Viruses Books

This is a frightening preview of a very real, potential terrorist threat. Reading this exciting book in April 2003 provided a juxtaposition of Jiangxi Virus fiction and SARS fact, especially with SARS emanating from China and initial puzzlement in how the SARS virus developed. The book is well-researched, with interesting scientific explanations, a la Clancy, further reinforcing the credibility of the book's foundation.

Supercharged high tech action and a multi-national cast of compelling characters make The Jianxi Virus a captivating page-turner.

This is almost as scary as one of Stephen King's novels, BUT it could be true! Schlosstein has done his homework and readers will learn a lot about both China and bio-terrorism. Let's just hope and pray that it remains fiction and does not become fact.

This book will scare you almost as much as one of Stephen King's novels - BUT, it could be true! Schlossstein has done his homework and there is lots to learn about China and science inhis newest thriller. Just hope and pray that it remains fiction and not fact!

This book will scare you almost as much as one of Stephen King's novels - BUT, it could be true! Schlossstein has done his homework and there is lots to learn about China and science inhis newest thriller. Just hope and pray that it remains fiction and not fact!

Computer viruses are code. And this waste of paper would want to be a book on computer viruses without any viral code? You must be kidding me....

Peter Szor's book is definitely THE book any aspiring anti-virus researcher and computer security professional must read. It is very broad and information-packed, covering just about every single important aspect of computer viruses and anti-virus research. The book is very technical which, from my point of view, is a big plus - although beginners might find some parts of it daunting. This is definitely no "viruses for dummies" book. In the field of computer viruses and anti-virus research, this book is what Donald Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, The, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set (2nd Edition) (The Art of Computer Programming Series) is for computer scientists.

The only gripe I have is that it is perhaps not deep enough. While every important aspect of viruses and anti-virus defense is covered, some of them are not covered deeply enough. This is not the author's fault but the publisher's. Originally, the author intended to write two separate volumes (one dedicated to computer viruses and one dedicated to anti-virus defenses), covering in depth every aspect of these two areas. However, the publisher imposed size restrictions on him. Although the book is rather thick (700+ pages), the space is still not enough to cover in sufficient depth every important aspect of this field.

However, each chapter contains references for further reading and the interested reader can do their own research of the aspects that are not covered deeply enough.

In summary: excellent book, useful both as a textbook and as a reference. Great read, information-packed, useful. Just don't expect to find any "how to write a virus" recipies there - fortunately, the author went to great lengths to avoid them.

As a relative amature in the subject of computer viruses, this book was very helpful. With a little background in basic computing, you can easily understand this book. The book starts off simple virus from back in the day, describing the first viruses to appear. The book then goes into detail about the more advanced forms of virus infections and viruses to appear on more modern systems. After reading the book, i came away with a new respect for the art of self replicating code (aka Virus), and the techniques that virus researchers use to develop software to protect your PC from these threats.

I was wondering in the bookshop trying to find some in-depth books on Computer Virus and Network Security and suddenly I came across this book. In a few pages the book lit up my eyes and the author successfully attracted my attention and I was simply amazed by his solid background and rich knowledge and also his effort in presenting all the materials in an orderly and logical way that has successfully flatten the learning curve for people fresh to the area.
Well, some people may complain that this is a disappointing book in that it hasn't gone far enough to illustrate the necessary virus writing skills and they believe only in this way can one speciallized in virus defense benefit most. Again, this is not the truth as far as I see. If one simply want to write virus by following existing codes he can only gain a narrow horizon by focusing upon one or two popular virus. But as the old idiom goes, you will miss the forest by seeing a tree only. New virus are produced by those high-intelligent poeple everyday and promises to continue to come in the forseeable future. New technologies too, emerge and then disapper with the patch or hot fixes. But as long as you have a comprehensive knowledge of the basic of virus research and defense you will never lose in this battle against virus. I think the author has trying to model his book to be some thing beyond the mere technology collection but to present to us how one might equip himself with the fundamental knowledge of the virus's history, main ideas, or even try to give definition in some places. So this is why the author names his creation to be "Virus research & defense" instead of "virus writing & defense". And as far as I see, his attempt has been a huge success.
And what's more, even for people who are crazy about writing virus this book is not such a disappointment. It incorporate many code snippet into the book and these code has actually reveal the dark side of the virus and one smart enough and with some knowledge in coding will be able to rebuild the complete viruses. Those who complain about the lack of virus writing skills might better try to figure out the reason in themselves. Anyway, there are a lot of sample virus within your easy reach on the internet. So why take the trouble to reproduce it here?
And finally I would like to show my thanks for the great effort Peter has spent on this book. For me this book has brought to me great pleasures and it has helped to orgnize my knowledge about computer virus in a more systematical manner. For those either new to the area or those professionals this is a must read and you shouldn't miss it.

