Extreme Exploits - Advanced Defenses Against Hardcore Hacks (2005)

Layout and Key Elements

The chapter layout of this book takes us from the perimeter of an organization all the way into performing digital forensic analysis of an employee laptop and many points in between. Part I, "Core Internet Infrastructure for Security Professionals," explains the often-overlooked perils of Internet routing and domain name service (DNS). It will help you understand how Internet service providers manage their networks and what you can do to create network safeguards, even if you don't control your own routing and DNS. Part II, "Defending your Perimeter and Critical Internet Infrastructure," covers topics such as packet filtering, intrusion detection and prevention, secure network topology design, and the defense of common critical applications such as e-mail. It also provides some guidelines for operating wireless networks, including a vendor-agnostic template for designing a reliable and secure wireless LAN, and introduces a new methodology for network anomaly detection. We hope you'll agree that Part III, "Network Vulnerability Assessments," outlines the most comprehensive process for performing vulnerability assessments you've ever encountered. Great consideration and years of experience with high-stakes network auditing went into designing this proven methodology. Finally, Part IV, "Designing Countermeasures for Tomorrow's Threats," explores digital forensics, malware, and the ins and outs of secure software development. It explains common software vulnerability etymology such as "buffer overflow" and "race condition" while teaching you how to avoid these and other devastating software problems.

Each chapter opens with a brief introduction and a bulleted list of key concepts and take-aways you're about to learn in the ensuing pages. Like most technical books, this probably isn't a page-turner so these miniature introductions will help you decide which chapters you want to read now and which you'll be saving for later. Another key element is the "Checklist for Developing Defenses" section that comes at the end of each chapter. The checklist supplies a brief "To Do" list of the most important actions you can take to strengthen your defenses with regard to subject matter discussed in the chapter.

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Extreme Exploits - Advanced Defenses Against Hardcore Hacks (2005)

Foreword

If you are reading this foreword on a business weekday it's likely that before the day closes at least ten software vulnerabilities will be announced. In addition to these software vulnerabilities, the day will also see on the order of twenty viruses or virus variants released. To cap all this off, we will see a minimum of four million infected computers on the Internet diligently trying to attack other computers. These numbers are alarming and even more so if you consider that these are conservative averages based on empirical data in hand. What's out there that we don't know about?

The rising trend in terms of pure volume of network-based threats with which businesses and consumers are faced is not likely to abate any time in the near term and in fact is likely only to worsen. This leaves many of us struggling to reduce risk in the face of ever-growing threats both in terms of volume and sophistication.

To complicate matters further it seems that every device we use on a daily basis is becoming network connected using IP. It's not just about security of our servers, routers, and desktops any longer, but is expanding to our phones, PDAs, video game consoles, etc. Thankfully, security software plays a role in helping us defend our expanding networks, but it is not the panacea for which many of us would hope. The keystone to our ability to get in front of these issues is security knowledge in the hands of those practitioners tasked with protecting us from this ever-rising tide.

I sincerely hope that this book will allow you to do just that. The authors have a unique mix of industry experience not common in texts like this. Not only have the authors been responsible for securing large swaths of the Internet backbone, but they have also been at the forefront of security software product development, helping protect Fortune 500 companies and world governments for more than a decade. Much of this experience has been distilled and articulated into this book for the benefit of the reader. With it, I believe you will be better equipped to deal with the threat-rich environment we are all faced with.

Alfred Huger
Senior Director of Engineering
Symantec Security Response
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