Customer Rating:  
Summary: Letter to Mr. Panko
Comment: Dear Mr. Panko,
If you are going to write a book this bad and irritating to read, the least you can do is sell it cheap, so that when a poor undergraduate student is forced to use it as a textbook, he will at least have some money left over for food.
Good luck with the second edition,
Wils
Customer Rating:
Summary: makes for a poor textbook on computer security
Comment: While I can appreciate the need for a grounding in the basics of computer security the author goes about it poorly. The book layout on first pass seems passable with gratuitous usage of charts and visuals, but as the reader goes through the actual information you begin to realize that much of the information is rehashed in various forms. If you were to cut out the added redundancy, the book would be two-thirds it current size.
I also agree with a previous reviewer that some of the information seems a bit contrived or made-up in terms of modern day lingo use. The "drive by hacking" descrip the author uses in chapter two is accurate, but is more prevalently known as wardriving but the author does not identify that to the reader.
One thing the author does do well is reinforce concepts through questions that are interspersed throughout each chapter as well as "Thought questions" at the end of them. This being a first edition, I hope that subsequent editions are improved especially considering the price of the text. As book alternatives, Network Security Bible (basic level) and Security Warrior (intermediate) are good reads at a more palatable price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Management level
Comment: I just finished reading this one and I found it to be very helpful for a person trying to find management level understanding of security, I have been working with networking and security for the last 10 years of my life and it has been very helpful to pinpoint several management aspects that technology savvy people (I prefer that over geek) usually don't follow or look at. I enjoyed the explanations, everything was very easy to read and understand, the introduction to cryptography is simply one of the best I have found out there. Again, if you are a technical guru looking for technical advice there is no much use to it in this book, OS, Networks and other practitioner level stuff are not well defined, simply mentioned for reference or examples. Another part I liked about it was the level of detail that the author had to reference the attacks and statistics, which a lot of us love to read and know about. Finally, make sure to get edition 5 of the book, I am referring to edition 4, I am sure that there is a lot to cover in a couple years regarding security and the way to go about it. I got the book from the university package so I wont be getting the new one, it's simply overpriced in my opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Network Security?
Comment: I purchased a copy of this book for a network security class. In a way it has been a great read, for humor. The terms and programs are dated at best, made up at worst. An example, 'drive-by hacking,'I have NEVER seen this anywhere. It is commonly refered to as 'war driving,' showing its lineage to 'war dialing' or 'Snooping'. I have worked in IT security for the past 3 years and I find this book insulting. But, for a plus, it is a convenent size to use as a clip board, and it does hold papers down on my desk well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book...
Comment: This is an excellent book -- really gives you a security mindset. Informative, yet still an easy read. The only think I didn't like is the price of the book -- but I bought it using a coupon from UnderTag.com, so it ended up being a bargain for me!
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