If you are interested in historical details about viruses/malware, if you are searching for details about various techniques getting used by malicious software and if you are interested how people in the AV industry work... This book is definatly THE reference. Peter, a very competent virus researcher, who is known through his various articles in the Virus Bulletin magazine shows you all the techniques you need to analyse, to detect and to remove malicious software. His technical overview includes the entire history of computer viruses and is written in a very impressive and entertaining style. While I have read many books and articles about exploiting software, he also serves the most understandable definition of exploiting techniques like the classical stack overflow etc. I must say that his style impressed me so much that I read through the book in one day, something normally happening to me when reading thrillers of James Patterson. But this book is so well written, that you can rarely lay it out of your hands. You just want to know where Peter leds to, the next step in the voyage through the malicious world of computer viruses and malware. This book is geared through everybody trying to understanding what's happening in the malicious code polluting the Internet. For me well worth the money I spent on it.

I decided to read more about C.J. Peters after I concluded The Hot Zone; finding myself infatuated with this semi-mysterious, tropical-shirt wearing military officer and virus researcher. I was fascinated by this man whose experience and research will and has changed history.

Despite the unmatched experience, education and brillance of C.J. Peters intellect, I found the tone of this book suprisingly "down to earth" Peters is clearly a scientist who an experienced mentor. I sensed he does not see how extraordinary his life is; only that he is aware he is a man who has pursued his passion.

Having recently read both The Hot Zone (marburg), and Preston's Demon in The Freezer (smallpox), I felt I comprehended the power of airborne virus'. What I gained from Virus Hunter was just how much research, time and passion it takes for scientists to learn about these diseases. The intensity of virus research and trying to save human lives makes for an extraordinary read, particulary from the first hand accounts of a true virus hunter (I found his character truly translates to an Indiana Jones of the viral world...pursuing his subject deep into Brazil, the Sudan, and Virginia...)

Peters shares experiences including communication attempts with people around the world, and a need to relate to their lives. He wrote of adventures trying to reach rural locations in South America. He also respectfully recounts the stories of other scientists who succumbed to virus' illness, and the need for the research community to see these deaths as something to hold in mind while seeking a cure. Clearly attaching specific individuals (whether lab researchers, or individual unnamed patients who he watched die) as representatives of why cures MUST be found.


The only lull in this book is about 3/4 though the early chapter about the Four Corners outbreak, the initial story was intiguing (and as you will see ties distinctly into the entire theme of the book), however, it did drag. This was the ONLY slow part of this book. The rest was amazing.

C.J. Peters is the kind of scientist you want to sit, and UNDERSTAND what he sees and learns. He can easily communicate with the average person, and with those at the highest level in military and intellectual leaders. I so wish I had such a passionate scientist who has as much respect for women biologists as men; a scientist whose infectious (pun intended) passion raises everyone sense of curiousity about the subject he teaches. I believe more educators with his passion would produce more passionate scientist, and people willing to take on the overwhelming accomplishment of achieving a biology degree at University.


I would strongly, strongly recommend this book to anyone with any sort of interest in biology, disease, virus, or just anyone who enjoys a terrific adventure.

The sharing of his personal details, and the mating habits of top scientists (they date among their own kind...) added a true depth to his storyline.

I found this book utterly brilliant. The clear message is everyone must be aware of the dangers of viral disease, the serious nature of these illness' which are not classified as bacteria...nor parasitic. Also, the tight budgets created for medical research are truly a danger to the future of our health and those of developing nations.

While I was eating dinner the other night, I was deep in Virus Hunter, reading the descriptive details of what Ebola does to the human body. The thought suddenly struck me...I am eating and reading about subcutaneous hemorrhaging without even a blink...

Now THAT is a good book!

Everyone who is interested in life threatening diseases has come upon the name of C.J. Peters, a leading figure in epidemiology for at least 20 years. So, when i saw the book i bought it just to get an insight of the man himself. What i found was an inspiring manifest of how ''the job gets done'', written by a deeply stuborn, sensitive and respectfull scientist. It is not only a fine book on emerging diseases, it is also a call to medics and politicians alike to enlist to one of the most important, yet underated, scientific fields. Don't miss it.

An excellent book!
This books reads like a thriller as the authors take the reader from one hot zone to another. My appreciation for the bravery and humanity of individuals who do this has increased manifold after reading this.

I extremely enjoyed Dr. Peters's book. The only thing that I can argue with him about is in the chapter titled Cochabamba, when he describes Bolivia's geography he makes a mistake. I expect that he got confused, but he said the that the Kollas live in the lowlands of Beni and Santa Cruz and the Cambas in La Paz and the high altitude Altiplano. Well, the truth is that Cambas live in the lowlands of Bolivia and Kollas in the highlands. Otherwise I found the book very good and entertaining. I recommend everybody to read it, but to remember the Camba-Kolla explanation.

The maps of South America & Africa were confusing - they put a lot of effort into identifying most of the Countries, but many of them didn't feature in the text, so why give the Geography lesson?

The 20 photographs were of some interest, but there was only one photo of a patient with symptoms, and only one of a virus - I wish there'd been more of those and less of head & shoulders like having a meal and daughter's high-school graduation?

Great disappointment - absolutely no Index!

