Security Books

I loved it. It's packed with explicit information on the tight relationship and revolving door between war profiteers and government officials--they're often one and the same--naming names and providing dollar amounts and sources of information. When you study this book, you will gain an understanding of what motivates the neocons to start wars. Money makes the world go around: you will learn a great deal about why the current US administration bombed Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now appears to be aimed at Iran. Why would anyone want never-ending war?

Hossein-zadeh points out that it is the industrial part of the military-industrial complex that is most problematic because it is driven by the profit motive.

I happen to disagree with Hossein-zadeh in that I think the oil transnationals also want wars in the Middle East. (He says these entities prefer stability.) This difference in views detracts nothing, however, from his analysis of the military-industrial aspect of these conflicts.

I'm a writer and use this book as a reference.

I hope it comes out in paperback so more people can afford it.

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh's The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism will greatly surprise readers who imagine that what lies between its covers is an abstruse economics argument or a rant against the war in Iraq. This accessible, lucid, and generously documented approach to the history of military engagement by the United States since World War II clearly is written with a mainstream audience in mind although its hardcover price of $80 is out of the average reader's ballpark. Hopefully libraries will pick up the title since every taxpayer deserves the chance to consider Hossein-Zadeh's thesis. In short, he demonstrates that although the economic gains of imperialism might have supported required military outlays for a period, there comes a time in every empire's life when further expansion no longer is cost-effective for the metropole and becomes a drain on the national economy. At this point, the war industry becomes "parasitic" as the dividends of empire fall more and more disproportionately into the laps of those associated with military efforts. Hossein-Zadeh considers the current period in U.S. history such a time.

Readers may have heard this claim before. But few if any will have met such a persuasive presentation of it. The book is extremely helpful in how it identifies and then dismantles what Hossein-Zadeh considers weak explanations for why the United States continues to engage in military intervention and expansion abroad. The first is the widespread theory among liberals that the neoconservative element of the U.S. political scene is attempting to take advantage of the absence of a comparable world power in order to spread American values and free market economics. The second is that George Bush is spearheading military adventurism as a result of the need to pose as a "war president" so as to mask the failings of his administration. The third is that America's Zionist lobbyists are championing the war on Iraq in order to shore up U.S. support of Israel. The fourth (and Hossein-Zadeh considers this the most widespread assumption of all) is that the United States is engaging, in the case of Iraq and other Middle Eastern adventures, in military action in order to better control the world's oil resources. Hossein-Zadeh acknowledges and discusses each of these theories, ultimately discarding them as the driving force behind continued U.S. military imperialism.

Instead, he suggests that the military imperialism we are witnessing today "can be seen largely as reflections of the metaphorical fights over allocation of the public finance at home, of a subtle or insidious strategy to redistribute national resources in favor of the wealthy, to cut public spending on socioeconomic infrastructures, and to reverse the New Deal reforms by expanding military spending." Survival of the working man and woman aside, also at stake is the question of which cabal of capitalists will come out on top--the neoliberal multilateralists who favor globalization--that is, the expansion of free markets throughout the world in order to make way for the products of multinationals largely unconnected with war, or the unilateralists, who tend to be linked to the military industry and to other industries that are not competitive in the international marketplace.

In addition to providing engaging economic explanations and political commentary such as those already mentioned, Hossein-Zadeh offers a number of other helpful analyses. He makes a distinction between the military bureaucracies of past empires--e.g., Rome--and America's present-day military industry, which reflects the imperatives of an advanced capitalist economy. Bearing in mind this distinction, he suggests, unlike many who see the United States as declining in the mode of Rome, that decline of the United States more likely would follow that of the British Empire. He points out that multilateralists have in no way been eliminated by unilateralists; rather, leading capitalist countries tend to experience alternating periods characterized by resurgence and diminution of the importance of these two poles. He also acknowledges the benefits of the military industry on an economy such as that of the United States. Finally, as an Iranian-American he offers a unique perspective in terms of political economy on the issue of religious fundamentalism and the fraught relations between the West and the Muslim world. Ismael Hossein-Zadeh's The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism is a fascinating text and one that deserves to be as accessible to the average pocketbook as it is to the average reader.

Professor Hossein-zadeh takes over where the late Seymour Melman left off, showing the absurdity & perils of military spending. Those of you familar with Melman, who was a professor of industrial engineering at Columbia University know that time & time again in his many books, he demonstrated how ludicrous defense spending had become through numerous examples. The money spent on "overkill", the cost overuns, the many uneeded military projects, expensive quality control problems coupled with system & hardware failures are just several he often reiterated.
Dr. Hossein-zadeh takes the subject a bit further & in a new direction. He is backed by irrefutable statistics, documents & history itself to prove his case against excessive & unwarrented military spending. All of it very comprehensible, even to someone with no background in economics & a minute knowledge post WW2 history. By reading this book, one can gain some insight into the modus operandi of the military-industrial complex & its the effect it has on the economy,political establishment & both domestic & foreign policy.

This book brings together lots of individual facts, statistics, and citations that those with a concern about US militarism who attentively follow current events and recent US history will have come upon in disparate locations.

