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Defeating the Hacker: A non-technical guide to computer security Review by John Matlock
A Good First Look at the Problem
The key to this book is the sub-title. It is 'a non-technical guide to computer security.' The author is a journalist with a good grasp of the language and of the various aspects of hacking into a computer system. The book seems to me to be written for two types of people.
One would be the manager in an IT department where he has security people dedicated to keeping the systems secure. The manager needs the information in this book to keep these people from snowing him with techno-speak about what they are doing.
The other reader would be the owner/manager of a small business who wants or has to set up security for a company. This book will tell him the general concepts and some suggestions on how to get started. For him, this is the place to start. This won't provide enough information on any of the subjects, but it provides enough that when you go look at the available hardware or software packages you can at least have some idea about the meaning of the words.
The web is a lot like the old west of the movies, law and order is noticably absent. After all, if you have a hacker in Russia, attached to a server in Nigeria, that's hiding behind a server in China and hustling money from an elderly retired woman in Flowida, who's in charge. This book gives you a better than average introduction to the common protection systems you may need.
As I said earlier, it's well written in clear, but not very technical.