Reviews of Intrusion Detection with SNORT, Intrusion Detection with Snort, and UNIX Shell Programming, 3rd Ed Posted

Amazon.com just published my reviews of two new Snort books. I gave Intrusion Detection with SNORT: Advanced IDS Techniques Using SNORT, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and ACID three stars:


"Intrusion Detection with Snort: Advanced IDS, etc." (IDWS) was the second of this year's intrusion detection books I've reviewed. The first was Tim Crothers' "Implementing Intrusion Detection Systems" (4 stars). I was disappointed by IDWS, since I have a high opinion of Prentice Hall and the new "Bruce Perens' Open Source Series." (I'm looking forward to the book on CIFS, for example.) IDWS read poorly and doesn't deliver as much useful content as the competing Syngress book "Snort 2.0."


I gave the much better Snort 2.0 four stars. This book will appeal more to programmers than to casual Snort users:


"Snort 2.0" offers content not found in other books on Snort, such as Tim Crothers' more generic "Implementing IDS" (4 stars) and Rafeeq Rehman's "Intrusion Detection with Snort." (3 stars) I've read the best IDS books, and used IDS technology, since 1998, and "Snort 2.0" is the first to give real insight into an IDS' inner workings. Thanks to the technical knowledge of the author team, "Snort 2.0" earns the reader's appreciation by explaining how and why the open source Snort IDS works its magic.


I realized I never mentioned when Amazon.com published my four star review of UNIX Shell Programming, 3rd Ed. This was significant as it was my 100th technically-oriented book review. I've submitted reviews for eight other items, like a pack of CD-Rs, or books and videos on non-computer subjects like hockey or kenpo. So, although as of today I have 110 "reviews," only 102 are associated in some way with security or technology.

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