Recommended Reading

 

Book title: Applied Cryptography
Author: Bruce Schneider
ISBN#: 0-471-12845-7
Topic: Explains encryption techniques and algorithms.
Description:

It is a very technical and also code based book which allows you to follow the idea of cryptology. It explains the key management, the various algorithms and how they are built into real world examples. The bible for cryptographers.

 

 

Book title: Building Internet Firewalls

Author:

D. Brent Chapman and Elizabeth D. Zwicky

ISBN#:

3-930673-31-2

Topic:

Explains the basics of building your own firewall software.

Description:

It is a very good overview of how you can build your own firewall. The concepts host application based, packet filter based and stateful inspection based firewall are discussed. They are not talking about product specific software or hardware, it is more generally spoken.

 

 

Book title: Cracking DES

Author:

Electronic Frontier Foundation

ISBN#:

1-56592-520-3

Topic:

Explains how to decrypt a DES encrypted block.

Description:

Overview of the data encryption standard (DES) and the design of the DES keys. How the design of DES Key search arrays is build up, software and hardware based.

 

 

Book title: Data Communications, Data Networks and Open Systems

Author:

Fred Halsall

ISBN#:

0-201-42293-X

Topic:

Explains all the networking terminology.

Description:

All terms of data communication are in detail explained. It starts quite basic with the explanation of data transmission. Further chapters are protocols basics, LANs, high speed and bridged LANs, WANs, Internetworking, Broadband multiservice networks and so on. There is really not a lot about communication what is not in this book, even CRMA and ATMR is already mentioned. It is a very good overview and reference book for data communication and also it can be easily used as textbook for lectures.

 

 

Book title: Digital Certificates - Applied Internet Security

Author:

Jalal Feghhi, Jalil Feghhi and Peter Williams

ISBN#:

0-201-30980-7

Topic:

Explains how digital certificates bind a cryptographic key to a user.

Description:

Detailed information about digital certificates, X.509 standard and public key infrastructures (PKI). Coverage of web browser security with security features in Outlook, Netscape, S/MIME, ASN.1, PKCS, SET and SSL standards. 

 

 

Book title: Hackerland

Author:

Denis Moschitto / Evrim Sen

ISBN#:

3-932170-29-6

Topic:

Log book of the hacking scene

Description:

Contains information about mailbox systems, phreakers and hacking. No technical information, more stories out of the scene. Plenty of links to scene sites and hackers. It is easy reading. Do not expect high level information but for fun it is ok, a nice bed lecture. I am not too sure if this book is available in English.

 

 

Book title: Hacking Linux Exposed

Author:

Brian Hatch, James Lee and George Kurtz

ISBN#:

0-07-212773-2

Topic:

Showing vulnerabilities and solutions for improving Linux security

Description:

A nice bible showing how to lock Linux, getting in from the outside, local user attacks and server issues.

 

 

Book title: Inside Windows NT

Author:

Helen Custer

ISBN#:

3-86063-319-8

Topic:

Explains the operating system Windows NT.

Description:

Although the book is written for version 3.0 of Windows NT it gives you a very nice overview of how a modern operating system is designed. She explains it in a very easy and readable way. You find all imported components and how they work together.

 

 

Book title: Internet Cryptography

Author:

Richard E. Smith

ISBN#:

0-201-92480-3

Topic:

Explains the common encryption algorithms used on the Internet.

Description:

Detail information about DES, PAD, Diffie-Hellman, RSA, the whole IPsec standard and SSL. They are doing an excurse to digital certificates X.509, but in this case I would recommend the book mentioned above. Good overview about some Internet cryptography. 

 

 

Book title: IT Crackdown

Author:

Othmar Kyas and Markus a Campo

ISBN#:

3-8266-4080-2

Topic:

Explains hacking fundamentals

Description:

Information about risk analysis, some virus and worm history, architecture of the Internet and intranet, security holes and well known vulnerabilities for attacking a system, security risks of UNIX, Linux, Windows and NetWare systems, security risks of the world wide web, how to plan Internet and intranet security, firewall architectures, cryptography, intrusion detection systems, audit software, standards and organizations and trends. A very good overview which provides a good impression what is around.

 

 

Book title: Maximum Protection

Author:

Ryan Russell and Stace Cunningham

ISBN#:

3-8266-0687-6

Topic:

Explains hacking fundamentals

Description:

Information about politics, security rules, the different kind of attacks, diffing, cryptography, unexpected inputs, buffer overflows, sniffing, hijacking, spoofing and some CERT advisories. Good chapters are the buffer overflow and the spoofing parts.

 

 

Book title: Maximum Security: A Hacker's Guide to Protecting your Internet Site and Network

Author:

Anonymous

ISBN#:

0-672-31341-3

Topic:

Explains hacking fundamentals

Description:

Information about hacker and cracker, definition of an attack, warfare in the Internet, security concepts, destructive applications, scanners, brute forcers, trojans, sniffers, firewalls, auditing tools, security holes, a section about Microsoft, UNIX, Novell, VAX/VMS and Macintosh. Furthermore some in deep description of various attacks. A good overview for someone who wants to have a good insight to computer security. For experienced people a lot of deja vu's, therefore perhaps not the best choice.

 

 

Book title: Modern Operating Systems

Author:

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

ISBN#:

3-446-18402-3

Topic:

Explains how modern operating system are designed.

Description:

The basics of any operating system are shown. All the algorithms which are used for process scheduling, memory management, file system pointers and hard disk partitioning. It is a bible for the operating systems.

 

 

Book title: TCP/IP - Running a successful network

Author:

Kevin Washburn and Jim Evans

ISBN#:

3-8273-1145-4

Topic:

Explains the basics of a TCP/IP network.

Description:

Overview of all TCP/IP based protocols, the address schema, the subnetting and all relevant fields and bits you need for understanding.