The genius of the book is that it puts all of this information in one place and presents it in a coherent structure. It is also very clearly written. The citations and bibliography are useful starting points for those wishing to delve more deeply into the economic underpinnings of the military-industrial complex.

most comprehencive ,well documented,well researched book exposing the essence of our heartless government subserviant to the demands of giant corporations sacrificing the ones it is elected to protect.

Love him or hate him, Noam Chomsky serves a vital role to any thoughtful and/or politically minded individual in the United States today. By focusing on what you're NOT hearing from the major media sources and political powers, Chomsky engages his audiences by exhaustively cataloging his sources and letting them make their own decisions on what they need to do with the information.

This book represents some of the most accessible Chomsky that you can buy. Comprised of a series of interviews with Alternative Radio founder, David Barsamian, "Propaganda and the Public Mind" does exactly what you would expect it to do; exposing propaganda as a weapon used by the powerful, how it can be recognized, and showing the extraordinary impact normal people can have when they work towards the right sort of changes. Even while discussing grave issues, Noam manages to convey his faith that positive action is alive and well. As a lovely bonus to the interviews themselves, the resources section of the book will help you get as deeply into any of the subject matter as you dare.

I was thrilled by this book. If I were a doctor, I would prescribe an essay a day (which, unfortunately would only last a week for this book) as an antidote for the daily news.

This book in an important insight into how public figures make hay of the psyche of the populace. The less prepared we are to see and understand what's going on, the more they get away with and the more we and our children eventually pay for down the road. This book should be mandatory material at the highschool level.

Walter Jacques, Oklahoma City

This is an excellent book filled with great information about the world we live in. Chomsky is easy to understand in interview format and still gives loads of facts with logical conclusions.

For the price, this is a worthwhile book that presents a different perspective on politics and current events. Just be warned this is not an objective treatment on the science or implementation of propaganda. I was looking for a book that explored how propaganda works and is managed. Instead, the author spends a lot of time criticizing policy and those he considers the power elite. I appreciate the author's point of view but tend to discount criticism that doesn't come with proposed solutions, examples, supporting data and facts.

What differentiates this books from other's in Chomsky's canon is that it is a series of interviews, obviously, but in other ways it's an simplified guide to Chomsky's beliefs and journalistic pursuit of modern life. Chomsky is an amazing person and an excellent humanists and his insights will be sure to help you try to understand modern life better.

As one reviewer notes, Robert Williams name is not noted in other books about this era. This is a great loss to history. Also reading "Blood Done Sign My Name" will give readers a more complete picture of life for Blacks in the South in the 60's & early 70's.
However, as Timothy Tyson told me in February, "desegregation is not complete". "Blood Done Sign My Name", is in production as a major movie at this time. It is being filmed entirely in North Carolina.

A compelling look at a fascinating figure of the modern American civil rights movement whose story continues to be relevant. Particularly interesting is the nuanced and thoughtful treatment of the complex dialogue and tension between "nonviolence" and "self-defense" in the history of the Black freedom struggle in the US.

The period of Williams's life following his exile is only very tersely outlined (as the author himself admits), giving the book a bit of an abrupt end. More analysis of Williams's decision to renounce public life, of his scepticism about the later direction of the "Black Power" movement that had claimed him as one of its icons, and of his decision to seek an "understanding" with the US gov't enabling his return from exile, would probably make for most interesting reading.

The civil rights movement was not created by, lead by, or moved forward by the dozen or so media heros whose names we all now know. The civil rights movement succeed because so many ordinary people decided that they could no longer stand to live in the midst of injustice, and decided to step out of their daily lives and do something about it.

Robert Williams did just that. An ordinary working class guy, he used his people skills to form a network of working class black people who did not have the patience of the old line leaders of the local NAACP chapter in his hometown. He got himself elected president of the chapter, and backed by dozens of local people, formed one of the most activist chapters in the country. The national NAACP never was comfortable with Williams or the work of his chapter, and at best held them at arms length.

Inevitably, Williams' hard pressure on local structures of racism lead to a backlash. When he was attacked and his family threatened with death, the local police did nothing. When he and his community defended themselves, by taking up arms to combat the armed violence of the white racists, he was charged with murder, and became the subject of a massive FBI hunt. Escaping to Cuba, he operated a radio station, beaming the "truth" along with progressive jazz and blues which would never be played on corporate radio in the south, to Dixie.

Ultimately, Williams' stance of self-defense was taken up by Stokley Carmichael in the South, and by the Black Panther Party in Oakland, and is now well known as the "Black Power" movement. But at the time, it was simply a slightly more hardline version of the NAACP. Local chapters of the NAACP, building on long traditions of mutual support in black communities throughout the south, supported by thousands of ordinary people, formed the backbone of the civil rights movement. Anyone who thinks otherwise should read the statements by Bob Moses and the other SNCC organizers, who readily admitted that they could never have accomplished anything at all if not for the decades of groundwork done by the local NAACP chapters throughout the south.

Great book, which everyone interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement, or just interested in the way social changes really happen, should read.

