[CALUG] opinion on book(s) on network security?

[Rajiv Gunja]

Ed,
I have read/browsed that book online. I felt that it is good only for
learning different jargons that is put out there when geeks and sysadmins
talk about security. But it fails very much to explain how to protect your
system or even simply identify what services a distribution will have open.

Yes I agree that it is very difficult to write a Linux Network Security when
there are over 150 Linux Distributions, but at least the basic concept of
Security should be covered in a book I read and this book fails it.

I would suggest couple of alternatives:

   - Go to a book store, if you or your company does not own access to
   Online Book Library, find a nice chair and browse through 2 or 3 Security
   books, does not matter if they are Linux or UNIX (avoid Windows as that OS
   has nothing in common with Linux)
   - If you own your own Linux Server, find out which services you do not
   need and shut it down. For even my desktop, I run http and ssh and thats
   about it.
   - Choose a distribution which does not install all kinds of application
   you do not need. Good way is to create a kickstart file with the bare
   minimum if you are installing servers. Avoiding X is also good when
   installing servers.
   - If this server is in your company, ask your company to purchase a good
   port/vulnerebility scanner and scan all your servers.


Where I work, I get my servers scanned once before the applications are
installed and once after, thus avoiding any unwanted ports or vulnerebility
of apps.

Hope this helps.

-GGR
Rajiv G Gunja


On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 8:31 AM, Ed Browne <edward_d_browne at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> Has anyone seen the book "Linux Network Security"
> by Peter G. Smith?  Can you recommend it?  I stumbled
> across it, and it seems possibly to be what I'm looking
> for, a practical book with emphasis on protecting your
> home (linux) network from the big, bad world outside.
> If you have other recommendations along those lines,
> I'd be happy to hear them.
>
> Thanks very much - Ed
>
>
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