Special Ops: Host and Network Security for Microsoft, UNIX, and Oracle

Book Description

Special Ops: Internal Network Security Guide is the solution for the impossible 24-hour IT work day. By now, most companies have hardened their perimeters and locked out the "bad guys," but what has been done on the inside? This book attacks the problem of the soft, chewy center in internal networks. We use a two-pronged approach-Tactical and Strategic-to give readers a complete guide to internal penetration testing. Content includes the newest vulnerabilities and exploits, assessment methodologies, host review guides, secure baselines and case studies to bring it all together. We have scoured the Internet and assembled some of the best to function as Technical Specialists and Strategic Specialists. This creates a diversified project removing restrictive corporate boundaries. The unique style of this book will allow it to cover an incredibly broad range of topics in unparalleled detail. Chapters within the book will be written using the same concepts behind software development. Chapters will be treated like functions within programming code, allowing the authors to call on each other's data. These functions will supplement the methodology when specific technologies are examined thus reducing the common redundancies found in other security books.

This book is designed to be the "one-stop shop" for security engineers who want all their information in one place. The technical nature of this may be too much for middle management; however technical managers can use the book to help them understand the challenges faced by the engineers who support their businesses.

Ø Unprecedented Team of Security Luminaries. Led by Foundstone Principal Consultant, Erik Pace Birkholz, each of the contributing authors on this book is a recognized superstar in their respective fields. All are highly visible speakers and consultants and their frequent presentations at major industry events such as the Black Hat Briefings and the 29th Annual Computer Security Institute Show in November, 2002 will provide this book with a high-profile launch.
Ø The only all-encompassing book on internal network security. Windows 2000, Windows XP, Solaris, Linux and Cisco IOS and their applications are usually running simultaneously in some form on most enterprise networks. Other books deal with these components individually, but no other book provides a comprehensive solution like Special Ops. This book's unique style will give the reader the value of 10 books in 1.

Download Description

We have scoured the security industry selecting elite technical and strategic specialists from around the world to be members of our Special Ops team. Specialists will cover an incredibly broad range of topics in unparalleled detail. We use a two-pronged approach, Tactical and Strategic, to provide readers with a complete guide to internal penetration testing. Each chapter will cover a specific topic, revealing critical vulnerabilities and weaknesses, methodologies for assessment, host review checklists, and baselines for secure builds. Finally, case studies of our Specialists' most challenging operations will provide solutions to the most challenging security vulnerabilities.

Customer Reviews:

Superb, well balanced content.......2003-06-03

It isn't often I come across a book on security that gets so much right. While I think of myself as a subject matter expert on matters of security I was pleased at how much depth this book contained and how many tips I picked up. The SQL and IIS chapters are perhaps the best coveraged of their subject matter I have yet seen.

The coverage is balanced between the various colors of hats people wear and contains masses of recommendations for hardening the various components discussed.

Overall good - great to see focus on internal security.......2003-04-28

There is many hacking books out there right now. Many of these are concerned with external penetration testing, which most non-security professionals are obsessed with - thanks to all the sensationalized hacking stories by the often clueless press.

"Special Ops" discusses the internal threat, which in most cases is more important to the majority of businesses. A simple and straight forward methodology is presented to deal with internal security. Analyze your business, identity your business assets, profile them, group them and prioritize them and then finally secure these assets using the 80/20 pareto principle. This is common sense but great to see that someone has written a book about it.

There are separate chapters covering various platforms (WinX, Unix etc), database & application servers (Exchange, Oracle etc) and web applications. The final chapter discusses the most important topic - security policies. Without a security policy driven by business requirements - there will be no "real" security... The chapters are written by various subject matter experts, which makes the book feel like a collection of white papers. A few chapters are very high level - the books spans a very wide range of topics. Most of the information can be easily found on the internet if you know where to go and look.

