Who Should Read This Book?

Many people view security as a "black-box voodoo" technology that is sophisticated and intimidating. Although that might have been true a few years ago, vendors have been successful in reducing the complexity and bringing security to a point where most anyone with a good understanding of technology can deploy network security.

This book is an extension of the work to simplify security deployment. It's designed to help the following classes of technical and business professionals:

• Business owners

• Network administrators

• Network engineers

• Operating systems administrators

• Security engineers

• Current ASA/PIX security appliance users

• Current PIX Firewall users

• Application developers

• IT, network, and development managers

• Managers responsible for evaluating corporate risk

People with all levels of experience might benefit from this book. Every attempt has been made to explain security technology in such a way that individuals will be able to grasp the basic concepts and deploy an ASA/PIX Security Appliance and host security.

Even if you are an experienced security engineer, you will still find value in this book because it encompasses new mitigation technologies not possible before the ASA/PIX version 7 operating system and the CSA were brought to market.