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Software SecurityWelcome to Book Reviews on sans.edu. I'm Stephen Northcutt and like many of you I am a manager and leader with an information technology job. At the SANS Technology Institute, we are always striving to become more skilled and knowledgeable in computer security as well as the people side of the job, and reading books is still one of my favorite ways to learn from others in the industry. I write reviews and post reviews by others of books about security, management and leadership, information technology, and the computer security industry. As we learn more, ponder issues and research content for SANS Management 512, Security Leadership Essentials and the GIAC Security Certification, we will continue to add to this site. Our hope is for this to be a resource for the community and we would love to hear your suggestions on books that we should review, and send us your own book reviews to post as well. Feel free to drop us a note at stephen@sans.edu.
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Cisco Firewalls - Apr 6th, 2013
By Alexandre M.S.P. Moraes
The bottom line: does the book teach enough about firewall/perimetertechnology to buy/read it if you are not running ASA? Not to buy it,it is meant for ASA owners and there is nothing wrong with that, butif you have it on the shelf and don't work with networks every day,you can go through the sections I have pointed out, starting withthe netflow discussion, in about two hours and I think theinvestment of time will be beneficial.
Securing Cisco IP Telephony Networks - Apr 6th, 2013
By Akhil Behl
This is one of my favorite Cisco Press books. It is thorough andapproachable. It starts by clearly identifying the problem (you canget ripped off in a big way) and builds a structured case forIP telephony security.
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Sep 26th, 2012
By Kevin Mitnick with William Simon
Kevin Mitnick gave me his book and I started reading it on the plane ride home from SANS NS2012; the book was gripping and educational. Theauthor team is to be commended and I applaud Kevin for histransparency. It is rare to feel you know someone after readingtheir book, but that is exactly how I feel.
The Davis Dynasty: Fifty Years of Successful Investing on Wall Street, by John Rothchild - Jul 22nd, 2012
By Stephen Northcutt
I was given this book by an investing group I am a part of. Theirletter recommended the book so I put it first in the queue to take on mynext few flights. I cannot say that I liked the book; I really didnot like the Davis family from the way they were portrayed, butthere are some investing nuggets, and the final chapters are chockfull of actionable investing advice
Book Review: Practical Malware Analysis - The Hands-On Guide to Dissecting Malicious Software, by Michael Sikorski and Andrew Honig - Apr 24th, 2012
By Stephen Northcutt
I have been carrying this book around for three weeks and I haveonly made it to page 604 which is deep in the appendices, but I wantedto jot down some thoughts. The book tries to be self contained in that aslittle prior knowledge as possible is assumed. They begin by talkingabout static (not actually executing) and dynamic analysis followedby a malware taxonomy. By page 10 the authors show you somethingvery useful - how to run MD5 on a Windows system.
Book Review: The Tangled Web - A Guide to Securing Modern Web Applications - Jan 2nd, 2012
By Stephen Northcutt
I had enjoyed Mr. Zalewski's previous book Silence on the Wire so Iwas looking forward to taking a look at his newest work. What I did not expectwas that I would not want to put it down, well, except for a tripdown the invisiblegorilla rabbithole. But The Tangled Web is about code and htmland javascript - how could it be gripping? Mostly because it scaredthe heck out of me
Book Review. Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street - Nov 9th, 2010
By Stephen Northcutt
On the flight to Seattle, I finished Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It is about one subject only, hiring.Easy read with a nice blend of research (and it is well researched) andstories to drive home the points. The basic concept is to focus onhiring "A" employees; the best and avoid "B" and "C" employees for thecritical jobs.
Book Review: I live in the future & here's how it works, by Nick Bilton - Nov 3rd, 2010
By Stephen Northcutt
Ijust finished Nick Bilton’s book, it is very fresh and Ithink it has some insights for all of business, especially all of SANSand GIACbusiness. I will talk about Chapters 1 and 2 specifically andthen some of the takeaways. Bilton is a good writer, and this is afantastic choice as an airplane book.
Book Review: Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, by Patrick Lencioni - Jul 28th, 2010
By Stephen Northcutt
Rob Vandenbrink recommended a few Patrick Lencioni books and this wasthe first one I read. I saw a review on Amazon that says, "concise,compelling, simple, and wise look at the role of a leader in anorganization." and that describes the book very well.
Book Review: The New School of Information Security, by Adam Shostack and Andrew Stewart - Oct 31st, 2008
By Stephen Northcutt
Quoting another reviewer, Kevin Thompson, gives us an idea about this book on the information security profession: "Not to say that the rest of the book isn't valuable, but if you only had 30 minutes to get the point of the book, I would say read chapter 4."
Book Review: Crimeware, by Jakobsson and Ramzan - Jul 12th, 2008
By Stephen Northcutt
Jakobsson and Ramzan, set a new standard for security books with Crimeware; it is both eminently pragmatic and, at the same time, a scholarly work, I thought I knew a bit about malware, but I learned tons from the book.
Book Review: Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama - Feb 4th, 2008
By Stephen Northcutt
Barack Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, is reviewed here by Stephen Northcutt of the SANS Technology Institute. Stephen feels that the book ends better than it begins; in fact, he believes that Mr. Obama was very generous to let so many strangers intohis headspace.
Book Review: LAN Switch Security:What Hackers Know About Your Switches, by Eric Vyncke and Christopher Paggen - Jan 11th, 2008
By Stephen Northcutt
After reading this book by Vyncke and Paggen, you will never think about layer 2the same way again. We quickly learn that, from a security perspective,a switch is neither a mindless toaster nor an insignificant appliance.