The penultimate Chapter 11 gives a prediction of Avian Flu originating in Thailand - just what we're getting news about this month (Jan 2004) - but this book was published in 1997. Given the age of the book, its probably not surprising that Chapter 12 is very out of date (as in 'wrong') regarding its description of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) & CJD.

Was it necessary that we be told what the wife of the 'ghost writer' does for a living?

The book teaches all that one wanted to know about computer viruses & vaccines. It also teaches how to write good assembly programs in a simple manner. Buy this book and you won't be disappointed!

This book was written over ten years ago, so obviously you are not going to read it and be on the cutting edge of virus writing and protection at this point. However, this book is still an excellent one for those who want to learn the ins and outs of Windows systems programming including how your computer can be controlled/manipulated using some assembly language and the operating system as it already exists. Basically, the author is using the subject of viruses to educate you on the fine points of assembly language programming for the PC without you knowing it was ever happening. I highly recommend it. However, as other reviewers have already said, the book is now free online, so don't pay some ridiculously high price believing its contents are a rare find.

This book is written to be accessible to anyone with a little experience with assembly language programming, or to anyone with any programming experience, provided they're willing to do a little work to learn assembler. Actually, this book acts as a pretty good tutorial on assembly language programming itself. The book is broken down into three parts. The first section discusses viral reproduction techniques, ranging from the simplest overwriting virus to complex multi-partite viruses and viruses for advanced operating systems. The second section discusses anti anti-virus techniques commonly used in viruses, including simple techniques to hide file changes, ways to hide virus code from prying eyes, and polymorphism. The third section discusses payloads, both destructive and beneficial. The following is the table of contents.

Introduction
Computer Virus Basics

PART I
The Simplest COM Infector
Companion Viruses
Parasitic COM Infectors: Part I
Parasitic COM Infectors: Part II
A Memory Resident Virus
Infecting EXE Files
Advanced Memory Residence Techniques
An Introduction to Boot Sector Viruses
The Most Successful Boot Sector Virus
Advanced Boot Sector Techniques
Multi-Partite Viruses
Infecting Device Drivers
Windows Viruses
An OS/2 Virus
Unix Viruses
Source Code Viruses
Many New Techniques

Part II: Anti-Anti Virus Techniques
How A Virus Detector Works
Exercises
Stealth for Boot Sector Viruses
Stealth Techniques for File Infectors
Protected Mode Stealth
Polymorphic Viruses
Retaliating Viruses
Advanced Anti-Virus Techniques
Genetic Viruses
Who Will Win?

Part III. Payloads for Viruses
Destructive Code
A Viral Unix Security Breach
Operating System Holes and Covert Channels
A Good Virus
Appendix A: ISR Reference
Appendix B: Resources

I tested a few of these programs for effectiveness on a Win95 and 98 (not 98se) machine. Wow, i was impressed at the speed and efficiency of the given code!
I have programmed in assembly, and this taught me a few tricks i hadn't seen before. Who knew that u could reach hidden functions in kernel32.dll?
Not I, not until now. I highly recommend this book for the curious, advanced, and master programmer alike.

You will learn the structure and power of assembly based virii, and how (if you think about it) to defend against them. A great little gem if you want to know how bad you can 'get it'.
hope this helps

Ok this book is about computer viruses but for those of us who have no intention of writing viruses, this book can teach quite a bit about system programming. The aurthor is clearly a very good programmer and he is able to teach the subject well.

Mr Ludwig, I think you should consider writing "under the hood" articles for the benefit of other programmers.

This book is a classic exposition on the programming of computer viruses. I concur with the other reviewers in that this is the best book ever on the subject (it is likely the only book on the subject from my searches). The first edition of this book is free to download from the publisher's website (search for American Eagle Publications in Google because Amazon.com won't let me put the URL) (it requires you to register but that is free too) along with the Little Black Book of Computer Viruses and lots of other information. THIS BOOK CAN STILL BE PURCHASED NEW FROM THE PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE for forty dollars, so don't order an overpriced used copy from Amazon.com (at the time of this writing, some jerk was trying to sell it for over one hundred dollars used! What a rip-off!).

Ah, sweet revenge. His letters made me laugh so hard and I can't help but wonder what the person on the other end was thinking when they read them (if they did). Hilarious, a must read.

The curse of the electronic age, SPAM eventually forces its way into the life of anyone with an email address. While there are many books and articles about how to reduce this problem, Jonathan Lund has taken his own personal war back to the spammers. Instead of just deleting the emails he responds to them. Of course he doesn't respond quite the way the spammers expect. His responses are an attempt at humor and wit that often falls short of the mark, but then again at times is absolutely hysterical.

Particularly funny is his correspondence with people who are naive enough to accept his satirical comments at face value. His correspondence with textile manufacturers and the infamous Nigerian money launderer is brilliant.

With writing that covers the whole range from a poor attempt at humor to laugh-out-loud funny, to bizarre, the reader is sure to find several emails entertaining no matter what your preference in humor. The Spam Letters is a recommended read.

Have you ever wanted to "strike back" at the spammers and the con artists? If so, you'll enjoy The Spam Letters by Jonathan Land (No Starch Press). This is a funny read...