Mainstream history seemingly gets real nervous about who is carrying a loaded weapon and who one associates with. Combine the two and it will take an outstanding historian like Timothy B. Tyson to bring to life the tireless work and controversies surrounding civil-rights activist Robert F. Williams.

Williams brought the element of armed self-defense in seeking equal rights, especially in his hometown of Monroe, N.C. Though Williams, a military veteran, stressed that the specter of self-defense was necessary - and proven successful in confronting the KKK and other racists - his stance drew the ire of the NAACP's national office, the FBI and other government agencies & those in the civil rights movement who stressed non-violent actions no matter what the situation.

The book is more than a biography on Williams. It shows how his demands for equal rights meant something different to various individuals and groups, though Williams would not politically "fall in line" with any movement. It was the perceived idealism that drew many to Williams, but it was such a coalition - including Malcolm X and the Socialist Workers Party - that made him particularly dangerous in the eyes of federal officials.

While in exile from the U.S. after being erroneously charged for violating several federal laws, Williams was in Cuba after the revolution, North Viet Nam during the war, China as the Cultural Revolution caught fire and travelled to Africa. His independent thinking got him in trouble in Cuba; a radio show he conducted to the U.S., Radio Free Dixie, along with public comments he made, found Williams facing the wrath of Cuban government officials and ultimately led him to China.

The book also shows how his wife, Mabel and women in Monroe & in other cities not only demanded civil rights, but were willing to defend themselves and their families from violent attacks through the barrel of a gun. Mabel Williams was also an important person in the writing, editing and publishing of a newsletter that gained national and international attention.

Williams was an important catalyst for Huey Newton and the Deacons for Defense in their quests to skillfully confront the haters on the streets. In yet again another example on why we must continue to look past the history as it is written in textbooks, Robert F. Williams showed what can be accomplished when the intimidators become the intimidated while trying to perpetuate the myth of white supremacy.

Ultimately, the notion of white supremacy and the so-called glory of the Lost Cause always devolved to the use of violence and intimidation against black people and any one who sided with them. Williams' is an amazing story of courage and determination as he challenged the KKK and assorted white rabble of rural North Carolina in the 1940s through the 1960s in his quest for racial justice.

Williams, a soldier during WW2, came back to Monroe, NC after the war and took on the clowns and goons of the KKK and the local and state white government. When they fired on his home, he shot back, upsetting the applecart of segregation.

Tyson's book is a powerful portrayal of a man quite willing to die for his rights, a man fed up with the violence degradation inflicted on him by southern society, and a man willing to kill to protect his property, his person and his family.

Tyson's realistic and entertaining portrayal of the stupid and inane actions of white southern racists in North Carolina is another reason to read this book. The local thuggery is almost comical, until one remembers they are well armed and prone to alcholism and violence. Tyson goes into great detail about a 1958 case where two black boys, 10 and 8 were BEATEN and IMPRISONED for kissing a white girl.

Williams and his wife are not well known heroes of the Civil Rights struggle. This book gave me a greater appreciation of the vicious hatred, violence, and stupidity they were fighting, and how disciplined and determined the Civil Rights struggle had to be in the face of overwhelming white resistance.

Secrets of Computer Espionage: by Joel McNamara is a must for any PC user. Staffed with so many examples (with a conversational funny tone) the book does a really good job. The book stresses the vulnerabilities and threats, explains in details the evolution of spy tactics, network eavesdropping and provide countermeasures as well.

It's good to know what's around us and be in the know!

Recommend ****
Guzman, Dror

Judging from the title, Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures would appear to be geared to governments, security agencies, or high-level corporations. In fact, as the author makes clear, anyone with an Internet connection is a potential target of online espionage-even by such "mundane" means as viruses, worms, and phishing attacks-and this book is addressed to that huge audience.

Just who is spying on whom? The author explains that the typical person might be a target of bosses, friends, family members, hackers, and many others. Even people with nothing confidential or of value on their computers risk getting caught up in espionage and other cyber capers. For instance, hackers can use their computers as vehicles for staging attacks or as a location for storing illicit files, such as child pornography. And as more cell phones and PDAs connect to the Internet, the risks multiply.

What may be disturbing to some readers is that every computer device and peripheral provides at least one avenue of attack. The author explains many of these schemes, such as keystroke loggers and cleartext file transfers via file transfer protocol (FTP). In addition, operating-system and application-level vulnerabilities constitute even more ways that systems can be compromised.

Despite the grim picture painted by the author, the book isn't intended to make readers paranoid, but rather to acquaint them with the many risks posed by the Internet. This excellent book shows that someone quite possibly is out to get you, but it provides the tools to protect yourself.

The "Secrets of Computer Espionage" by Joel McNamara unveils what every PC user should know before they hop on to the internet Bandwagon. If you can read this review, then you need to purchase this book. Cyber Crime is the number one precursor to identity theft and the simple thruth is -- Internet Security is YOUR responsibility.

Joel McNamara makes you walk a mile in the bad guys shoes, forcing you to see both sides of the story. You will learn the real threats behind internet worms (such as Sasser) and trojan horses (like MyDoom). Discover why Windows(tm) isn't safe and learn who's after your PII (Personally Identifiable Information).

