Securing Windows NT/2000 Servers for the Internet (Paperback)

Still, after reading the book, some people may be disappointed that a bit more information and detail haven't been covered. For instance, chapter 2 & 3 explain how NT/2000 hosts can be stripped and secured. However, there isn't a single NTFS DACL (and very few registry DACLs) mentioned in the whole book. Instead, the reader is referred to a couple of URLs. In practice, it means that you will still need the various whitepapers and checklists available on the net to obtain maximum security. The topics that are covered, however, are clearly explained with enough detail. I particularly liked the NT/2000 TCP/IP registry settings and the section on Windows 2000 IPSEC (At last a Windows IPSEC explanation that doesn't start with "Microsoft W2K offers..."). The section on remote management with open source tools like OpenSSH, CygWin, TCPWrappers and VNC is great. As far as commercial remote management products is concerned, only pcANYWHERE is discussed, which imho is a bit limited, as there are other solutions available. The 9-page chapter on backups is fairly useless. Chapter 6, about auditing, however, makes up for it, as it includes sections on NTP time synchronization, syslog remote log management, integrity checking with TripWire.

The biggest shortcoming of the book, imho, is the total lack of security settings and hardening measures for IIS. I understand this book focusses on host & operating system security only, but one cannot deny that many NT/2000 internet hosts are running IIS, and that IIS bugs and misconfigurations are a big entrance point into systems. I am dying for a good IIS architecture overview that isn't coming form an MS-biased source, and I had hoped this book would provide me with at least a decent architectural IIS/Site Server/MCIS overview. This is definately something I would like to see included in a second edition.

Sections on free tools like ntp/ssh and appendices listing Microsoft knowledge base articles are simple but invaluable.

This book deals specifically with preparing an NT 2000 host generically for the Internet - System Admins looking for information on general NT security will find this book useful and insightful but should also look elsewhere. Similarly setting up VPN's has only a brief mention.

Personally a lot of the technologies and practices used should be part of every NT installation.

Anyone who works in Internet security will tell you that you need to look in many places to get an overview of best security practice. However this is the best book I have seen in some time that covers the main areas and gets you asking the right questions in one concise edition.

One word of caution though: Security is a volatile business and I would expect a lot of the information to become out of date during the lifetime of the book. Using the URL's provided in the book will certainly help alleviate this.