Linux firewalls : attack detection and response with iptables, psad, and fwsnort / by Michael Rash, No Starch Press, 2007
Here is a good introduction to iptables and related tools, with script examples. Make good use of this book, and there is a good chance you and your company will never get hacked.
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Security data visualization : graphical techniques for network analysis / Greg Conti, No Starch Press, 2007
How do you analyze the logs from your firewalls, IDS’s, and web servers? They are large, and many people don’t have time to even peek at them. This book discusses ways to use graphical tools to display patterns gleaned from the logs so you can visualize the problem. Several open source projects are discussed.
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The new school of information security / Adam Shostack, Addison-Wesley, 2008, hard cover
The economics of security. This is not a large book, but it is very readable and full of insight, suggesting a new approach to security. One of the best books I have read this year.
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Professional rootkits / Ric Vieler. Wiley, 2007.
A programmer’s book on writing root kits for Windows. Here are lots of details on how to hack someone’s machine, though minimal discussion of virtualization. Written by an ‘Ethical Hacker’, this book will be useful to security pro’s who need to harden systems, or reverse engineer malware. Unfortunately, it might be quite useful to blackhats.
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Security engineering : a guide to building dependable distributed systems / Ross J. Anderson. Wiley 2008, hard cover
1000 very readable pages of straight talk on security. This affects almost everyone. The first edition was published in 2001, and the book appears to have been rewritten. I wish there was a new edition yearly.
According to B. Schneier, “It’s beautiful. This is the best book on the topic there is”.
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Silence on the wire : a field guide to passive reconnaissance and indirect attacks by Michal Zalewski. No Starch Press, 2005
This book on internet security is much different than most. Firstly, it is a joy to read! It has no dry descriptions of the latest vulnerabilities, but instead it delves into the technologies that underlie the Internet, and explores their inherent limitations.
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