View the world through the eyes of an internet private eye and see that everything really is an open book, it just depends on where you look. Let Joel be your guide. Buy the ticket, take the ride... then go to www.pcpitbull.com and see what's really inside.

Joel McNamara's book is one of the very, very, few books that I classify as a "Must Read" for anyone involved in business or technology. This book does an amazing job of avoiding the "paranoia for paranoia's sake" tone seen so often in computer security books while still taking the issues seriously and discussing them intellegently.

The conversational tone is fun and often quite funny while not making the user feel talked down to. And Mr. McNamara does an equally great job of explaining very complex topics in way that works for both extremely sophisticated computer technology professionals and non-techies alike. I've brought this book around for side-discussions in the seminars I've given since it came out and my students, ranging from small business owners to 30+ year professional tech veterans in Fortune 50s have learned new and important lessons from it. For a book to address all these audiences is rare. For a book to succeed and be invaluable for all of them is virtually unheard of. This book succeeds amazingly well.

I've not only read the book through in one sitting, I keep referring back to it and it's incredibly useful web site on a regular basis.

Joel, thank you for writing one of the key books of the year!

You and your computer face a dizzying array of security threats, writes tech consultant Joel McNamara. Competitors, cops, crooks and even disgruntled kin would love a peek at your hard drive. But don't hyperventilate just yet. If you calmly analyze the desirability and vulnerability of your secrets, you can figure out how to protect yourself. McNamara's prose is surprisingly clear given the degree of difficulty of his topic, and he offers a number of useful sidebars, charts and examples from inside the tech business to juice up his instructional tome. We suggest this practical book to managers charged with protecting corporate data, and to people who are unsure just how safe their computers are.

But, if your really serious about trading options, please read Natenberg first. Natenberg is interviewed in this comprehensive and easily accessible intro. However, options trading needs more than an intro, as I suspect most of you know.

Reading a book on Options Trading is usually a daunting task. While it is true that statistical probabilities, The Greeks and mathematically determining an overpriced or underpriced option all play a part in option trading, in the beginning, this often confuses and intimidates a novice.

Michael Sinceres' book is different. He leaves the mathematics alone. In very simple language, Sincere walks you through the four basic option trades:

1. The Covered Call.
2. Buying a Call.
3. Buying a Put.
4. Selling a Put.

What you may not know is that most brokerages will limit a beginning option traders to these 4 trades anyway.

As if he were sitting at your kitchen table, Sincere actually takes you step- by-step, through each trade. No, this is not a complete treatise on option trading but it is a very good start.

It is true that the key to option success is choosing the right underlying stock. If you have never bought a stock, his book on stock trading would be a better choice. It is also true that options are a form of gambling and anyone who says their "system" guarantees success is probably selling something very expensive.

If you have experienced trading stocks and are looking for your first option book, this would be the one I'd recommend.

This author doesn't really believe that anyone but pros should be trading any strategies except for covered calls. He does discuss advanced trades but only glosses over them without detail. Ahhh, he's probably right. However, if you'd like to learn more about intermediate and advanced strategies, you'll need another book.

This is a very good beginners book on options. It explains in simple terms a very complex subject. I read several books before this one. After I read this book, I wished I had read this one first. The price is right too.

Michael Sincere did a fine job writing this book so that anyone who has no experience with options is able to comprehend the topic with ease, even those who are not good at mathematics and numbers. He briefly explains calls, puts, how to buy, how to sell options, and he even discusses advanced options strategies such as spreads and straddles.

After having to climb through so many books looking for the information I required to understand the issues and response to terrorism I came across Understanding Terrorism by Maniscalco & Christen. What a relief to find a comprehensive, cohesive and no nonsense book.

These authors have done a remarkable job with synthesizing complex data and rendering it into a discussional and informational manner easily comprehended by all emergency planners and responders. The constant reinforcement of "system" play and interoperability as well as a function rather than an agency approach lent great assistance to my team being able to immediately apply the knowledge to the crafting of our contingency response templates.

Great job by the composers, fantastic text for you or your organization!

This book is fantastic. It articulates the issues in a discussional format and make sense of the many confusing topics of terrorism planning and response.

I like the fact that the authors have taken the time to include a very robust reference appendix section. It has proven to be unquestionably my go to book on this subject matter.

In addition to the front matter which is invaluable, I now have to only grab one book to reference the myriad of references, case in point is the streamlined access to federal response plan, MSDS sheets, radiological references etc.

If you are an operator, supervisor, manager, planner or instructor this text is for you!

A lot of books on terrorism response have been written by 'experts'; fine folks who understand the theory, but in reality lack the practical experience. This book is NOT one those.

The authors are well organized, show their writing experience, as well as their provider and leadership experience.

The book is a comfortable read, not a scholarly tome that is an alternative to Xanax. Illustrations are good.

If you have a need to plan for medical response to terrorism, this book is an excellent resource to aid in your preparations.

The authors of Understanding Terrorism have done a great job with presenting complex and difficult material in a manner that is easy for all responders to understand.

This book covers all the bases and met all of my expectations. It has become a permanent fixture in my response bag should I need a ready reference. Frankly, this is perhaps the best book on the subject for emergency responders that I have seen to date. A great value for the price!

