O'Reilly Releases "Network Security Assessment."

An increasingly popular approach to network security is to think like the bad guys: by understanding the methods and motivations of those who attempt to penetrate your defenses, you'll be better able to withstand their assault. "Network Security Assessment" by former-teen-hacker-turned-security-analyst Chris McNab provides a methodical approach to identifying and assessing the risks in computer networks. Using steps laid out by professional security analysts and consultants to identify and assess risks, the book offers an efficient testing model that network administrators can adopt, refine, and reuse to create defensive strategies to protect their systems from the threats that are out there, as well as those still being developed.

The book focuses on a single area of network security in detail: that of undertaking IP-based network security assessment in a structured and logical way. "Assessment is the first step any organization should take to start managing information risks correctly," says McNab. Over the last five years, McNab has achieved a one hundred percent success rate in compromising the networks of financial services companies and multinational corporations. With "Network Security Assessment" (O'Reilly, US $39.95), McNab hopes to use his expertise to help others by clearly defining an effective best practice network assessment methodology.