One complaint is the pages with code examples. Put code examples on a CD and include the CD with the book. I do not think people are interested in spending time typing in the code examples. This should be supplied with the book on a CD.

To summarize, overall an interesting book, due to the focus on internal testing. Wide area of topics, which makes the content a bit too high level at times. One thought that always strike me is the emphasis on the technology. Technology is only a business tool. It is more important to understand your business, manage your people and physical security before you should worry about the technology. What good is all the network and host security if you can either call your business and social engineer passwords or even worse - just walk into your secure areas uncontested and do whatever I want to do? I guess it is easier to control about deal with the logical aspects and technology than irrational people who never do what they are supposed to,

The CISO or Auditor Survival Guide.......2003-04-03

Yesterday morning I spent the better part of an hour in an interview with a reporter. The topic: "If you were giving advice to a brand new security officer, a CSO, or CISO, about how to avoid being fired in their first year, what would you tell them?" After the interview I started to read Special Ops and if there was any way to go back in time I would have told that reporter, tell them to buy Special Ops and read it at least three times.

I normally classify books into a couple of categories; there are books about things and books that tell you how to do things. Special Ops weighs in at a thousand plus pages and covers Windows XP, 2000, Outlook, Exchange, Unix, Security Policy and much more, yet does not fall neatly into either category. So what category is Special Ops?

Dan Lynch, a founder of the Internet and the founder of Interop once used a term, Bogon filter, years before BGP was invented. Bogon, apparently, was a synonym for blarney if you get my drift. Technical people will tell managers and auditors almost anything because they are pretty sure they can get away with it. The chapters in this book are written by brilliant people; they are packed with useful information. You will not learn enough about securing XP to hang out your shingle, but if you read that chapter a couple times you will certainly be on solid ground to determine if the consultant you are considering hiring to secure your XP systems knows enough to even get near your computer facility. The auditor that invests the time to read this book cover to cover three times should be given a t-shirt that says "Fear me". Special Ops can help you develop a bogon filter better than any other single book I have seen on the marketplace.

Chapter 18, Creating Effective Corporate Security Policies, is one of the most fascinating chapters in the book. Though obviously it covers material that can be found in other places, the authors clearly knows their stuff; it is pure pragmatic advice. The warnings ring true and the links are there.

Though content is the most important ingredient of a technical book and Special Ops is packed with content, layout is also important. The book was happy to lay flat within the first four minutes I was playing with it. The fonts are well chosen and large enough to be readable, the paper is substantial. I do have two complaints regarding layout. After the first reading, it will primarily serve as a reference book, so running a camouflage overprint across half of the table of contents was less than brilliant. The same goes for the silly FAQ stamp on top of the questions. Never intentionally make a book hard to read! On the other hand, summary links for more information and an FAQ for every chapter show a real concern for the needs of the reader. As always, just buying the book and putting it on the shelf will not make your systems and network more secure. I have only met Erik Birkholz twice, but I truly believe that if you come up to him hoping for his autograph he is going to reserve a special word for the person with a copy of Special Ops that is full of sticky notes and scribble in the margins. This author team must have worked very hard to produce something this powerful; drink deep of their knowledge.

Tons of new stuff!.......2003-03-28

I'm not sure what book this guy from Orange, CA was reading, but I found all kinds of new and relevant information in several chapters! The chapter on Terminal Services was especially enlightening. Many new things to consider when rolling this one out to the enterprise! Yikes.

I think the reader from Orange missed the whole point of the book. It wasn't intended to be a catalog of the latest and greatest tools on the market - like the Hacking Exposed series - it looks like it was designed to help internal security staffs think differently about how they secure the critical components of the enterprise. This includes how they write their policies, and consider the human factor in the security equation.

I have personally used the book's content to create focused audit programs and been very successful at doing so.

Please create more books in this series!

