Author Description

This book offers complete coverage of all aspects of computer security, including users, software, devices, operating systems, networks, law, and ethics. Reflecting rapidly evolving attacks, countermeasures, and computing environments, it introduces up-to-the-minute best practices for authenticating users, preventing malicious code execution, using encryption, protecting privacy, implementing firewalls, detecting intrusions, and more. Cryptography is critical to computer security; it is an essential tool that students and professionals must know, appreciate and understand. But as with most tools, the user does not need to be a maker: using a screwdriver successfully is entirely separate from knowing how to forge the metal from which it is made. This edition will separate the use of cryptography from its underlying mathematical principles. It will introduce cryptography early in the book to provide a solid background on types of algorithms, appropriate uses of these different types, and advanced concepts such as digital signatures and cryptographic hash codes. It will also address how cryptography can fail. However, it will cover these topics without revealing the internals of cryptography; closer to the end of the book it will delve into the internals of specific algorithms. In this way, readers who want to know the details can study those (and can even read the later chapter early, out of the normal sequence), but it will not unnecessarily burden readers who, like most users, will never get closer to cryptography than an encrypt() function. One strength of SiC4 has been its sidebars. Readers enjoy the brief examples of real life exploits. Fortunately, the news is full of stories of security failures, and it is important to connect these actual events to the strong pedagogy of the book. ACS, which was organized around attacks of different types, include many timely incident stories that we can pull into SiC5. Cloud computing and mobile code and computing are not cov