Network Security - A Practical Approach

Author:     Jan L. Harrington
Published: 2005
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
Paperback: 384 pages
Readers in India:

This book gave me a good and well written introduction to the Network Security. However it requires the readers to have a basic understanding of LAN, WAN architecture; network interconnection hardware and the types of transmission media that are used to create network. Though I did not have this prerequisite knowledge , I still found many, though not all of the network security concepts presented in this book easy to understand.
The first chapter of the book provides a definition of security in terms of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) and then identifies sources of external and internal threats to the network. It also describes a typical Organization Security Policy and process and then towards the end briefly touches upon the topic of Security Audits. The next chapter deals with basics of security architecture.
The subsequent chapters are about security threats like - Physical security threats (Theft, vandalism etc,), Information Gathering, Gaining and Keeping Root Access, Spooling, Denial of Service Attacks, Malware, Password Cracking, Remote Access Vulnerabilities, Wireless Security Vulnerabilities. Practical tips on how to counter these threats are provided.
The final chapter of the book is about Data and Message encryption.
The book is well illustrated and the language is simple. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a quick overview of network security concepts.