Computer Security Basics, 2nd Edition

reviewed by Kale Feelhaver

This book does a great job of summing up the basics of computer security into one concise package. I know what you're thinking. It's a 300-page book, and it's called Computer Security Basics? That seems like a lot of information for only covering the basics. In reality, this book takes a lot of complex topics, and gives a very brief, but informative, overview of each. Each chapter in this book could probably be made into it's own 300-page book, but for the average user, the book will contain more than enough information.

Be warned, this is not a book targeted at Mac users. Most of the topics in the book are platform agnostic, but the book is not written in the user-friendly style of many Mac books. The chapters include: Access Control, Viruses and Malicious Code, Security Policy, Encryption, Physical Security, Biometrics, and many more. It also includes appendices on the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model, FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards), and TEMPEST (Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Surveillance Technology). None of these are lightweight topics, but this book does a good overview of each one. I can't say that I learned a lot from this book, but I can say that I like the way the authors explain the topics.

If you are looking for an easy way to make your Mac more secure, then this is not the book for you. It does not have any tutorials, and is not Mac-centric. However, if you are looking to learn a little about computer security and the theory behind it, then this is a good read. Being that I work in the Information Security field, this book will become a fixture on my desk. In fact, I will probably quote from it often.