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Book Review: Network Perimeter Security

About.com Rating threehalf out of Five

From Tony Bradley, CISSP, MCSE2k, MCSA, A+, for About.com

Network Perimeter Security

The Bottom Line

The book description from the publisher talks about how there are many books out there either focused on certifications- such as CISSP, or that provide extreme detail on hacker methodology, but that not many of the books are tailored to providing the information needed to implement a day-to-day network security system. This book aims to be a concise, but comprehensive overview of network security. The information is good, but falls into a gray area between being too techie or not techie enough.
Pros
  • Teaches user how to guard the perimeter to protect the internal network
  • Full of good information without too much fluff or filler
  • Covers range of perimeter security technologies from PKI to VPN and more
Cons
  • Short on the details needed to actually implement a network perimeter defense

Description

  • Network perimeter defense is an important part of protecting your internal network(s)
  • Building defense in depth is an important concept that the author conveys well
  • Case studies help to illustrate for the reader how these technologies can be put to use
  • A little too much information for non-techies and not enough for techies to rely on to implement.
  • Concise and comprehensive. A lot of good information packed into a relatively small book

Guide Review - Book Review: Network Perimeter Security

Cliff Riggs book Network Perimeter Security: Building Defense in Depth aims to fill a void between books targeted at those trying to pass certification exams such as the CISSP and the books that deal with extreme detail regarding hacker tools and techniques.

This book is concise and comprehensive in its coverage of network perimeter security technologies and strategies, but the result is that the book has too much technical information for a manager or novice to fully comprehend, while not providing enough technical detail for a security or network administrator to truly put the information into action. I feel like with a little tweaking in either direction it would be an excellent book for one of those two audiences, but as is it is a good book that misses both targets.

That is not to say that the information isn't correct or that the book isn't well-written. The information that is there is very good. The use of case studies really helps to bring real-world perspective that can help the reader understand the issues with network perimeter security and how these technologies can be implemented to theoretically protect the network.

This is a good book to help you understand how to go about protecting the network perimeter and how layering security technology provides better defense than one security technology alone. I think many people will find valuable and useful information here- but I wouldn't recommend this if its the only book you're going to get or solely rely on.

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