Huh?.......2003-03-27

I just finished this book and I found it to be well written, comprehensive, and incredibly informative and up to the minute in terms of the vulnerabilities covered. I specialize in SQL security and I'm not sure if the negative reviewer below actually read this chapter. He complains the SQL chapter: "...mentions nothing about port blocking which is the first thing I would do. UDP Port 1434 really has no purpose and should be blocked..." The following is from page 637 of the SQL chapter in Special Ops: "It cannot be stressed enough just how important it is to either apply this patch [from MS] or block all UDP 1434 inbound to the server." It's a great book and I don't think people should be turned off by incorrect criticsisms.

Product Description

Printed in black and white pages by Prentice Hall of India, same content as the hardcover version.

Book Description

The book documents the development of the fundamental principles and laws for living systems sciences. It identifies information (genetic, biochemical and neural) with the same precision as other fundamental concepts such as length, time, mass, temperature and energy. It establishes units of measure for information and establishes a formal relationship among behavior, structure, organization, information and energy. This is the first in a series of three books.

Customer Reviews:

A profound and remarkable contribution to original thought!.......1999-07-07

This highly readable scientific work represents a fundamental approach to the quantification of knowledge. Although "knowledge management" has become an unfortunate buzzword along the clutter of Burma Shave signboards dotting the information superhighway, this book offers a refreshing vista from a much broader and profound creative landscape. It is the first important work to tackle the subject of how "knowledge" can be quantified and thus measured. All information systems professionals should be familiar with it.

Book Description

The first volume devoted entirely to Electron Spin Echo Envelope Modulation (ESEEM) Spectroscopy This valuable book provides an introduction and broad survey of topics in ESEEM spectroscopy, including the theory, instrumentation, peculiarities of ESE experiments, and analysis of experimental data with particular emphasis on orientationally disordered systems. Applications of ESEEM spectroscopy to study chemically and biologically important paramagnetic centers in single crystals, amorphous solids, and powders are discussed as well. Electron Spin Echo Envelope Modulation (ESEEM) Spectroscopy will benefit specialists in magnetic resonance spectroscopy, physicists, chemists, and biologists who use magnetic resonance in their research.

The Magnetic Field Dependence of Electron Spin Echo Envelope Modulation a Thesis Presented By Gary John Gerfen to the Department of Chemistry Harvard University

Average customer rating:

The Magnetic Field Dependence of Electron Spin Echo Envelope Modulation a Thesis Presented By Gary John Gerfen to the Department of Chemistry Harvard University
Gary John Gerfen
Manufacturer: Harvard University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PXJ6B6

Product Description

A Thesis presented by Gary John Gerfen to The Dept of Chemistry in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Chemistry Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts. December 1990

Book Description

By systematically covering both the Heisenberg and Schrödinger realizations, the book emphasizes the essential principles of quantum mechanics, which remain hidden within the usual derivations of the wave equation. Moreover, this presentation not only covers the material which is traditionally presented in textbooks, but also is especially suitable for introducing the spin, i.e., the most important quantum observable. This emphasis on spin paves the way for a presentation of recent quantum-mechanical concepts such as entanglement and decoherence, and to recent applications including cryptography, teleportation and quantum computation.

"I am very impressed with Dr. Bes' approach to the subject, the clarity of his exposition, and the timeliness of the examples, many of which are taken from the most recent developments of the "old-new" field of quantum mechanics" ( Prof. J. Roederer)

Customer Reviews:

The best quantum introduction.......2006-03-28

I've used the text as an introduction to quantum mechanics in electronic engineering and the results were great. The book is certainly concise, mathematical preliminaries are short and useful, and the approach is simple but the scope is important. It is very axiomatic and from a few principles I could solve the problems of the Schaum Edition devoted to Quantum Mechanics without reading the theoretical part. I've read several books introducing quantum mechanics, and I consider this was the best.

