http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews en-us (C) SANS Institute 2012 webmaster@sans.org (SANS Webmaster) http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/br_malware_analysis http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/br_malware_analysis I have been carrying this book around for three weeks and I have only made it to page 604 which is deep in the appendices, but I wanted to jot down some thoughts. The book tries to be self contained in that as little prior knowledge as possible is assumed. They begin by talking about static (not actually executing) and dynamic analysis followed by a malware taxonomy. By page 10 the authors show you something very useful - how to run MD5 on a Windows system.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/book_tangled_web http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/book_tangled_web I had enjoyed Mr. Zalewski's previous book Silence on the Wire so I was looking forward to taking a look at his newest work. What I did not expect was that I would not want to put it down, well, except for a trip down the invisible gorilla rabbithole. But The Tangled Web is about code and html and javascript - how could it be gripping? Mostly because it scared the heck out of me

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/review_who_hiring http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/review_who_hiring On the flight to Seattle, I finished Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. It is about one subject only, hiring. Easy read with a nice blend of research (and it is well researched) and stories to drive home the points. The basic concept is to focus on hiring "A" employees; the best and avoid "B" and "C" employees for the critical jobs.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/bilton_future_book http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/bilton_future_book I just finished Nick Bilton’s book, it is very fresh and I think it has some insights for all of business, especially all of SANS and GIAC business. I will talk about Chapters 1 and 2 specifically and then some of the takeaways. Bilton is a good writer, and this is a fantastic choice as an airplane book.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/fourobsessions http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/fourobsessions Rob Vandenbrink recommended a few Patrick Lencioni books and this was the first one I read. I saw a review on Amazon that says, "concise, compelling, simple, and wise look at the role of a leader in an organization." and that describes the book very well.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/br_security_school http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/br_security_school Quoting another reviewer, Kevin Thompson, gives us an idea about this book on the information security profession: "Not to say that the rest of the book isn't valuable, but if you only had 30 minutes to get the point of the book, I would say read chapter 4."

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/crimeware_book_rev http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/crimeware_book_rev Jakobsson and Ramzan, set a new standard for security books with Crimeware; it is both eminently pragmatic and, at the same time, a scholarly work, I thought I knew a bit about malware, but I learned tons from the book.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/dreams_father_obama http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/dreams_father_obama Barack Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, is reviewed here by Stephen Northcutt of the SANS Technology Institute. Stephen feels that the book ends better than it begins; in fact, he believes that Mr. Obama was very generous to let so many strangers into his headspace.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/layer_2_attacks http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/layer_2_attacks After reading this book by Vyncke and Paggen, you will never think about layer 2 the same way again. We quickly learn that, from a security perspective, a switch is neither a mindless toaster nor an insignificant appliance.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/made_to_stick_br http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/made_to_stick_br The Blog digest version of Stephen Northcutt's book review for Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/geekonomics_review http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/geekonomics_review Geekonomics, by David Rice, is a new book about the real cost of insecure software; this is not a book just for technical people, but every thinking man and woman should read it.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/end_to_end_security http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/end_to_end_security If you are an intermediate to expert security practitioner and you want to page through the book to find security topics that you do not know about, that is a great use of Santos' End-to-End Network Security, but there is very little depth beyond that.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/behind_the_screen http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/behind_the_screen As a computer security author, I am always interested in hearing about other authors and their projects. Here is one from Mark Stone and he has been working on a project called Behind the Screen: Hacking Hollywood. Who knows, he may be a household (SOChold?) name in a year or two.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/linksys_wrt54g_br http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/linksys_wrt54g_br If you are going to be installing wireless it is a good idea to read this book; a lot of the information applies regardless of what brand of equipment you select. And as for me, I don't think I will ever look at a Linksys router in the same way again; from now on I will be wondering just exactly what is going on beneath the hood.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/black_swan_review http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/black_swan_review A black swan is a surprising or virtually unpredictable event that can have a massive impact. Nassim Taleb's observation, in his book The Black Swan, is that, after the fact, we concoct a narrative to explain it. His book is hard reading and people are either going to like this book or hate it. I have a thick skin, I choose to like it. He made me work pretty hard to get through it, but the mind is a muscle, and I, for one, thank Taleb.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/security_books_best http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/security_books_best What are the best security books to have in your library? To find out, Stephen Northcutt polled the GIAC Advisory Board. (Students that score over 90 on their GIAC certification exams are invited to join the Advisory Board).

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/age_of_speed_review http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/age_of_speed_review Poscente creates an easy to memorize taxonomy of people and businesses: Zeppelins that can't achieve speed; balloons that don't have to; bottle rockets, fast, but misguided; and jets, which is what we want to be. It was a good start, but should have been developed more. The book is divided into 36 short essays that are usually about two pages long, yet a lot of the material is redundant.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/br_virtual_honeypots http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/br_virtual_honeypots Stephen Northcutt discusses Virtual Honeypots by Provos and Holz, and he finds it to be the best security book he's read this year: a perfect blend of well researched information about honeypots as well as plenty of pragmatic how to do it.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/success_herbold http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/success_herbold When companies are successful they tend to hire too many people which raises costs, fractures lines of communications and leads to being unable to respond to changing industry trends. This is the core thought of Herbold, a long time executive at Proctor and Gamble and a seven year stint as Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/selling_blue_eleph http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/selling_blue_eleph The premise on the cover is: "How to make great products that people want before they even know they want them," and the primary focus of the book is Rule Developing Experimentation (RDE).

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/book_rev_snow_crash http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/book_rev_snow_crash As business leaders, we do not want to repeat history and be like some of the late adopters of the web who were so ignorant of its promise they didn't even register a domain name. Upon reviewing the book Snow Crash, Stephen Northcutt's advise is to buy the book, read the book, visit Second Life andinvest $25.00 to understand this new concept.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/miracle_in_andes http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/miracle_in_andes A colleague and former student of mine sent me a copy of this book to read with the following: The true story of an amazing journey of faith, teamwork and leadership ... and doing the impossible, over and over again.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/info_security_law_br http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/info_security_law_br This is the longest book on computer security law I have ever read. Every organization in the USA or that has significant dealings with the USA should probably have a copy on the shelves

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/admission_control http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/admission_control Cisco press was kind enough to send me this book for review and what great timing, I have been thinking about NAC a lot lately. It puts a useful network device management control in the hands of an information security manager and Cisco really does lead the market with their implementation.

]]> http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/21_laws_bk_review http://www.sans.edu/research/book-reviews/article/21_laws_bk_review Leadership books remind me of cooking: there are a finite number of common ingredients that make up the majority of dishes, but there seems to be an infinite number of ways to combine and present these ingredients.

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