Product: 1590593162

I recently finished reading and reviewing the book Computer Security for the Home and Small Office by Thomas C. Greene (Apress). While it does seem to lose focus a bit towards the end and has a definite bias (which I agree with!), the overall content and information is vital to know and understand.
The chapter breakdown:
Introducing the Dark Side; Vectors; Social Engineering; From Newbie to Power User; Treasure Hunt; The Open-Source Escape Hatch; Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing; Glossary; Procedures, Processes, and Ports; Online Resources; Index
First off, this is a highly readable and interesting book on how to secure your computer systems against attacks and keep your data private. The author is very vocal in his opinions, and you’ll quickly learn where those biases are. He is a major proponent of using Linux and ditching Windows. The only reason you should use IE is because you’re forced to. Even with that, he does go into each system and explain in detail what you need to do in order to harden your system. This includes shutting down unnecessary services, running anti-virus software, and using firewalls. All the stuff you’d expect to see in a book like this, and he delivers. The detail is sufficient for most intermediate users to follow, and after you’re done you’ll have a system that most script kiddies will bypass as it’s not worth the time or effort to crack.
Starting in the Trust Nothing chapter, he starts to rant about how security is portrayed in the media, along with the potential conflicts of interest between vunerabilities and the companies who fix them. While interesting material, the focus on home/small office seems to get lost in the mix. I don’t know if it’s just the style of the writing or what, but I was starting to wonder if we could just move on…
Windows bashers will love the book, Windows defenders will think he’s overly critical of the platform. Either way, this is material you can’t afford to ignore in today’s environment.
Rating: 4
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