Chapter list: Introduction; Products for Prey: Part 1; Foreign Affairs: Part 1; Spam Potpourri: Part 1; A Quick Buck; Interlude: Bad Impressions; Products for Prey: Part 2; Foreign Affairs: Part 2: Nigerian Scam Artists; Sex Sells; Spam Potpourri: Part 2; Warning/Disclaimer: Do Not Try This At Home

This isn't a book that is going to give you any technical insights or strategies for dealing with spam. Actually, it *will* give you a strategy... yank their chains... HARD!. Land has taken various spam emails he's received (or that have been forwarded to him by co-conspirators) and let his warped creative writing skills loose. Some of his efforts were more for his own benefit, as it was obvious that the return address was not going anywhere that was real. But his real classics were with real emails who decided to scam or spam the wrong person. His exchange with the fabric wholesaler in the middle east is funny. The series with the stainless steel broker is just plausible enough to be real (and the broker played along well). The best efforts were reserved for the Nigerian scam artists. His scenarios of playing off scammers against each other, asking for bigger cuts, and playing the role of both financial advisor and committed asylum patient gives any reader who has received one of these emails a vicarious thrill.

This is an excellent recreational read, but I probably shouldn't have opened it. I'm just warped enough to think I could do this too... :-)

Author Jonathan Land actually has running dialogs with spam writers, published in such prestigious places as New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, so it's not surprising The Spam Letters provides such a delightful package bringing all the dialogs to one place, under one cover. Land's favorite exchanges with spammers are a laugh a moment- and all too real - making The Spam Letters that perfect gift for the serious computer geek who 'has everything' but too much humor.

This is one of those books that everyone should read - so that we can all vicariously through Jon Land's dive into the land of spammers... and in agreement with others - catching him on NPR is more than a treat - its an addiction waiting to happen (think chocolate).
For the geek and for the not-so-geekish, this book serves as a living history of the frustrations we all have felt when dealing with SPAM. Mr. Land just found a great way give some of that frustration back to the SPAMMERS - and to give us geeks something to chuckle about when reading about V|AGRA or the fortunes that await us in Nigeria... and we can take comfort in knowing that we're not alone in out frustrations.
Thank you, Jon!

This is a truly great introductory security book. It does a very good job in explaining the basics for those that might be new to the topic of security, and manages to do so without the gross oversimplifications that are all to common in books aimed at the uninitiated. While this is definitely more of an introductory text, I was very happy to see good coverage of topics such as encryption and biometrics, and even an appendix covering TEMPEST. A truly great book for learning security concepts. I'm going to look into switching the present text for this one in one of the introductory security courses that I teach.

It's a good book for starters. Covers security concepts pretty well even for it's age being published in 1991 I believe. There's a lot of history and references. The author definately did her research. Other than being a starting point there are a lot of other good books out there to fill in the blanks and pickup where Computer Security Basics leaves off. Plus, you can read this book in a week or less.

This book is the long awaited second edition of a classic book in basic computer security. It is an introduction to the field, not a technical reference. If you need details on a particular aspect of computer security, you should refer to another more specialized book. Since Amazon does not show the table of contents, I review this book in reference to its table of contents:

Part I, SECURITY FOR TODAY
Chapter 1, Introduction
Introduces computer security: what it is and why it's important. It summarizes the threats to computers and the information stored on them, and it introduces the different types of computer security. It notes that if you ignore computer security you could not only be a crime victim but an unwitting partner in crime.
Chapter 2, Some Security History
Describes how we got to where we are today. It summarizes key events in the history of computer security, discusses some of the government standards and programs involved with computer security, and introduces the concept of computer databases and the preservation of privacy.

Part II, COMPUTER SECURITY
Chapter 3, Computer System Security and Access Controls
Introduces computer system security and describes how it controls access to systems and data.
Chapter 4, Viruses and Other Wildlife
Explores viruses, worms, Trojans, and other types of malicious code. The financial effects of malicious programs are discussed first, including that of wasted time. Next it equates viruses and public health - in that once your computer is infected others can be too using your computer as a jumping off point. The history of viruses is also discussed, including the fact that today's viruses and worms are basically malware written by malicious individuals, not computer scientists exploring the limits of technology as was once the case. Remedies, and more importantly, prevention is discussed.
Chapter 5, Establishing and Maintaining a Security Policy
Describes the administrative procedures that improve security within an organization and the three general categories of administrative security. It also introduces business continuity and disaster recovery as part of security. It also introduces the large numbers of laws now on the books relating to computer security, many that carry heavy fines in case of violation. It also mentions that it is important to implement separation of duties so no one person carries the load of security-related tasks.
Chapter 6, Web Attacks and Internet Vulnerabilities
This chapter deals with the basics of the Internet and the Web, as well as several important Internet protocols that keep the Internet humming from behind the scenes. The chapter then discusses vulnerabilities of several of these services, as well as exploits that can be used to attack them. Finally, this chapter gives several suggestions of how users can defend against those who misuse the Internet to steal or annoy.

