Showing posts with label encryption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label encryption. Show all posts

The Hacker's Handbook: The Strategy Behind Breaking Into and Defending Networks Review

The Hacker's Handbook: The Strategy Behind Breaking Into and Defending Networks
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The Hacker's Handbook: The Strategy Behind Breaking Into and Defending Networks Review"The Hacker's Handbook" is a comprehensive and entertaining volume on security. It has most of the defining traits of a great book, such as clearly stated goal (authors realize that lots of security books are out there and one needs to differentiate) as well as some unique content on application attacks.
The book is a technically sound volume, I found very few factual mistakes. I found some interesting content on central auth servers such as radius, which I haven't seen described well elsewhere. Defensive tool info is a bit jumbled and not new. For example, IDS coverage is too non-specific to be useful. I also found a couple of other chapters a bit weak on interesting content.
The book covers the security field on many levels - from concepts to scripts - and can be successfully used by entry-level people as well as experts. The book is better suited for technologists rather than managers. Security analysts/admins, hands-on security managers, security savvy system and network admins, students of computer security can benefuit from a book.
Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA, GCIH is a Senior Security Analyst with a major security information management company. He is the author of the book "Security Warrior" (O'Reilly, 2004). His areas of infosec expertise include intrusion detection, UNIX security, forensics, honeypots, etc. In his spare time, he maintains his security portal info-secure.orgThe Hacker's Handbook: The Strategy Behind Breaking Into and Defending Networks Overview

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Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition, Final Chapter, and DVD Review

Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition, Final Chapter, and DVD
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Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition, Final Chapter, and DVD ReviewI have just finished a marathon session of reading "Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition" and I have a very conditional review of it: It's a must-have if you don't already own the previous editions of these guilty pleasures. If you are already a fan, however, prepare to be let-down by the compilation.
The stories of the Stealing the Network series entertain in the same way that "war stories" from fellow hackers and security professionals often keeps a more intimate audience's interest: by mixing intriguing situations with juicy technical detail that can serve as a useful take-away. No one will accuse these books of containing fine literature, but that's not really the point. The stories are well written enough to keep you wanting to know what will happen next, while the technical information is as accurate as you're likely to see in fiction. Segments involving hacking are written and illustrated with enough attention to detail and length to serve as introductory educational tutorials for the topics (including web application hacking, reverse engineering, and wireless security). Most of these scenarios are believable as parts of larger-scale operations.
The first book of the series consists of independent short-stories based around characters of the authors' creation. The other three books in the compilation tell an over-arching story of a larger "operation", which involves many characters and their independent stories. The second book, "How to Own a Continent", is probably my favorite, along with the first ("How to Own a Box"), for keeping things simple, technical, and focusing on the individual stories. The third book, "How to Own an Identity" suffers from having worse editing then the rest of the series, and may lose some readers' interest. The fourth book ("How to Own a Shadow") reads a lot better, and wraps the overall story up well, however it focuses only on a relative handful of the series' characters.
As a compilation, this Collector's Edition leaves much to be desired. While the original description for this edition described the books contained within as being "author-annotated", this is not the case. The individual books are reproduced exactly as they were in their original editions, with no additional commentary from the authors, and with all the same problems as the originals. For example, screenshots in the first chapter of the first book are the same illegible black squares that were in the original edition of the book published 7 years ago. The annotations along with other features described in the original description (emails, photographs) that would provide a lot of interesting background material, would have made this compilation a must-buy.
The extra content that you are receiving is a brief new forward by Jeff Moss, and a "Final Chapter" by Ryan Russell. The new chapter is about 20 pages long, and gives the story-line a proper ending. I won't ruin anything about it, but I will say that I enjoyed it. Syngress has promised in the description of the book to make this content available separately in electronic form in six months.
The included DVD is described on the back-cover copy as being "full" of behind-the-scenes stories. In reality, you will only find 20 minutes of interviews with a few of the authors. I enjoyed these interviews, however, much like the print companion, I felt like more should have been done. Also beware that there are problems with the audio on the DVD. When played on my MacBook, there was noticeable crackling/popping in the audio of the DVD. The same noise was present, but less noticeable when played through a stand-alone DVD player through a television.
To summarize, I like the books, and find them as entertaining as I did when they were originally published, and I like the new hardcover binding. I do think that it is unfortunate that the "Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition" does not meet its potential to be more than the sum of its parts. There seems to have been intent at some point to add value to the set, but it wound up simply being a rough concatenation of the individual books.
If you haven't read these books, then I very much recommend picking up this set. It's 1,000 pages of interesting stories and technical material. If you already have the previous editions of the Stealing the Network Series, however, you might find it hard to justify paying for them again.Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition, Final Chapter, and DVD Overview

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Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet Review

Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet
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Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet ReviewWhen it comes to a physical crime scene and the resulting forensics, investigators can ascertain that a crime took place and gather the necessary evidence. When it comes to digital crime, the evidence is often at the byte level, deep in the magnetics of digital media, initially invisible from the human eye. That is just one of the challenges of digital forensics, where it is easy to destroy crucial evidence, and often difficult to preserve correctly.
For those looking for an authoritative guide, Digital Evidence and Computer Crime is an invaluable book that can be used to ensure that any digital investigation is done in a formal manner, that can ultimately be used to determine what happened, and if needed, used as evidence in court.
Written by Eoghan Casey, a leader in the field of digital forensics, in collaboration with 10 other experts, the book's 24 chapters and nearly 800 pages provide an all-encompassing reference. Every relevant topic in digital forensics is dealt with in this extraordinary book. Its breadth makes it relevant to an extremely large reading audience: system and security administrators, incident responders, forensic analysts, law enforcement, lawyers and more.
In the introduction, Casey writes that one of the challenges of digital forensics is that the fundamental aspects of the field are still in development. Be it the terminology, tools, definitions, standards, ethics and more, there is a lot of debate amongst professionals about these areas. One of the book's goals is to assist the reader in tackling these areas and to advance the field. To that end, it achieves its goals and more.
Chapter 1 is appropriately titled Foundation of Digital Forensics, and provides a fantastic overview and introduction to the topic. Two of the superlative features in the book are the hundreds of case examples and practitioners' tips. The book magnificently integrates the theoretical aspects of forensics with real-world examples to make it an extremely decipherable guide.
Casey notes that one of the most important advances in the history of digital forensics took place in 2008 when the American Academy of Forensic Sciences created a new section devoted to digital and multimedia sciences. That development advanced digital forensics as a scientific discipline and provided a common ground for the varied members of the forensic science community to share knowledge and address current challenges.
In chapter 3 - Digital Evidence in the Courtroom - Casey notes that the most common mistake that prevents digital evidence from being admitted in court is that it is obtained without authorization. Generally, a warrant is required to search and seize evidence. This and other chapters go into detail on how to ensure that evidence gathered is ultimately usable in court.
Chapter 6 - Conducting Digital Investigations - is one of the best chapters in the book. Much of this chapter details how to apply the scientific method to digital investigations. The chapter is especially rich with tips and examples, which are crucial, for if an investigation is not conducted in a formal and consistent manner, a defense attorney will attempt to get the evidence dismissed.
Chapter 6 and other chapters reference the Association of Chief Police Officer's Good Practice Guide for Computer-Based Electronic Evidence as one of the most mature and practical documents to use when handling digital crime scenes. The focus of the guide is to help digital investigators handle the most common forms of digital evidence, including desktops, laptops and mobile devices.
The Good Practice Guide is important in that digital evidence comes in many forms, including audit trails, application, badge reader and ISP and IDS logs, biometric data, application metadata, and much more. The investigator needs to understand how all of these work and interoperate to ensure that they are collecting and interpreting the evidence correctly.
Chapter 9 - Modus Operandi - by Brent Turvey is a fascinating overview of how and why criminals commit crimes. He writes that while technologies and tools change, the underlying psychological needs and motives of the offenders and their associated criminal behavior has not changed through the ages.
Chapter 10 - Violent Crime and Digital Evidence - is another extremely fascinating and insightful chapter. Casey writes that whatever the circumstances of a violent crime, information is key to determining and thereby understanding the victim-offender relationship, and to developing an ongoing investigative strategy. Any details gleaned from digital evidence can be important, and digital investigators must develop the ability to prioritize what can be overwhelming amounts of evidence.
Chapter 13 - Forensic Preservation of Volatile Data - deals with the age-old forensic issue: to shut down or not to shut down? It provides a highly detailed sample volatile data preservation process for an investigator to follow to preserve volatile data from a system. There is also a fascinating section on the parallels between arson and digital intrusion investigations.
Part 4 of the book is Computers, in which the authors note that although digital investigators can use sophisticated software to recover deleted files and perform advanced analysis of computer hard drives, it is important for them to understand what is happening behind the scenes. A lack of understanding of how computers function and the processes that sophisticated tools have automated make it more difficult for digital investigators to explain their findings in court and can lead to incorrect interpretations of digital evidence.
Chapter 17 - File Systems - has an interesting section on dates and times. Given the importance of dates and times when investigating computer-related crimes, investigators need an understanding of how these values are stored and converted. The chapter has a table of the date-time stamp behavior on both FAT and NTFS file systems. Time stamps are not a trivial issue, as there are many different actions involved (file moved, deletion, copy, etc.) that can affect the date-time stamp in very different ways.
A better title for Digital Evidence and Computer Crime might be the Comprehensive Guide to Everything You Need to Know About Digital Forensics. One is hard pressed to find another book overflowing with so many valuable details and real-world examples.
The book is also relevant for those who are new to the field, as it provides a significant amount of introductory material that delivers a broad overview to the core areas of digital forensics.
The book progresses to more advanced and cutting-edge topics, including sections on various operating systems, from Windows and Unix to Macintosh.
This is the third edition of the book and completely upda#ted and reedited. When it comes to digital forensics, this is the reference guide that all books on the topic will be measured against.
With a list price of $70.00, this book is an incredible bargain given the depth and breadth of topics discussed, with each chapter written by an expert in the field. For those truly serious about digital forensics, Digital Evidence and Computer Crime is an equally serious book.
Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet Overview

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