I was skeptical at first about another book on terrorism. After being disappointed by several other terrorism response books allegedly written for emergency planners and responders, I was very satisfied with Understanding Terrorism and Managing The Consequences.

This book is a breath of fresh air that restores my confidence that responders who have the experience and background of planning for & operating at terrorist events are sharing their expertise & knowledge.

Understanding Terrorism provides you the VITAL information you need to perform your duties as a responder as well as provides security directors & safety managers expanded knowledge on what is expected for their functional areas in times of terrorist events.

The information is provided in a cohesive manner that aids the users with easy comprehension and utility of the material. It also compiles all the needed references under one cover to make your job easier.

The approach the authors have adopted with this book is a big bonus. Frankly I am tired of books that adopt a "shotgun" approach or use theoretical [terminology] to convey the message of safe and effective response strategies; they fail to address the implementation and operational application issues effectively. THAT IS NOT THE CASE WITH UNDERSTANDING TERRORISM. This book helped me each step of the way as well as provides me with the benefit of being a "one book" planning and response reference.

Public or private sector emergency managers, responders or security officials, if you are responsible for the emergency response, Understanding Terrorism is the one book you should own, read and use.

Honeynet solutions were seen just as a research technology a couple of years ago. It is not the case anymore. Due to the inherent constraints and limitations of the current and widely deployed intrusion detection solutions, like IDS/IPS and antivirus, it is time to extended our detection arsenal and capabilities with new tools: virtual honeypots.

Do not get confused about the book title, specially about the "virtual" term. The main reason to mention virtual honeypots, although the book covers all kind of honeynet/honeypot technologies, is because during the last few years virtualization has been a key element in the deployment of honeynets. It has offered us a significant cost reduction, more flexibility, reusability and multiple benefits. The main drawback of this solution is the detection of virtual environments by some malware specimens.

The detection of honeypots has always been one of the main concerns in the honeynet community, basically because if the attacker can identify them, they are useless. For this reason, one of the chapters is just focused on providing some light, tips, and tricks about what an adversary can really accomplish. In fact, we have not seen lots of real-world incidents where the attacker actively checks the existence of honeynet setups.

I have been working with honeynets during the last 5 years. We founded the Spanish Honeynet Project on 2004, and almost at the same time we became part of The Honeynet Project and released the Scan of the Month 32. The main honeynet/pot book reference till last year was the book published by the Honeynet Project. As this is a rapidly evolving field, definitely it has been replaced by this book, written by two project members.

The first chapter is a very brief introduction to honeynet technologies and basic tools. You can jump through it if you are not new to this field. Then, the book covers the main two honeypots types: high and low interaction. The high interaction section provides details about the tools to virtualize your honeypots: VMware, UML, or more specific solutions, such as Argos. The low interaction section provides details about some the most relevant honeypot types to cover lots of detection scenarios: worms, traditional server attacks, Google Hacking, Web-based attacks, etc. It is a wide overview that will give you lot of ideas for new deployments.

The whole book has been cooked with a how-to mentality , and it explains in detail how to install and configure the different tools and software elements covered. Additionally, it provides guidelines, best practices, and analysis recommendations for each tool based on the authors experience. However, for the how to portions take into account that most of the solutions are Linux-based, and the installation and setup process will vary based on the tool version and the Linux distribution you are using (library dependencies, etc). In any case, the step by step guides are very useful as a general setup reference.

From my perspective, the most valuable part of the book is chapters 4 to 6. The authors, Niels Provos and Throsten Holz, are the lead developer/architect for honeyd (chapter 4 and 5) and strongly related with nephentes (chapter 6), respectively. These two are the most famous and advanced low-interaction server-based honeypot and malware honeypot. They know what they are talking about :), and you cannot find a better reference out there for these two tools. The book is an excellent guide, covering from the design principles and innovative deployment ideas, to all kinds of configuration options and possibilities, including limitations on real-world scenarios. Chapter 6 is complemented with other less popular malware-based honeypots (except for Honeytrap).

The book includes some extra material, covering academic and research hybrid solution, still on their early stages, but that can give you and idea of where these technologies are evolving to and the major challenges we are facing nowadays. This pretty much theoretical content is well balanced with the case studies chapter, where real incidents involving different honeypot types are presented. These are always a fun read and a way of getting experience and learn how to deal with intrusions.

Finally, one of the main expansion areas we are involved today is the creation of new client-based honeypot technologies. This book section (highly recommended) does a great job introducing multiple high and low interaction honeyclients currently available, their benefits and drawbacks (chapter 7). This information is perfectly complemented by the last two chapters, focused on tracking botnets and analyzing malware with sandbox environments. Once a client is compromised, it typically becomes a member of a botnet, and for easy and quick categorization, we start by performing a malware analysis of the specimens. I recommend you to add all this knowledge to your incident handling and response capabilities.