Part III, COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY
Chapter 7, Encryption
This chapter explains what encryption is and how it protects data. The chapter discusses encryption definition and history. It also discusses DES (the Data Encryption Standard), as well as listing the acronyms of many other encryption algorithms. The chapter also defines message authentication, and lists several government cryptographic programs as well as mentioning cryptographic export restrictions.
Chapter 8, Communications and Network Security
Introduces network concepts and discusses some basic communications security issues. These issues include what makes communications secure, and the definition of modems, networks, and network security. Appropriate steps to keep your computer network safe from attack are outlined.

Part IV, OTHER TYPES OF SECURITY
Chapter 9, Physical Security and Biometrics
Introduces physical security and describes different types of biometric devices. Physical security is largely a system of common sense precautions and photo IDs, where biometrics is a new science where an individual's retina patterns, iris patterns, voice patterns, signatures, and keystroke patterns are measured and identified.
Chapter 10, Wireless Network Security
Describes the workings of wireless networks and the security ramifications of this access medium. Shows that although wireless computing is very convenient, it opens up a whole new world to hackers. Proper antenna selection to keep radio signals confined to the appropriate area is discussed. Careful attention to network cabling--all wireless networks end up connecting to a wired network at some point--also help assure security for the wireless environment.

In summary, this is a great little book for those just entering the field of computer security, as well as individual computer users who want to learn how to not be the weak link in either their professional or home network. It carefully defines terms and even has some good general advice on securing your computer and your network, but you should consult other books for details. I highly recommend it to the beginner who is interested in the field.

It still surprises me how many of my information technology colleagues still have no clue when it comes to computer security. This particular book is one I'd feel really good about when it comes to a recommendation to get them up to speed on the subject... Computer Security Basics (2nd Edition) by Rick Lehtinen, Deborah Russell, and G. T. Gangemi Sr.

Contents:
Part 1 - Security for Today: Introduction; Some Security History
Part 2 - Computer Security: Computer System Security and Access Controls; Viruses and Other Wildlife; Establishing and Maintaining a Security Policy; Web Attacks and Internet Vulnerabilities
Part 3 - Communications Security: Encryption; Communications and Network Security
Part 4 - Other Types of Security: Physical Security and Biometrics; Wireless Network Security
Part 5 - Appendixes: OSI Model; TEMPEST; The Orange Book, FIPS PUBS, and the Common Criteria
Index

While not a technical "how to" manual, this book does a great job in dealing with technical issues and concepts. Pretty much all the significant issues surrounding computer and technology security these days is covered in sufficient detail to allow for a functional understanding of the topics. For instance, the chapter on viruses would allow even the most clueless techie to grasp the problems. The authors distinguish between viruses, worms, trojan horses, bombs, and other various nasty surprises. The history is valuable to understand how we got into this condition, and by the end of the chapter you'll know what you need to do to start to combat the problem. From there, you can dive into the more technical details of any one of the areas that pertain to your particular situation.

For a subject that could be painfully dry without much effort, Lehtinen et al. do an admirable job in keeping the reader engaged and involved. If you're trying to educate someone who hasn't kept up with the topic of computer security, this would be a very good starting point...

The problem all computer books have is that they are almost out of date before they reach the bookstore as things change so quickly and unfortunately this 10 year old book, although okay for the casual reader who may want an understanding of security generally, is a dinosaur concentrating on old technologies, orange book concepts and not even touching on modern problems like distributed denial of service, e-mail viruses etc. Very disappointing for an O'Reilly book. An update is long overdue.

I was just browsing the shelves looking for something that might interest an adult but be easy enough for a 4th-grade reading level (I tutor adult basic education) and this book was a pleasant surprise. I ended up devouring the book, and my student enjoys reading it even though he's reluctant to start. Good characters and development, good amount of mystery. Disappointed with the ending, but overall very pleasant.

While the story is a straightforward mystery, the book is intriguing because of the characters. Alex and Clinton are believable, fallible young men who are at times sympathetic and at other times difficult or even detestable. They both love their sisters, their mothers, their fathers. These commonalities make their conflict all the more uneasy. Along with the HIV information, themes of alcoholism, abandonment, and what makes life livable weave in and out of the story. This strikes me as the sort of book that might appeal equally to male and female audiences.

This story is called Fade to Black and it is about a boy, Alex, who has a disease. Another boy, Clinton, and the whole school don't like Alex, because they don't want the disease and they tease him all the time. So one day Alex, the boy with the disease, was driving and his window crashed and he was all beat up and taken to the hospital. Everyone thought it was Clinton, because he treated Alex the worst. I thought this story was very good. It had a point, which was not to pick on people just because they look different and are different. The saddest part to me was when Alex and Clinton were talking in the hospital and started to understand each other better. To me this story was easy to understand and had a very good reason. I also liked the fact that the Author wrote the book as if the three characters wrote a diary, kind of. So I would rate this book

Alex is a teenage who is HIV positive. Not many people want to be around him. This book shows the hardships that Alex has to go through. This book also shows how he has to deal with certain things. A boy named Clinton is one of Alex's worst enemies. Clinton hates Alex a lot. Can Alex turn Clinton into a friend and not an enemy? Read the book to find out.

