White-Hat Security Arsenal: Tackling the Threats.

• Author: Shimer, Preston W.

TITLE: White-Hat Security Arsenal: Tackling the Threats

AUTHOR: Aviel D. Rubin

ISBN: 0-201-71114-1

PUBLISHER: Addison-Wesley, Pearson Education Corporate Sales Division

PUBLICATION DATE: 2001

LENGTH: 330 pages

PRICE: $44.99

SOURCE: Addison-Wesley (http://cseng.aw.com), or Amazon.com (www.amazon.com)

Every person who uses a computer has an idea of the risks involved. Because they are responsible for some or all the information management policies in their organizations, records and information management (RIM) professionals have always been careful about setting up guidelines for information security in central file rooms and records centers and, more recently, for the retention of electronic records. But when asked if they should be setting the computer security policy for their organizations, most would say, "No, that is someone else's job." And others who might want to say "yes" may admit that they don't know enough about computer security to set the policy--even if they wanted to or thought they should.

It is an understandable problem. Computer technologists like to speak their own language in order to confuse others just as RIM managers talk about filing inches and argue over CD-ROM life expectancies. Such jargon helps both groups set professional boundaries. At least it did until Aviel Rubin decided to let others in on computer technology secrets with his book White-Hat Security Arsenal.

This book, Gary McGraw, Cigital chief technology officer, says, "is intended to educate and inform information security professionals with a no-nonsense, hold-the-hype approach to security ... Don't go into battle without it." (Cigital is a leading provider of solutions for managing the risks inherent in using computer software.)

Rubin, who is a computer scientist and principal researcher at AT&T Labs-Research (one of the world's leading communications research institutions), could have written a definitive text that only the best-educated computer scientist could have understood. He didn't. Instead, he wrote a book that allows the non-scientific to understand the threats to computer systems and take action to make critical systems more secure. White-Hat Security Arsenal is written at various levels and for various audiences--the home computer user, the small business entrepreneur, the law firm computer systems supervisor, and everyone else all the way up to the corporate vice president. Everyone will find the answers they need.

The book is divided...