Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)

5 Responses to Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)

1. 

   Miguel RodriguezSeptember 21, 2010 at 8:16 am

   Review by Miguel Rodriguez for Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)
   Rating:
   I’ve been in the computer consulting field for over 10 years (DOS, Novell, and Microsoft), and during all that time I’ve been fighting viruses, and now emailing worms, for my clients. I’ve always installed the latest antivirus software and told my clients how to treat suspicious emails or files. And while this advice has always worked on my company’s network, it seems rarely to have worked at my customer’s locations. Mr. Grimes talks about the same experiences in the book. (I was passed an early copy of the book by one of my friends in the antivirus industry). To make a long story short, the book’s advice works. It’s all commonsense stuff after you read it, and it showed me some new prevention tactics that I will continue to use with existing and future clients.As for example, one of my clients, with about 100 workstations, seemed to get infected about every three days no matter what I would tell them (one person in particular). And although I love the consulting dollars, it really became a pain disinfecting their network again and again. I followed the steps in the book, and my clients haven’t been infected since. It’s only been a month, but they went from dozens of infections per week, to none.Every chapter in the book covers a particular topic, like Windows viruses, Instant Messaging attacks, Email attacks, etc. Mr. Grimes begins by describing the underlying technology, talks about specific attacks, and then tells how to detect and prevent them. Each chapter has dozens of recommendations and his last chapter (actually second to last) talks about what steps you should take on each PC you supervise. This was nice because trying to remember the dozens of steps to take all at once would have been tough. He even covers how to make an anti-virus plan, but that doesn’t really apply to my consulting work; however I’m sure it would help a company system admin type.I can easily say I learned more about Virus attacks on Windows, Java, VBA, and Internet apps than I knew before. I was really surprised by how many places bad programs can hide to automatically start on a computer. There are over a dozen. And for a technical book it was really easy reading. It was the best book I’ve ever read, and used, on computer viruses. The book included his email address and I sent a question to him and he answered it the same day. The book covers Windows, no Linux or Mac, but doesn’t cover Novell Groupwise in the email chapter but it is well worth the read. Although most of my clients are Microsoft shops, I’ve still have some Novell shops. It mentions, but doesn’t discuss automated distribution tools, like SMS or ZenWorks. If you’ve got a very large network, you’re going to need a good way to automate all the steps. There are few typos and grammar errors, but certainly not enough to take away from the message. Also, like most other antivirus books, it doesn’t say what antivirus product to get. Mr. Grimes mentions a few different products, but I was really looking for his recommendation (or anyone) to tell me the best antivirus product out there. It seems they all miss something. Other than these few issues, great book and I highly recommend it.
2. 

   J. J. KwashnakSeptember 21, 2010 at 8:55 am

   Review by J. J. Kwashnak for Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)
   Rating:
   Keeping up with computer security is a full time job. Grimes has given a clear, precise primer of one aspect of computer security – viruses, trojans, worms – collectively known as malicious mobile code. The book is DOS/Windows centric, but this focus helps you see a) where the threats for the most part, and b) allows you to extend the types of threats into other operating systems. You are taken step by step through the development of malicious code and how and why they can work on some systems, but less effectively on others. The constant refrain of the book shows the author’s philosophy: Use an up to date anti-virus product. But if somethign slips by, Grimes shows you ways to react, and lessen the impact if not to this once computer, but to the rest on the network. It is easily one of the most readable books I have encountered on the subject.This book is an essential reference for any computer manager’s toolkit. We can’t stop the code writers from producing thier output, but we can work to lessen the impact they can have on us.
3. 

   Robin J. BakerSeptember 21, 2010 at 9:50 am

   Review by Robin J. Baker for Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)
   Rating:
   More important than anything else I can say about this book is that it was a good read! Being subject to often boring books on algorithms, and operating systems, this book kept me captivated with its straight forward presentation, and even more remarkable stories. Even if you never plan to start editting a registry, this book is worth reading.What I got most from this book though was a perpective on dealing with virus (etc) problems overall. Identifying what area of a system needs examining, what precautions should be taken, and even classifying symptoms, was very enlightning. That it was also a major source in a paper I received an A on, doesn’t hurt either. I am sure it will come in as a handy reference for some time yet.
4. 

   Todd HawleySeptember 21, 2010 at 10:06 am

   Review by Todd Hawley for Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)
   Rating:
   This book offers one of the best and most complete look at viruses, worms, Trojans, and any other type of program designed to “infect” a computer. It describes not only the various types of “malicious programs” out there, but also the environments in which they run. The book’s second chapter discusses DOS based viruses, and even if DOS is not that popular anymore, it is good for a historical reference. The book goes on to discuss Windows-related viruses, macro viruses, as well as Trojans and worms. Each chapter gives examples of what to look for if you suspect you have been infected, and the early chapters give summaries of “famous viruses of the past.” Also discussed are attacks involving IRC and other instant messaging programs, browser technologies, malicious Java applets, and what types of attacks can occur with Active X. There’s also a chapter devoted to email attacks.The book finishes off with chapters on hoax viruses, which can be just as dangerous sometimes as real viruses, when people assume the hoaxes are true, how to defend against malicious code, and finally what the future entails.Malicious code unfortunately is a way of life and this book offers lots of information on how to avoid them and also what to do if your computer does get infected.
5. 

   Garot M. ConklinSeptember 21, 2010 at 10:29 am

   Review by Garot M. Conklin for Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows (O’Reilly Computer Security)
   Rating:
   If you are interested in the SANS 504 GCIH certification, this is a great primer text if not better than their class. At the very least this will prepare you for the hands on aspect of that environment. This is pure network based hacking from my point of view and although these exploits can be used via the web, they deal mainly with vulnerabilities not of the web application layer. Something that I would really like to see in a text such as this is a complete exploit, which is known and patched, exploited step by step. Even in the SANS world this was not facilitated and if we are to ever truly educate security professionals on the “black arts” of hacking, then we must teach them by example. People don’t learn calculus without a step by step explanation on how to arrive at the solution, so why would we expect security professionals to learn an exploit method using partial code snippets or theories? Get with the program and use disclosure as the powerful tool it represents.