Security Engineering: A guide to building dependable distributed systems by
Ross Anderson, Wiley, £42.95, ISBN 0471389226
AT A time when the Internet’s emergency warning centre CERT can be brought
down by online “denial of service” attacks, and when cheeky hackers out to
improve their Net cred daily mount multiple assaults on the Pentagon, keeping
abreast of Internet security is more important than ever.
Regardless of President Bush’s plans for a National Missile Defense system,
governments are fast realising they are more vulnerable to foreign aggressors on
the electronic front than almost anywhere else.
Advertisement
And with the growth of e-commerce and the slow but sure emergence of “mobile
commerce”, the world is becoming one massive network. How do we stay connected
without sacrificing security?
Network administrators should be forced to have a copy of Ross Anderson’s
Security Engineering on their shelves. And anyone with the slightest interest in
finding out just how vulnerable they are to one form of electronic infiltration
or another must secure themselves a copy immediately. Read it from cover to
cover or use it as a reference—it is encyclopedic in its coverage of
electronic security issues.
Anderson covers computer security subjects that normally reside only in
esoteric texts, from cryptography and biometrics to information warfare, nuclear
command and e-policy. He skilfully uses anecdote and a minimum of jargon to
guide the reader through the trickiest of subjects.