Hello,

I am looking for suggestions on a "security" book for beginners. One book that I am looking at is "Hacking Exposed" yet they have a lot of versions of it ("Web Hacking", "Hacking Exposed Web Applications", "Hacking Windows 2000", etc.) that it is hard to choose. What book would you suggest for a beginner?

Thanks

I think you shouldn't pay money for any of those books (if you had in mind to pay for them, that is). Although I didn't read them, I bet the information you'll find in this books is widely available on the net.

If I were you, I'd try to focus a bit on texts about the understanding, the security and the hacking of a linux system, since the majority of the servers out there run on some kind of linux version.

Also reading the info from this post will also provide a good starting point (if you haven't read it allready).

My current fav's:

HackerProof
Maximum Security
MCSE TCP/IP Guide

Also, snag some Visual Quickstart Guide's at Barnes and Noble for Linux and NT, possibly even CGI/PHP/Perl, their all very good reading...

Art of Deception. Its funner than alot of the other books plus shows you an aspect of security that can complement the technical side in an audit. Also it seems to be a much easier way to get things done sometimes.

I too am looking for those kinds of books. A friend who is very well versed in security and networks recommended these to me:

�Counter Hack�

�Networking Essentials�

I have not looked at them myself. All the �Hacking Exposed� are said to be very good.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will take them all into consideration when/if I decide to buy a book.

Remember that you can find some of those books on the internet if you don't have enough $ ... (yes ! really ! )

Ankit Fadia's book is very good " An Unofficial guide to ethical hacking "

You should read it.