Something I would have liked to see in the book is a section about a fully virtualized honeynet environment, showing how using VMware, you can build up a virtual Honeywall (just slightly mentioned on chapter 2) and different honeypots, creating a complete, cheap, mobile and multi-purpose virtual honeynet infrastructure. Also, we receive multiple questions related to this kind of setup in the Honeynet Project mailing lists, because all the previous whitepapers are obsoleted now. I've been deploying these type of solutions for fun and professionally during the last few years and I strongly recommend you to start using them. You won't be disappointed about how much you can learn of what is going on in your networks and systems, and this book is the best starting point.

If you have any relationship with the intrusion detection, incident handling and forensics, threat analysis, or SOC and CERT security side of things, definitely this book is for you. Go through it and improve your capabilities with easy to deploy virtual honeypot solutions. You just need a (not so new) computer, virtualization software, and some time!

The book is well written and I feel that I will be successful in setting up my first honey pot once I get my network segmented for security purposes.

Excellent, really good, sorry for my bad English, but is EXCELENT BOOK.

Regards

Carlos

I have relatively little to add to the praise that has already been given of this book, but I found it extremely enjoyable. In particular, the chapters on collecting and analyzing malware were quite good, in my mind. I think the book delves a bit too deeply into man page territory with the level of detail provided on the minutia of utilities, but that doesn't detract from the book, as it is very clearly segmented away from loftier topics.

Overall, I found this book to be quite excellent, and very informative and accessible to those new to the arena of Honeypots.

It's fairly difficult to find good books on digital defense. Breaking and entering seems to be more exciting than protecting victims. Thankfully, Niels Provos and Thorsten Holz show that defense can be interesting and innovative too. Their book Virtual Honeypots is your ticket for deploying defensive resources that will provide greater digital situational awareness.

A security technician with some degree of proficiency should be able to read Virtual Honeypots and then implement at least one of the solutions presented. This sounds like a fairly common event, but too often technical books do not provide the detail required to transform theory into practice. Virtual Honeypots offers installation and operational guidance for a variety of deception and analysis systems, primarily for server-oriented technologies. I especially gained a better understanding of Honeyd and Nepenthes, the two applications about which I cared the most.

While I liked the first 2/3 of the book, I have to say I really enjoyed the last four chapters. These covered Detecting Honeypots, Case Studies, Tracking Botnets, and Analyzing Malware with CWSandbox. Of these the final chapter was superb. Ch 12 has probably the clearest explanation of hooking I've read anywhere. I am not a rootkit writer or Windows kernel programmer, but the text was so well written I had zero problems following along.

I gave Virtual Honeypots five stars because it is so unique and well-written, but I do have a few minor issues to mention. First, I was somewhat disappointed by the honeyclients section (ch 8). I was not as confident that I could implement a honeyclient solution after reading the great material on server-oriented honeypots. Perhaps the second edition or a separate book will give greater attention to this area. Second, I found a few small technical items. On p 4, it isn't accurate to say "TCP...[gives] each packet a sequence number." Bytes of application data are numbered, not packets. On p 13 we are told to use a snaplen of 1500 bytes, but this will cut off the last 14 bytes of many Ethernet frames. Try it with ping -s 1472 while sniffing with Tcpdump. As you can see, these minor issues are easily fixed in a future printing and do not justify dropping a star.

If you are at all interested in potentially deceiving intruders, buy and read Virtual Honeypots. You'll learn about more than VMware (QEMU, UML, etc.) as well as numerous open source tools you can download and try for free. I look forward to reading more from these authors -- perhaps a book of true case studies?

Dr. Froehlich writes a refreshing view concerning globalization of economies and markets, but you shouldn't expect this book to tell you where the money is. Well, I guess it does; it's in the market somewhere in one or a combination of five sectors (Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Telecommunications, Financials, and Energy). Besides that common knowledge, he also explains that the market is currently moved by fear and greed and people should think and invest "long-term" instead of acting on emotions created by mass amounts of information and constant hype. I didn't need to spend $29.67 for that info either. The book simply explains that the world of economics is changing because of shifting demographics, globalization, technology, government, and business trends. The thing that I like most about the book is that it made me sit back and think about the "big picture" for a moment. It's not a bad read as long as you don't expect to finally get to the page that tells you where the money is.

Thanks, Dr. Bob, for a great book on investing! This book is something I have needed to read for a long time. When reading investment books, the advice is often about IRAs, 401(k)'s, bonds, stock market, market timing, etc.

Dr. Bob's advice is in a totally different area. He believes in something called "sectornomics" which means if you look at all the industry sectors and determine which ones will do well in the next five years, then invest in several companies in that sector, your portfolio will do well. Don't worry about which particular stocks too much, just pick the right sector. Pharmaceuticals, let's say. Then, for the majority of the book, Dr. Bob goes on about the various trends in the US and worldwide which will whip the stock market sectors one way or another.

Should you bet on a Japanese resurgence in the next ten years? Don't think so. How about betting on the graying of America? Sure, says Dr. Bob, but remember, Europe and Asia are graying too.

Doesn't sectornomics break the rule of investing that "the only thing that makes the stock market go up or down is a surprise?" Doesn't everyone know about the graying of America? Yes, they know, but no, it doesn't break that rule. Sectornomics means "looking at the same thing everyone else looks at, and seeing something different." Your own perspective can give you the added advantage over the market.