Book Review: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath - Jan 2nd, 2008
By Stephen Northcutt
The Blog digest version of Stephen Northcutt's book review for Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
Book Review: Geekonomics, by David Rice - Dec 27th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
Geekonomics, by David Rice, is a new book about the real cost ofinsecure software; this is not a book just for technical people, butevery thinking man and woman should read it.
Book Review: End-to-End Network Security, by Omar Santos - Dec 6th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
If you are an intermediate to expert securitypractitioner and you want to page through thebook to find security topics that you do not know about, that is agreat use of Santos' End-to-End Network Security, but there is very little depth beyond that.
Book alert, Behind the Screen: Hacking Hollywood, by Mark Stone - Nov 27th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
As a computer security author, I am always interested in hearing about other authors and their projects. Here is one from Mark Stone and he has been working on a project called Behind the Screen: Hacking Hollywood. Who knows, he may be a household (SOChold?) name in a year or two.
Book Review: Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking, by Paul Asadoorian and Larry Pesce; Raul Siles Technical Editor - Oct 31st, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
If you are going to be installing wireless it is a good idea to read this book; a lot of the information applies regardless of what brand of equipment you select. And as for me, I don't think I will ever look at a Linksys router in the same way again; from now on I will be wondering just exactly what is going on beneath the hood.
Book Review: The Black Swan: The Impact of the HIGHLY IMPROBABLE, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Oct 27th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
A black swan is a surprising or virtually unpredictable event that canhave a massive impact. Nassim Taleb's observation, in his book The Black Swan, is that,after the fact, we concoct a narrative to explain it. His book is hardreading and people are either going to like this book or hate it. I have a thickskin, I choose to like it. He made me work pretty hard to get through it, but the mind is a muscle, and I, for one, thank Taleb.
The Best Security Books to have in your library - Oct 25th, 2007
By GIAC Advisory Board
What are the best security books to have in your library? To find out, Stephen Northcutt polled the GIAC Advisory Board. (Students that score over 90 on their GIAC certification exams are invited to join the Advisory Board).
Book Review: The Age of Speed, by Vince Poscente - Oct 2nd, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
Poscente creates an easy to memorize taxonomy of people and businesses:Zeppelins that can't achieve speed; balloons that don't have to; bottlerockets, fast, but misguided; and jets, which is what we want to be. Itwas a good start, but should have been developed more. The book is divided into 36short essays that are usually about two pages long, yet a lot of thematerial is redundant.
Book Review: Virtual Honeypots by Niels Provos and Thorsten Holz - Aug 21st, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
Stephen Northcutt discusses Virtual Honeypots by Provos and Holz, and he finds it to be the best security book he's read this year: aperfect blend of well researched information about honeypots as well asplenty of pragmatic how todo it.
Book Review: Seduced by Success by Robert J. Herbold - Jun 26th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
When companies are successful they tend to hire too many people whichraises costs, fractures lines of communications and leads to beingunable to respond to changing industry trends. This is the core thoughtof Herbold, a long time executive at Proctor and Gamble and a sevenyear stint as Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft.
Book Review: Selling Blue Elephants, by Moskowitz and Gofman - Jun 25th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
The premise onthe cover is: "How to make great products that people want before theyeven know they want them," and the primary focus of the book is RuleDeveloping Experimentation (RDE).
Review of FISMA Certification and Accreditation Handbook by Laura Taylor - May 8th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
Laura Taylor's FISMA Certification and Accreditation Handbook is reviewed by Stephen Northcutt. The bottom line from Stephen: this book is complete, comprehensive, and accurate. He could not find one single example of the obtuse writing that tends toshow up in the NIST and other government documents, and he believes that the book gives you a real paththrough the Federal certification and accreditation maze.
Book Review of Snow Crash leads to Second Life - Apr 18th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
As business leaders, we do not want to repeathistory and be like some of the late adopters of the web who wereso ignorant of its promise they didn't even register a domain name. Upon reviewing the book Snow Crash, Stephen Northcutt's advise is to buy the book, read the book, visit Second Lifeandinvest $25.00 to understand this new concept.
Book Review: Miracle in the Andes, by Nando Parrado and Vince Rause - Feb 20th, 2007
By Gal Shpantzer and Stephen Northcutt
A colleague and former student of mine sent me a copy of this book to read with the following: The true story of an amazing journey of faith, teamwork and leadership ... and doing the impossible, over and over again.
Book Review - Information Security Law: Control of Digital Assets - Feb 19th, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
This is thelongest book on computer security law I have ever read. Every organization in the USA or that has significant dealings withthe USA should probably have a copy on the shelves
Book Review - Cisco Network Admission Control - Jan 1st, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
Cisco press was kind enough to send me thisbook for review and whatgreat timing, I have been thinking about NAC a lot lately. It puts auseful network device management control in the hands of an informationsecurity manager and Cisco really does lead the market with theirimplementation.
Book Review - The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John Maxell - Jan 1st, 2007
By Stephen Northcutt
Leadership books remind me of cooking: there are a finite number of common ingredients that make up the majority of dishes, but there seems to be an infinite number of ways to combine and present these ingredients.
Book Review: The Art of Software Security Assessment - Dec 19th, 2006
By Stephen Northcutt
This is one of those rare security books that has a chance to revolutionize the industry like Applied Cryptography, Snort 2.0, or Hacking Exposed.
