Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Security for Non-Techies”
Variations on a Theme is a superb piece by Johannes Brahms. Borrowing on that, In Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Security for Non-Techies (Apress 978-1484238516), author Corey Parker has written an interesting variation on the theme of security awareness. This is a good thing, as you ... Read More
Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “Practical Cloud Security: A Guide for Secure Design and Deployment”
It was not that long ago, that if you wanted to build a data center with a 1,000 servers and 200 terabytes of storage; it would take about a year or so of planning to get such a design into production. With the advent of cloud services such as the ... Read More
Book review: The Official (ISC)² Guide to the CISSP CBK Reference
This is not my first review of a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) test preparation guide, and it certainly won’t be the last. With the growing demand for information security professionals, and the often hiring requirement for certification, the CISSP is considered the gold-standard of certification in the information ... Read More
Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World”
It’s 2019 and there still has not been a movie made about hackers, that is historically accurate and demonstrative of what hackers truly do. Should someone make Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World (PublicAffairs Books 978-1541762381) into a movie, and stay ... Read More
Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “Cyber Smart: Five Habits to Protect Your Family, Money, and Identity from Cyber Criminals”
The first edition of Computer Security Basics by Deborah Russell & G.T Gangemi (O'Reilly 978-0596006693) came out almost 30 years ago. One might think that knowing those computer security basics would be enough to help them avoid being a victim today. But even if the book came out 5 years ... Read More
Ben’s Book Review: “The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction”
An interesting observation William Shotts makes at the beginning of the 2 nd edition of The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction (No Starch Press 978-1593279523), is that in all of the hacking movies, one never sees the hacker using a mouse. From The Matrix to Takedown, the hackers are ... Read More
Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “Secure Cloud Transformation: The CIO’S Journey”
In 2009, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) was announced and version 1.0 of their Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus for Cloud Computing best practices guidance was published. Full disclosure - I was a founding member of the CSA. Ten years ago, many executives and technical people were not ... Read More
You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches
When I first saw the title of this book, I thought of the Warren Zevon song “Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead”. While it’s a typical sardonic Zevon tune, in You'll see this message when it is too late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches, (MIT ... Read More
Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age”
The most authoritative books are often those that rely on primary sources. While there’s nothing wrong with secondary, or even tertiary sources, the nature of a primary source makes for a much better reference. In The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age (Crown 978-04-5149789), author David ... Read More
Ben’s Book of the Month: Review of “Malware Data Science: Attack Detection and Attribution”
The proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” is known by almost everyone. In Malware Data Science: Attack Detection and Attribution (No Starch Press 978-1-59327-859-5), authors Joshua Saxe and Hillary Sanders artfully ... Read More