**** I liked this book very much. This book shows what a person has to go through if they are HIV positive. I enjoyed this book very much. ****

Brandon Stabler, 14 years old.

Alejandro "Alex" Crusan is a seventeen-years-old Latino and HIV positive. His family moved from Miami to Pinedale, Florida. No one in his new school will touch him, much less befriend him. The only one that does not avoid Alex is Daria, the girl with Down Syndrome. Everyone avoids her too. But someone nearby hates Alex enough to learn his daily routine, followed by taking a baseball bat to Alex's car. The windows shatter, throwing tiny glass shards over Alex. The shards act as knives.

Daria does not lie. She tells the police what she saw. The police go after Clinton Cole.

Clinton has been very vocal on his feelings about Alex being HIV positive from the beginning. Everyone agrees with Clinton; however, no one believes Alex deserves what happened to him. When everyone begins avoiding Clinton, the teen starts to understand how Alex's isolation feels. Clinton swears he did not do it. Yet no one believes him.

**** Author Alex Flinn writes in a way that teens can relate to. She has taken a few taboo topics and created a mystery that young adults will enjoy trying to figure out, while learning about delicate subjects. I enjoyed the story very much and recommend it to all. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I really enoyed reading this book because it gave me the opportunity to write the following: Don't waste your time on this ineptly written and factually flawed collection of patronizing nonsense. The grammatically incorrect title, ("Trojans" is an adjective - though here describing nothing), is just the first of thousands of errors and clumsy observations. But don't take my word for it - it's plain to see this author knows very little about a lot of things [...]. A must read for anyone!

I must say that this book provides good sound advice that is easy to comprehend. Using the techniques outlined in this book, I feel safe and secure against hackers and malcious code threats.

Hey..I followed the procedures outlined in this book and was spared from the Slammer virus. This book works!

Of the 310 pages of text in this book only about 50 pages have information about useful things to do to protect yourself from Viruses. The rest is defining malicious code, basic computer info (what is FAT16 and FAT32), what the FBI is doing about cyberhackers, etc. There is a pretty good chapter on social engineering, but most of the book would only be useful for people new to systems administration and in a small shop. There are only two pages about network firewalls - not much for a book with "network" in the title.
A number of known worms are described but there is no strategy proposed for detecting or stopping them. There is 1 page about responding to events and only 3 pages about securing web servers.
The information in this book is no longer timely or comprehensive.

I found this book quite interesting. Unlike other books I'v read, this book explained this subject in an easy to understand and interesting manner. While it can get technical at times, I'd say...give it a shot. It's got some great links to security products that I never knew even existed.

Love you work on msexchange and use the site regularly but the formating of this book is makes it really annoying to read (not sure if this is common to all 'How to cheat...' books). I suggest the person doing the "How to cheat" layout/formating refer to some of the books below and cut back on the number of different fonts and uses smaller heading sizes.

For peoples reference I have purchased Tom Schinders ISA Books (from ISA 2000 onwards), Mark Minasi's Server books (2000 & 2003), Barry Gerbers Exchange 2000 books plus quite a few others. The books mentioned above I really enjoyed reading and still refer to them extensively.

Having current Exchange servers I was looking for a bit more detail about transition to 2000/2003 than the 28 pages of chapter 10. It really didn't provide any extra 'expert' information.

(Edit) After leaving the book for a few months I have come back and read it again and have refered to it a few times my opinion has changed regarding the content. I would rate it around 4 stars now (But I can't change the rating?). Chapter 10 was one of the only chapters that was a little 'thin'. Overall it is a good book and once I got over the formatting annoyances I have enjoyed it a lot more second time around.

I was trying to find information online on MS Exchange replication. MS has terrible documentation. I opened this book to the relevant chapter and had my answer in under 5 minutes. This book is great.

Exchange 2007 is a very big change when compared to its predecessor. Personally, I was interested in getting up-to-speed on it quickly, after having ignored it's introduction to the market last year.
Henrik Walther made that task easy. He comes at the subject from the perspective of an experienced administrator who wants to get right to the things you really need to get done. Exchange is a very complex, very big application, and Henrik's book makes getting into the nuts and bolts of configuring it fast and understandable. If you need to get Exchange up and into production under a tight time schedule, this is your book. Likewise if you need a quick blueprint of how best to configure it for your specific needs.

Having worked with Exchange since 5.0 I have read many installation guides and administrator's handbooks and I would rate this one as the best. I acquired this book after teaching how to configure and install Exchange 2007 to corporate clients and I have since done away with delivering them my own notes and simply recommend that they purchase this book. It is the ultimate guide to installing and configuring Exchange from a technical perspective. Way to go!

By page 4, the editing annoyed me and I picked up the unleashed book. I read all 1000 pages and returned unleashed for this book due to the deeper technical information.

If you like to "read" your technical books, this can get tiring. If you want a great reference with lots of info on the issues you will run into on a 2007 deployment, pick this up.