Inspired by Dr. Bob, I began my own personal portfolio based on alternative energy, because I have found out that this sector is about to boom in the next 10 years. A little research (using the Internet of course) and now I have a list of about 30 companies who are extremely well positioned to make a lot of money once alternative energy goes big. The key for me was seeing the big players (United Technologies, Idatech, Xcel, BP, etc.) investing heavily into this sector. BP makes millions of dollars yearly from manufacturing solar cells.

Dr. Bob's knowledge of statistics is absolutely amazing. And his writing style is very approachable.

I heard Dr. Bob speak at an investment seminar in Columbus, Ohio. His speech was good but his book -- excellent. Just buy it. It is the best investment you will make this year.

Not the most insightful financial book I've read. It contains a fair amount of fluff. It does point out some major trends based on demographics and the concept of sector investing.

If only all of the talking heads on CNBC, CNNfn, Bloomberg and the other financial media were as easy to read and understand as Bob Froehlich.
Readers who wish to truly understand money, the economy, the stock and bond markets, and future investment trends should read this book. They should make sure their spouses and older children read it, too. I know I wish I had read it before the last bull market, and the correction in 2000.

Robert J. Froehlich has written an informative and highly readable guide to understanding the emerging global economy. Never dry, dull or dense, his book focuses on the factors that combine to create both major and minor global economic trends. If you understand these trends, he maintains, you can make wise investment choices now and in the future. At the end of the book, Froehlich includes a glossary of terms, though - unlike many investment books - you don't find yourself lost in a sea of insider jargon while reading. He writes delightfully, easily shows you how global trends connect and conversationally explains what this means to you professionally and personally. We [...] recommend this book to all readers, since no matter your area of expertise or interest, if you live on this planet your economic well-being is affected by globalization.

This is a very well done book that backs up its assertions if not impenetrably, very close to being so. I sometimes wondered why he included all the history about links from Islamic fundementalists to Nazi Germany and things about the Ottoman empire in Turkey but when you see it all together the impact is really pretty striking.

From a tone perspective, the style is very casual - as though you were sitting across the coffee table with Mr. Shoebat and he was sharing his thoughts. I found it very easy to pick up even when I knew I had only a few minutes to read.

If you want an insider's view of the role of violence in Islam throughout its history and today, this is the one you should read.

Mr. Shoebat describes a frightening "death cult" that has emerged from Islam. A nice analogy I use is that the Jihadis are to Islam as the Inquisitors were to Christianity. There are ways to interpret religious texts in such a way to justify great cruelty in the service of human lust for power. Shoebat describes this phenomenon in Islam. What is scary is that most Islam in the Middle East is under the sway of these Jihadis, either to preserve the political order where loyalty and connections trump merit, or as a reaction to the speed of change in a modernizing world. Shoebat has converted to Christianity, so has a convert's zeal in seeing the flaws of his previous belief system. However, he details the abuse of women and non-Moslems, and the demonization of all who do not follow the path of whichever charismatic leader has killed his way to the top of the heap. To paraphrase him, evangelical Christians annoy you by wanting to change your head. Islamists want to cut off your head. There are other more scholarly works about the dysfunction in Islam, but Shoebat provides a raw insider's view that makes this danger very clear.

This book makes for interesting reading. Anyone who wants to know why there is so much dissension between muslims and other relighons should read this book. It provides insight into their beliefs, the war and many other issues.

One day at the school we were talking about different cultures and one of them was about the muslims. This book has been very helpful to me because it talks about reality. When I started to read I said oh common is this the book for which I payed ?? dollars, I say this because i don't remember how much I payed but when I started getting deep into it i realized that I had made a good investment. It's really helpful.

For anyone that loves to know another cultures this is the right book to start to know the muslims and why they do all of this. You'll find out

Human civilization has not always had a smooth path. We've had our share of natural disasters and self-inflicted wounds. As recently as the fifth century, we had a Dark Ages in Europe, in which reason was virtually repudiated in favor of tyranny. There was a threat of a repeat of that in the 1930s and 1940s in Europe. And there may be a similar threat at present.

Walid Shoebat, a former terrorist, shows, in this somewhat scary book, how serious the problem is. Quite a few people are being trained as destroyers of society. And if they succeed, that will be bad for virtually everyone.

What do the Islamic fundamentalists say? Well, they say whatever they please. And they come up with all sorts of demonizing propaganda against Western society. But to me, it all reads pretty much like a repeat of the refrain "we're going to slice and dice you." No, that's not a quote from Shoebat's book. But that's my summary of how I read Islamist propaganda. I'm a Pagan, not a Muslim, so that puts me on the wrong side of the slicing and dicing. But there really is no right side of that.

How does one reply to the Islamists? Well, there are plenty of ways. One can come up with a reasoned rebuttal. Or one can simply describe reality and warn that what goes around can come around. Or one can even answer insults with insults. But none of it does much good. We all need to value truth more in order to combat this threat to society. Right now, there's plenty of pressure on many Muslims to support the Islamists, and the main question seems to be how much support to give them. I think this book shows that we need to draw the line at demonizing untruths. I think agreeing with such lies, as a matter of course, as a matter of loyalty, as a matter of principle, as a matter of laziness, as a way to avoid trouble, whatever, is a giant leap over the line. That's what leads to the recruitment of terrorists, and we see the pattern of behavior described in detail in this book.

