Introduction

The age of connectivity is definitely upon us. With information flowing freely in and from all directions and electronic commerce knocking down new doors, network security has come to include a lot more than just using a good firewall to connect to the Internet.

I've spent a lot of time auditing security on distributed networks. In many cases, I found that data could be easily modified, stolen, or destroyed without a trace that the incident ever occurred. The system administrators and other powers-that-were knew that the systems weren't configured for security. What they didn't know was just how high their level of risk was. Executive managers were equally unaware of the risks.

This book lets you learn from their mistakes. If you are an executive manager, manager, system administrator or anyone responsible for network security you must take an active approach to security. Don't make the same mistakes these companies did. It could cost you your company.