While not being as complete as I would like it to be, it provides enough foundation information to suit the needs of either point of view. The book is broken down into 16 chapters, with each chapter focusing on a specific piece of software or technology. Part I focuses in instant messaging. The first chapter gives an overview of the instant messaging "market", the players, and the risks of instant messaging. There is nothing ground breaking here that is not covered in more depth and detail elsewhere, but it fives an effective overview. The remaining 6 chapters focus on the different instant messaging services/clients. An overview is provided on the architecture and protocols associated with the client. Also addressed is features, client information, security information and malicious code threats. Unfortunately, no where in the text does the author address user awareness and education, which are critical. Part II of the book covers P2P Networks. These 5 chapters cover the major P2P clients, their history, how they work, and the threats to the enterprise. They do a much better job than they did in Part I, but again do not address user awareness and education. Part III covers Internet-Relay Chat (IRC), its history, how it works and security issues. In a way, I wish the author had just said up front to never allow IRC to be used in the enterprise. There are just too many risks beyond security associated with IRC. Who Should Read This Book This book should be read by anybody who wants to get a deeper technical understanding of IM and P2P applications. Because the author may have focused too much on technology, with not enough focus on policy development, user education, and awareness. It is for this reason that anybody who purchases this book should also buy Nancy Flynn's "Instant Messaging Rules" as a companion read. The Scorecard Par on an average Par 4.