Computer Security is a dry subject. Reading encyclopaedias is hard going at
the best of times so combining the two hardly seems to me to be a good idea but
I was pleasantly surprised by this book written by Mitch Tulloch.
Don't assume that by it's very title that this is going to be a monster of a
book. 450 pages for an encyclopaedia may not sound a lot but when you get
inside it and start reading you'll soon find it's packed with useful and
relevant information.
Rather than just being an alphabetically organised list of security-related
terms the book opens with a really useful introduction to the subject that
defines what computer security is and then goes onto cover other useful areas
such as Threats and Vulnerabilities, Hacking and Cracking amongst others.
The meat of the book is an alphabetically sorted list of terms and their
definitions. But rather than just leave it at that, where relevant each term has
it's own overview, details of how the term is implemented and a "For More
Information" section explaining where to go to find out more.
For example did you know that a "bastion host" is "a host that is fully exposed
to attack on a public network"? Well I didn't. Are you sure you know
how to reduce the risk of such hosts? I could recall some of the obvious
ones but it's only when it's written down in front of you in black and white
that you realise you probably could do a lot more.
Ever heard of "island hopping" where one compromised system or network is used
to break into another? Sounds like something out of the movies but
computer security finally seems to be getting the right amount of exposure it
deserves and is being moved up the corporate agenda of major issues facing
companies today.
Full indexed and cross-referenced this encyclopaedia lives up to it's name of
providing a complete reference on the subject. Fair enough I haven't read the
book from cover to cover (to my mind that's not what encyclopaedias are about),
but I'm safe in the knowledge that should I need to know something relating to
security I can reach for this book and easily find it.
