Dissecting the Hack (The F0rb1dd3n Network) Book Review

"Dissecting the hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network" Is a ground breaking book based on one goal. To inform and educate executives and upper management on the importance of Information Security without alienating or losing them in the process. Though this book will also appeal to the layman and Information Security professional as well. This book has evolved from the presentation "Selling Elephant Whistles" created by Jayson E. Street.


Part 1 - The Story
The story part of this book has a little bit of everything from car chases to shoot outs, Terrorist, the F.B.I. and hackers in a three way cat and mouse game with no one sure sure who is chasing who. The truly amazing factor of this novel is that every computer compromise, every hack, and every exploit in this book. Is a hundred percent true and capable of being used in a real world scenario. which leads the reader to part two of the book.


Part 2 - The Technical Guide
The second part of this book is located after the fictional story and stands alone as a walkthrough of the methodology and tools used in Information Security. This book does not compete with other manuals out on the market today. You will actually find links and the ISBN of these other books to help you learn more about the different disciplines that make up the Information Security field. The goal of this part is to bring the different disciplines of Information Security and the alternate culture of the underground "Black Hat" community into one book. So the reader can gain a better and more complete picture of why hackers attack and why it is important for Information Security to be on the ready to defend!


Part 3 - What brings them together
Throughout the fictional story the reader will come across highlighted areas in the book when hacking tools are mentioned as well as when there is references on the hacking culture, best practices for Information Security and Policies that were or were not in place to defend against a certain attack. If a reader is so compelled they then can stop where they are and look at the technical guide at the back of the book to find out further information on the topic that is taking place in the story. If the reader is reading the technical guide all the way through and sees information on a certain hack or security policy and would like to see how that would relate in a real world scenario the page number from the book where it is located is referenced right there. Making it very easy for the reader to cross reference the entire book in several ways so the reader can choose which one best suits their needs.

In the video below, Jayson E. Street the author of the book, talks about the inspiration behind it and also tells us about what the book is all about. You can visit his website for more info.

Vivek Ramachandran is a security evangelist and has been working in computer security related fields for the past 7 years. In 2007, Vivek spoke at world renowned conferences Defcon (WEP Cloaking Exposed) and Toorcon (The Caffe Latte Attack). The discovery of the Caffe Latte Attack was covered by CBS5 news, BBC online, Network World etc news agencies.In 2006, Vivek was announced as one of winners of the Microsoft Security Shootout contest held in India among 65,000 participants. He has also been a recipient of a Team Achievement at Cisco Systems for his work on 802.1x and Port Security modules on the Catalyst 6500 switches. Currently he spends all of his time maintaining Security- Freak.Net , SecurityTube.Net and is the co-founder of Axonize. Vivek, is a Bachelor in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.You can contact him at vivek[at]securitytube.net