Duntemann is a co-founder of Paraglyph Press, the publisher of this how-to computer book. His previous publications include Degunking Windows (Paraglyph) and Assembly Language Step-by-Step (Wiley), and he has been writing technical books for the geeks and the plebes for many years. I was immediately drawn to the accessible, common language used in the book. Although, I did find it difficult that he tends to use some non-standard terms several times before actually defining them (ie mailbase).

The first six chapters of the book focus on organizational strategies and software to help manage the flow of email to and from the user. Dunteman describes four profiles of an email user: Public Professional, Private Professional, Student Enthusiast, and Casual Communicator. Most of his recommendations for software and organization focused more on the Private Professional or home user, although the organizational tips could be applied to all four profiles.

The next four chapters examine spam prevention and elimination. He discusses ways to avoid becoming a spam magnet in the first place (guard your email address) and options for blocking incoming spam (filters) and some spam control methods that aren't effective. He is critical of services like SpamCop that offer blackhole filtering because they tend to create more false positives in the attempt to eliminate spam. I have used SpamCop's web mail service for three years, and only occasionally has this been a problem for me. Compared to the amount of spam I was getting from "free" web mail services, I consider it worth the $30 a year. However, I use it only for my personal email, and in that arena, I lean towards the Student Enthusiast profile. A Public or Private Professional might not be as tolerant to false positives from their spam filters.

The rest of the book defines viruses, Trojan horses, and worms, and how to prevent getting them, as well as what to do if your computer becomes infected. This section is geared more towards home users and small businesses, since most large companies have firewalls and antivirus measures in place. The chapter on worms made me wish that I had read this book before I turned on my new laptop last spring. My previous computer was a Pentium II Linux machine connecting to the web via dialup. As far as I know, it was never infected. Within hours of dialing up on this Athlon XP-M machine, my computer had four or five worms crawling around inside. I quickly obtained an antivirus utility and set up the Windows XP firewall. Duntemann recommends using a two-way firewall, rather than relying on the Windows firewall, which I intend to do as soon as possible.

The last section of the book includes a chapter on spyware and adware, generally referred to as malware. Duntemann recommends two common software programs that scan your computer for malware and eliminates it. He also lays out web surfing strategies that will help prevent malware from being installed on your computer. I took great pleasure in reading the many recommendations to switch from using Internet Explorer to some other browser scattered throughout the book. Duntemann gives more coverage of Mozilla Firefox than other browsers, which is likely to be helpful in increasing the visibility of that robust little open source browser since this book is directed towards the less-than-savvy Internet user.

This book is not for advanced email users and web surfers, and it makes no pretension of being so. However, I was able to glean a few tips and tricks from it, so it may be worthwhile for the geeks to give it a once-over. New email users and those overwhelmed by the size of their inboxes will find this to be a great tool for maximizing the email experience.

If you have used email for more than a couple of months you realize the problem of spam, viruses, adware, and other aggravations. Resolving that problem, at least to the extent possible given your user environment is the purpose of this book. The approach is simple - create a gunk-free email strategy, degunk your email, degunk your spam, degunk viruses, worms, and spyware, and then keep it from happening again.

While not a technical treatise for the power user this is an excellent resource for the average Internet user who wants to know what is happening with their email, slow system performance, and other annoyances. This book explains in simple layman's terms what is happening, how to clean it up, and how to greatly reduce the rate at which it happens again. Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses is highly recommended for the every-day user who wants to regain control of their in-box.

Spam and computer viruses are taking some of the pleasure and productivity out of using computers. Not many people have e-mail accounts that are free of spam. Every moment you are connected to the Internet, you run the risk of being infected with spyware or adware. Everyone who is sent files by e-mail is at risk for getting a computer virus.

"Debunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses" is a very friendly book with all kinds of strategies for keeping your computer from getting infected. I bought this book chiefly because I was curious how I could keep spam from flooding my e-mail account, but only half of this book's 16 chapters are devoted to spam. You will also get information about viruses, adware and spyware, and firewalls. There is also an amusing chapter about Internet scams -- "phishing" is the term -- and how to avoid them.

This is not your run-of-the-mill computer book. It is extremely well written and well organized. The writing is clear, friendly, and humorous at times. I wish more computer book publishers would take a cue from the Paraglyph Press, publishers of the book. The design is professional and a far cry from the slammed-together books you usually get in the computer field.

My only quarrel with this book is the author's enthusiasm for Bayesian spam filtering. The author devotes a chapter to Bayesian filtering, which I think is not near as effective has he thinks it is. Other than that, "Debunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses" sets a standard for computer books that I hope more computer books meet in the future.

This is the third book on email, spam and viruses and such that I've read in the last couple of weeks, and it is the best. One of the other two, Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Spammers in the Internet Age (2004) by John Biggs, covers much of the same material as covered here but not in as much depth, while the other, Spam Kings (2005) by Brian McWilliams, is more a narrative about the personalities in the spam world than a how-to. (Nonetheless both books are good.)

