Hackers Beware: Defending Your Network from the Wily Hacker: Amazon.ca: Eric Cole: Books

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In Hackers Beware, Eric Cole succeeds in explaining how hackers break into computers, steal information, and deny services to machines' legitimate users. An intended side effect of his documentary efforts is a feeling for how network-connected computers should be configured for maximum resistance to attack. Cole, who works with the attack-monitoring SANS Institute as an instructor and security consultant, conveys to his readers specific knowledge of offensive and defensive weaponry as well as general familiarity with attack strategies and good security practices. Hackers Beware is a good primer, and really earns its price by going into enough detail to enable readers to actually do something to make their resources safer. It also enables its readers to understand more specialised security texts, including Stephen Northcutt's fine Intrusion Signatures and Analysis.

Cole's didactic style is largely conversational, embracing the fact that most computer exploits can be conveyed as stories about what hackers want and the steps they take to achieve their goals. He punctuates his prose passages with line drawings that clarify what gets passed among the machines involved in an attack, and pauses frequently to show programs' user interfaces and passages from their logs. Cole explains all the jargon he uses--a characteristic that alone distinguishes this book from many of its competitors. --David Wall

Topics covered: What motivates black-hat hackers, and the technical means they use to go about satisfying their ambitions. General attack strategies--spoofing, password cracking, social engineering, and buffer overflows, among others--are explained, and the tools used to carry them out are catalogued. The same goes for defensive tools and practices.

Review

Every example in this book has information on how it works and provides preventive solutions. The technical solutions are excellent. -- Guy Bruneau, Intrusion Detection System Coordinator and an Incident Handling Team Supervisor, Canadian Department of National Defense (CND)

The depth of Eric's understanding is obvious and his extraordinary teaching style comes right through to the reader. -- –Alan Paller, Director of Research, The SANS Institute

This book is an excellent reference—a tutorial on attacks and insight into the thinking of attackers. -- –Stephen Northcutt, Director, Global Incident Analysis Center (GIAC); best-selling co-author of Network Intrusion Detection (Second Edition) and Instrusion Signatures & Analysis

This book is an outstanding reference that will undoubtedly help your efforts to protect your systems from the bad guys. -- Lance Spitzner, Founder, The Honeynet Project; Senior Security Architect, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a readable book about network security!, Sep 8 2003

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a man from the east coast (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hackers Beware: Defending Your Network from the Wily Hacker (Paperback)

I'll be brief. If you are a layman, and you don't have much expertise in the computer security field, then read this book. "Hackers Beware" does assume some prior general knowledge about networking and software, but anybody who's taken a few courses, or had a bit of on-the-job experience will be able to follow along quite well.

Even better, if you are a business owner, and are worried about the security of your network (and believe me, you should be), then reading this book will give you the added advantage of being able to communicate intelligently with you network security personnel. Further, after having studied this accessible tome, you will be able to discern as to whether your networking people actually know what they are dealing with (sadly, some don't. You know 'em and I know 'em. Yes, I'm refering to the PAPER MCSE's). Being able to speak intelligently with your employees, and put your heads together in solving the formidible problem of network security, will be of limitless benefit to you.

All in all, an understandable, mostly-in-plain-English book that will behoove all who read it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent security information resource, Jan 20 2003

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Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hackers Beware: Defending Your Network from the Wily Hacker (Paperback)

I am not a system admin nor do I play one on TV. However being a computer professional, I have an interest in the topic of network security, and how crackers and "script kiddies" infiltrate network systems. This book offers a wealth of network security information that even "novices" like myself can easily follow. And in some of the examples Cole discusses, it's almost scary to discover how easy it is for someone with even a little bit of knowledge to infiltrate a computer network. Cole's book while dauntingly large contains a wealth of information that any security professional should know about. One of my sys admin friends was commenting to me that books like Cole's allow the "script kiddies" to learn about exploits without doing any of the work that a "black hat (cracker)" or "white hat (hacker)" might do to exploit a system. However big a risk that may possibly be, I still feel it's best for any security professional to be informed about all the various types of exploits they may deal with. And with a book of this size, there are obviously lots of them to discuss.

Cole discusses exploits against Linux, UNIX, Windows, and Windows NT and the myriad of programs (password crackers, network sniffers, back door programs, etc.) designed to break into other people's systems. Each program is described in full and what it does. Cole also offers suggestions and solutions in various chapters to keep unauthorized users from accessing various systems.

While you will never be 100% safe from an "attack," Cole's book offers ways to keep your system from being attacked or ensure that the chances of it actually happening remain remote, or the "damage" from such attacks stays minimal.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Great Starting Point, Jun 22 2002

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SimsJS (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hackers Beware: Defending Your Network from the Wily Hacker (Paperback)

Although this book is useful to both beginners and security administrators, it is written so beginners can get a great understanding of what hacking is about and how to protect against it. The examples are thorough and provide step-by-step screen shots as to what happens during a certain exploit. It also tells the counter measures for each attack therefore enabling you to combat such an attack.

This book is a definate "must read" for anyone currently involved in or who wants to be involved in computer/network security.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Gives 'Hacking Exposed' a run for its money
While Hackers Beware may not be the 'Ultimate Guide to Network Security' in my opinion, it still is nonetheless an excellent book on how networks attacks are performed. Read more

Published on April 25 2002 by Ben Rothke

1.0 out of 5 stars Trite, trite, trite.
This book takes advantage of the fear of being hacked by presenting the reader with a ton of paranoid, poorly written information. Read more