Shoebat makes a few specific points that I especially like. One of them deals with the "right of return." Arabs, Jews, and others lost their homes in the 1940s. What ought to be done about it? I basically agree with Shoebat's solution: nothing. No one should have a "right of return" to them. Not Arabs to the Levant and Israel, not Jews to Europe, Africa, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere, not Germans to Poland and the Czech Republic, not anyone. I would add that very few people who lost their homes in the 1940s are still alive. Oh, sure, people who lived in those homes are still alive. But most of those were kids, not owners. These kids never owned the homes, they never developed them, they never paid property taxes on them, and they may not ever have been the actual heirs to them.

Shoebat also discusses "reversalism," which is just one more way in which pro-tyranny thugs use words as weapons rather than as tools of communication. This is a way of simply making things up as one goes along, and it generally involves a fair amount of projection. Is one a big fan of the National Socialists? Then why not call the Jews National Socialists? Why not call liberation "occupation," why not call sorrow "joy," why not call victims "terrorists," and why not call the conspirators to terror "victims?" And we see plenty of examples of this process.

Is Islamist terror a problem for Muslims in general? You bet it is, just as National Socialism was a problem for Germans in general. And it is, of course, a problem for non-Muslims, just as National Socialism was a problem for non-Germans. One example Shoebat gives is a poll of Indonesian Muslims (Muslims are a big majority in Indonesia). "Sixteen percent of Indonesian Muslims (almost thirty million people) supported bombings, while a further twenty-five percent declined to offer an opinion." That impressed me: one would think that folks would know that suicide bombings are not doing anyone much good and that what goes around can come around. Shoebat says that a more recent survey showed that only ten per cent supported these bombings, but that is still eighteen million people. That's a problem for society. As Shoebat explains, that same survey showed that sixty-five percent of Indonesia's Muslims "do not believe that the September 11 attacks on the United States were carried out by Arabs!" That is a very big problem as far as I am concerned. This is a key untruth, and if it stands, I think it helps put civilization at serious risk.

What's the goal of the attacks on Israel? A new Arab state? No. As Shoebat tells us, it is the prosecution of jihad against the West. And what do some Western academics have to say about all this? Shoebat does mention that there is a problem here, and he quotes a few, including a couple who are at Columbia University. Yes, Columbia has a problem, but there are some other universities that probably ought make a more serious attempt to enforce academic standards.

What is to be done about the threats posed by radical Islam? Shoebat has some ideas, including removing the leaders and dismantling hate-filled mosques. He also favors presenting truth in the media and in academia.

I highly recommend this book.

Fine book on income investing. Good for all. Highly recommend this to all who are interested in increasing their income and preserving capital. Hats off to the authors.

This is an excellent book to teach you how to invest for the highest yield. I should add that Jeremy Siegel's books are also good for this type of investing. Say bye to the Apples, Microsofts, retailers, Googles, and other growth stocks, and hello to high yield, income producing securities. The key is to buy and hold forever, reinvesting your dividends along the way. As the years unfold you will find your portfolio grow larger and larger. Who cares if the market is up or down? Let it go down, and your reinvested dividends will buy you more shares.
This book is highly recommended.

A good book but not as complete as Yes, You can still Retire Comfortably.
Does not fully elaborate on the risks of bonds in dealing with Financials (sub-prime) and Bond defaults. Perhaps an update of this book is in order.

Excellent book ... short, easy to read with good illustrations. Would have liked an explanation as to how to select dividend stocks rather than using the recommended list since the recommended list will change over time.

This is a very different investment book. While the books one typically sees suggest ways to get rich-- that is, to accumulate capital-- as quickly as possible, this short, readable book suggests that those near or in retirement should be thinking about how to deploy their resources in a way that maximizes their income. That is, staying comfortable is more important than getting rich.

Stein and DeMuth explain that most investment fads are not only unsuitable for older investors, but, worse, they just don't work. They make a point that many people who lost their money in the market meltdown a few years ago should have thought about: If an investment is too complicated to understand, then it should be avoided. In the end, there's no magic bullet; diversification and adherence to investment basics will pay off. The body of the book is devoted to explaining how to do that.

The book discusses various types of bonds, dividend-paying stocks, real estate investment trusts, and annuities. The one thing that is mentioned in every chapter is the basic principle that risk and reward are in balance; the only way to get a high reward is to take more risk. Striking the correct balance is, of course, an individual decision, and the most important part of the book is the discussion about how to combine various types of investments in in a way that balances risk and reward. There are numerous sample portfolios and many specific bond and stock funds suggested-- and also numerous cautions that investors need to do their own research before they buy anything. The authors provide a link to their website, which provides current information and links.

A bonus is that unlike many investment books, this one is very readable. The authors don't dumb anything down, but they take pains to explain things without using jargon. Readers familiar with Stein's TV and movie style of delivery will recognize it here, too.

This is a very valuable book that will provide the reader with a lot to think about-- and a good way to do that thinking.