Computer Security for the Home and Small Office: Amazon.ca: Thomas C. Greene: Books

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"Thomas Greene provides the home and SOHO user, and the work-at-home corporate user, a thorough, realistic assessment of the security and privacy risks they face, to instruct them in making their machines and networks unattractive targets for attack and to limit the damage an intrusion or other security snafu can cause. It is a general security and privacy handbook primarily for Window users, but ... accommodates Linux users with occasional boxed tips and sidebars." (it-expert, Issue no. 48, 2004)

About the Author

Thomas C. Greene is associate editor of The Register, the leading independent IT news daily, where he has been a senior editor and columnist for 5 years. Tom covers cybercrime, computer and network security, and Washington politics and legislation related to information technology.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Good material with definite biases..., July 13 2004

By

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Computer Security for the Home and Small Office (Paperback)

I recently finished reading and reviewing the book Computer Security for the Home and Small Office by Thomas C. Greene (Apress). While it does seem to lose focus a bit towards the end and has a definite bias (which I agree with!), the overall content and information is vital to know and understand.

The chapter breakdown:
Introducing the Dark Side; Vectors; Social Engineering; From Newbie to Power User; Treasure Hunt; The Open-Source Escape Hatch; Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing; Glossary; Procedures, Processes, and Ports; Online Resources; Index

First off, this is a highly readable and interesting book on how to secure your computer systems against attacks and keep your data private. The author is very vocal in his opinions, and you'll quickly learn where those biases are. He is a major proponent of using Linux and ditching Windows. The only reason you should use IE is because you're forced to. Even with that, he does go into each system and explain in detail what you need to do in order to harden your system. This includes shutting down unnecessary services, running anti-virus software, and using firewalls. All the stuff you'd expect to see in a book like this, and he delivers. The detail is sufficient for most intermediate users to follow, and after you're done you'll have a system that most script kiddies will bypass as it's not worth the time or effort to crack.

Starting in the Trust Nothing chapter, he starts to rant about how security is portrayed in the media, along with the potential conflicts of interest between vunerabilities and the companies who fix them. While interesting material, the focus on home/small office seems to get lost in the mix. I don't know if it's just the style of the writing or what, but I was starting to wonder if we could just move on...

Windows bashers will love the book, Windows defenders will think he's overly critical of the platform. Either way, this is material you can't afford to ignore in today's environment.

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5.0 out of 5 stars As timely as it is up-to-date and "user friendly", July 9 2004

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computer Security for the Home and Small Office (Paperback)

It seems like every few weeks there are fresh announcements of invasions by computer viruses, worms, identity thefts, spam scams, and other unwanted (often destructive) incursion attempts through the internet. Computer Security For The Home And Small Office by computer security expert Thomas C. Greene is as timely as it is up-to-date and "user friendly". The informed and informative text is organized into seven chapters: Introducing the Dark Side; Vectors; Social Engineering; From Newbie to Power User; Treasure Hunt: The Open-Source Escape Hatch; Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing. Enhanced with a glossary, and appendices on "Procedures, Processes, and Ports" and "Online Resources", Computer Security For The Home And Small Office is a compendium of immediately applicable information presented with a minimum of jargon so that even the most novice of beginners can take steps to insure against the successful invasion of their privacy; protect their systems and databases from exterior corruption; and defend against any form of attack or unwanted intrusion. Every personal, professional, corporate, and community library system should have on hand a reference copy of Thomas Greene's Computer Security For The Home And Small Office.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative and Helpful, May 27 2004

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"ppbjno12" (Newark, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computer Security for the Home and Small Office (Paperback)

I am a home user. Greene's book is very instructive and untwists much of the complex structure of computer security. It is well written and witty in places. His detailed modifications to Win XP would have been nice to incorporate but I am a Win 98 user.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Lucid and nontechnical
Greene devotes his attention to those of you who are not full time computer professionals, and who lack a corporate IT staff to do the dirty work for you. Read more

Published on May 16 2004 by W Boudville

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended for novices
Mr. Greene examines multiple areas regarding computer security covering subject areas such as hackers, viruses and worms, adware/spyware, data traces (such as file slack space and... Read more

Published on May 10 2004