Do not waste your money.......2006-01-10

They call this book "concise" and they aren't kidding. An example is the section on addition of angular momentum: its one page. An amazing 4 and a half pages is devoted to the harmonic oscillator! The bottom line of this book is that its far too "concise". It seems like it was thrown together in a single weekend. If you already know quantum mechanics and are looking for mastery or deeper understanding, or just a review, there isn't enough here to get that. On the other hand, if you're learning QM for the first time, this book is completely worthless. In the end its unfortunate because I think the author has a talent for explanation, he should have taken the time to write a solid book that wasn't concise but useful.

Brilliant, concise and orginal!.......2005-04-23

The book is simple great, it covers both formulation of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg's and Schrödinger's, some problems, as the harmonic oscilator are cover in both points of view. The modern applications such as teletransportation, quantum cryptography and new interpretations of quantum mechanics (different from Copenhague's one) are introduced in a clever and concise way. The book is great for an introductory course but also as reference. Dr. Bès makes use of his amazing trajectory and intelligence in this book and develops a unique textbook.

Average customer rating:

LOL!!!! XD

I was hoping to like it more

A thoughtful, guilty pleasure.

Hilarious

no satisfaction

Why Girls Are Weird : A Novel
Pamela Ribon
Manufacturer: Downtown Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
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Why Moms Are Weird

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I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl

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Accessories:

Conair Pro Color Accents Temporary Hair Color Kit

Conair MDF2R Facial Sauna With Timer

ASIN: 0743469801

Book Description

She was just writing a story.

When Anna Koval decides to creatively kill time at her library job in Austin by teaching herself HTML and posting partially fabricated stories about her life on the Internet, she hardly imagines anyone besides her friend Dale is going to read them. He's been bugging her to start writing again since her breakup with Ian over a year ago. And so what if the "Anna K" persona in Anna's online journal has a fabulous boyfriend named Ian? It's not like the real Ian will ever find out about it.

The story started writing itself.

Almost instantly Anna K starts getting e-mail from adoring fans that read her daily postings religiously. One devotee, Tess, seems intent on becoming Anna K's real-life best friend and another, a male admirer who goes by the name of "Ldobler," sounds like he'd want to date Anna K if she didn't already have a boyfriend. Meanwhile, the real Anna can't help but wonder if her newfound fans like her or the alter ego she's created. It's only a matter of time before fact and fiction collide and force Anna to decide not only who she wants to be with, but who she wants to be.

Download Description

"She was just writing a story. When Anna Koval decides to creatively kill time at her library job in Austin by teaching herself HTML and posting partially fabricated stories about her life on the Internet, she hardly imagines anyone besides her friend Dale is going to read them. He's been bugging her to start writing again since her breakup with Ian over a year ago. And so what if the ""Anna K"" persona in Anna's online journal has a fabulous boyfriend named Ian? It's not like the real Ian will ever find out about it. The story started writing itself. Almost instantly Anna K starts getting e-mail from adoring fans that read her daily postings religiously. One devotee, Tess, seems intent on becoming Anna K's real-life best friend and another, a male admirer who goes by the name of ""Ldobler,"" sounds like he'd want to date Anna K if she didn't already have a boyfriend. Meanwhile, the real Anna can't help but wonder if her newfound fans like her or the alter ego she's created. It's only a matter of time before fact and fiction collide and force Anna to decide not only who she wants to be with, but who she wants to be. "

Customer Reviews:

LOL!!!! XD.......2007-09-19

this book was soo funy i told everyone at work who asked how funny it was and i seriously laughed out loud while reading it.the ending was less then awesome but it was way funny and the beginning was a total "omg! i did that!" like so many other parts!!! my sister even read it and we talked about it through the cell phone while i was almost done with it and she was in the middle:D. you should go read it-its too funny:D

I was hoping to like it more.......2007-08-30

WHY GIRLS ARE WEIRD by Pamela Ribon
August 30, 2007

Amazon Rating: 3.5/5 stars

I read WHY MOMS ARE WEIRD first, which I found hilarious, but I had a harder time getting into WHY GIRLS ARE WEIRD. I think I was expecting something similar when I read Pamela Ribon's debut, but the two books are completely different.