Duntemann's book has a kind of "Dummies..." or "Idiots..." feel to it with lots of sidebars and photos of computer screens and tips and hints and numbered lists, and even some "Gunkbuster's Notebook" pages; but Duntemann's treatment is more comprehensive than usually found in an introductory book. He goes into considerable detail not only on how to "degunk" your email, but explains how email filters work and how spam, viruses and worms propagate, and what you can do about them. He also looks at various scams and the scary subject of identity theft and advises on how to not fall victim. This book will work for beginners and the experienced alike.

It will be noted that Duntemann doesn't directly address the problems that plague users of the big Internet Service Providers like Yahoo! and AOL, mainly because some of the very measures he recommends are currently being used by the big providers. One of my email addresses is at Yahoo! (Duntemann recommends that you have at least two email addresses) and it gets a lot of spam. But I don't see any of it because Yahoo! has a spam filter that puts it in my bulk folder which I almost never open. I didn't think much of this until I learned how email filters work. I used to think that somehow the ISP identified spam by the number of identical emails sent to its customers (and they may do that); but after reading Duntemann's explanation I now realize that filters usually work on key words and other bits of evidence in the actual email. Certain words like "free" and "mortgage" and especially "unsubscribe" (a near-certain indicator of spam since spammers hope you'll click on that to prove that your email address is a live one) trigger the filters. Another technique, Duntemann explains is so-called Bayesian filtering which uses a "statistical analysis of message length and the distribution of words present in a message" to arrive at a probability of the message being spam.

But this made me wonder if--and Duntemann warns about this possibility--if some legitimate emails were being caught as spam. So I checked my Yahoo! bulk filter and didn't find any. My guess is that the latest filtering tools used by the big ISPs like Yahoo! and AOL are even more sophisticated than those that Duntemann describes in this book.

Duntemann also warns against spam control methods that don't work. Surprisingly, one of these, in his opinion, is making spam illegal. I've always liked that idea, but after reading Duntemann's argument, I'm convinced that it doesn't work, can't be enforced, and only the good guys would comply with such a law. Duntemann points out that the "much ballyhooed [but gutted] CAN-SPAM Act," passed by Congress that went into effect January 1, 2004, "had no effect that can be measured."

There is also a chapter on how to "Avoid Becoming a Spam Magnet!" Naturally the first rule (and this should be the Golden Rule of the Internet) is "Don't patronize spammers." But also don't respond to "surveys" or "dating service" spams "which," as Duntemann explains, "only exist to verify your email address and will lead to even more spam." And whatever you do, DON'T EVER "unsubscribe" to a spammer's mailing list. Spammers love it when you do because that makes your email address valuable to them, either for their own spamming or to sell to other spammers. (Yes, I repeated that. Actually I should also repeat "Don't patronize spammers!" with an exclamation mark. After all, junior's not going to get any bigger no matter what pills you take, and there's no such thing as a reliable "Spanish fly," etc., etc.)

Throughout the book Duntemann gives email addresses and the names of software that can help you in your fight against spam, worms, viruses, and scams. He recommends using "disposable email addresses when dealing with all but the biggest and most reputable online commerce sites."

By the way, I always thought that the reason Microsoft's Outlook Express, its Internet Explorer, and in general Microsoft products were more subject to hacking than other software was that Microsoft's code wasn't as good as say Linux's or that of some other email providers. But if I am reading Duntemann correctly, the real reason is that Microsoft is the biggest target. Why write a virus that can only affect a fraction of the computers on the Net when you can write one that will attack the near-monopoly?

Bottom line: Internet Gunk 101 in a book. Definitely worth the plastic.

Before reaching the title page inside the book, the first few pages quickly cover the 12-step degunking program with a list followed by 15-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, and three-hour to half-day steps for degunking email and viruses with time limitations. This section finishes off with top 20 tasks for clearing the email cobwebs. Excellent start.

If you're overwhelmed at the thought of following a 12-step program and spending more than a day going through each step, the time limitations section should ease your mind. It's a good way to begin, baby steps. Don't stop there, however. Make it part of a long-term program and pick up some of the habits it covers.

I already use many of the tips, but that's no surprise as obsessed with organization as I am. Though I have implemented many of the suggestions, the book provides value because it offers a process for cleaning up as well as tips I hadn't considered. It took me years to come up with many of the tips covered. So don't wait years to figure it out yourself when you can get it right now with one resource, this book.

Sure, it covers the usual, "have a firewall running" and "ensure your anti-virus program is running and up to date." However, you'd be surprised how many people don't have either in place. This book would be incomplete without these recommendations.

Though a majority use Outlook or Outlook Express for managing email, Duntemann discusses other clients including The Bat!, Thunderbird, Pegasus, and Eudora. Like many things in life, everyone has different needs when it comes to email. The author discusses four email profiles and mentions them throughout the book so whichever you are, follow the advice for that profile.

Like the other books in Paraglyph's Degunking series, this one is easy to read and addresses the advantages and disadvantages of various tools. Anyone who gets the book and follows its steps will experience a leaner, cleaner email box and possibly a faster-running computer. Most users of all levels should benefit from this book. The only group that might not invest in it are those who know everything inside out about spam, viruses, malware, and adware and how to deal with them.