In WHY GIRLS ARE WEIRD, main character Anna Koval calls herself Anna K and pens a blog in which she makes up things that could be about her life, but aren't. She takes a past boyfriend and writes about him as if they are currently dating, even setting up a possibility of a wedding. And people out there are buying into her blog. She doesn't think anyone is reading it, but as life goes on, she finds out that there is a following of fans out there that are living day to day by her words.

What is so "weird" about the blog is that Anna is living her life as if she and her boyfriend, Ian, are still dating and on the verge of getting married. Anna has a lot of issues to deal with, and this is the main one, in which for some reason she cannot let go of Ian. Her best friend Dale, a wonderfully funny gay man, is aghast when he reads the blog (which is presented to him on his birthday) and to her dismay, Dale is very disappointed and worried about Anna. What is more, she now has a stalker/fan that worms her way into Anna's life, and it's not an experience she actually wanted to happen. It's almost downright freaky.

I think my problem with WHY GIRLS ARE WEIRD is that I didn't understand Anna's need to make up a life and post it on the Internet. I also didn't get why Anna couldn't understand that others would eventually find her weird blog, possibly people that she knew. WHY GIRLS ARE WEIRD is a funny, warped, yet almost real take on what goes on in the world of the internet. However, I'm not a fan of My Space and similar websites, and maybe that is why I didn't quite "get" the book. Anna and her need to make up this new life for herself only irked me, and that's why I'm only giving this book a 3.5 rating.

A thoughtful, guilty pleasure........2007-07-16

Anna Koval is living a pretty average life. She has good Friends that adore her, an ex-boyfriend that she hasn't stopped trying to figure out, a job in a library that she could do in her sleep. Anna has dreams of acting, her friend Dale loves the stories she used to write before she and Ian broke up. At this point in her life, Anna Koval is bored.

In an attempt to be proactive in her life Anna decides to teach herself HTML, a skill she thinks could help her in her career. By starting an online journal she can put HTML to use, Make Dale happy by writing again and perhaps express herself along the way. With that, her alter ego Anna K is born. Anna K is creative and has an opinion about everything. It was really only a small stretch to give Anna K a devoted boyfriend named Ian. It couldn't really matter; it wasn't like it was real anyway.

Anna is surprised to be inundated with e-mail from fans that read her blog everyday. There is Tess that wants to know everything about her and seems to have a few secrets of her own. LDobler is a male admirer that switches between sounding like the perfect man and a creepy stalker.

Fact and fiction entwine until Anna herself has a hard time telling them apart and is forced to decide what it means to live a truly authentic life.

Why girls are weird reads like the diary we have all tried to keep at one point, funny, insightful and intelligent. Anna Koval rings true to me in a way most characters don't. She is flawed, thoughtful, loyal, confused and unhappy with her waistline,. Anna will steal your heart on her journey and make you laugh along the way.

Hilarious.......2007-04-04

I picked this book up from a book sale because it looked like a good beach book. I'm sure glad I did. It was hilarious. Some of the parts were so funny I still laugh when I think about them. It was one of the best "beach books" I've read in awhile. I liked it so much I actually bought a copy for my friend so I had someone to talk to about it.

no satisfaction.......2006-10-04

I loved Pamie's site for years. Thought the book was terrible, but it might be funny to you if you didn't know how much funnier and deeper the site could be. And I kind of feel the "woe is me, it is so hard to be a famous blogger" shtick is pretty annoying, like, I'm sorry that you wrote stuff that people responded to, and I know it got a little crazy and cultlike here and there, but I also remember that being encouraged on the site of yore. Anyway. The book was a big letdown (and even a turnoff) for me, but I can imagine it might be enjoyable if you don't have any expectations.

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