This Paperback Book item from Syngress was reviewed on 11-Aug-2008.
Search ISBN:1597491357 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Botnets: The Killer Web App Reference Book. Classifications : Encryption Security & Encryption Web Development Computers & Internet Subjects Books Privacy Business & Culture Computers & Internet Subjects Books Client-Server Systems Data in the Enterprise Network . Click the following link to view the cover of Botnets: The Killer Web App. Related topics: Encryption. Web Development. Subjects. Books. Privacy. Business & Culture. Subjects. Books. Networking. Subjects. requestid: 7c919d30-61c5-4cff-bf72-eaa798f20f38
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1) Paperback Book Botnets: The Killer Web App by Syngress. I am wary of Syngress books that consist of a collection of contributions. The quality of the books usually decreases as the number of authors increases. Botnets is no exception, unfortunately. You will probably enjoy chapters by Gadi Evron (Ch 3, Alternative Botnet C&Cs) and Carsten Willems (Ch 10, Using Sandbox Tools for Botnets). I was initially interested in the book because of chapters on Ourmon (Chs 6-9, by Jim Binkley, tool developer). That leaves half the book not worth reading.
Botnets suffers extensively from nonexistent editing. It´s clear the authors wrote the text and figures, submitted them to Syngress, and finished their involvement in production. There was clearly no copy or proof editing in this process. Right from the start, Fig 1.1 on p 6 demonstrates the sort of presentation I would expect of a 6th grader. I thought Fig 1.2 on p 18 was an even bigger joke until I read "New Bot Rallys [sic] to let Botherder Know It´s [sic] Joined The Team" in Fig 2.1 on p 36. The main text is often as lame as these diagrams, with questions like "How much is the Microsoft bounty for virus authors and how do I get me some?" When the book isn´t frustrating readers with poor English, it´s repeating sections like the Ancheta and Maxwell cases from Ch 1 reappearing in Ch 2, or yet another "bot overview" in Ch 4 repeating ideas from Ch 1. Are readers expected to pay for this sort of shoddy, unprofessional material?
On the positive side, I thought the chapters on Ourmon were decent. Since Botnets is the only book to cover this useful application, you might want to check them out. I thought Gadi Evron´s section, probably written in late 2006 or early 2007, did a good job predicting what actually happened in botnet command and control (specifically with respect to FTP). The CWSandbox chapter was a real surprise, and I think it´s the best part of the book. A different publisher might consider given Carsten Willems his own book deal.
Finally, no author should ever post a five star review of his own book on this Web site. I subtracted one star from this review after seeing the lead author give his own book a first review of five stars. That is really disappointing and completely unnecessary.¤ 2) Paperback Book Botnets: The Killer Web App by Syngress. Working in the security arena for sometime, this is a must for those of us that wants to understand the underground aspects of BotNet. Good reference for your security library.ed¤ 3) Paperback Book Botnets: The Killer Web App by Syngress. The book must be good. Hackers are stealing electronic copies of the book by the droves.
If you are a IT type that needs to come up to speed about botnets quickly, as well as find out what tools and resources are available, this book´s for you. If you are a manager that needs to know what the techies are talking about regarding bots, this book´s for you. If you are in tech media and need a crash course, this book´s for you.
The overviews in chapters 1 and 2 are intended as a presentation resource for management and awareness presentations. They should also help techs understand the big picture.
Chapter 10 on the CWSandbox is so good, the vendor for CWSandbox (Sunbelt Software) is now including it with each copy of CWSandbox they sell.
Chapters 6-9 provide an in-depth discussion of techniques to detect botnets using network traffic analysis as used in the open source ourmon tool. Network security types will probably get the most out of chapters 3, and 5-11.
Chapter 4 was intended as a reference on bot families and capabilities. The material isn´t new but it is gathered in one place (with permission) for ease of reference.
If you want to begin analyzing the bot phenomena to formulate potential response strategies, this book is a good starting point. You´ll like chapter 12, especially like the adaptation of the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) Phishing Solutions Categories to the botnet problem.
There are quality issues as noted in the previous reviewer but the authors felt an urgency to get information out as quickly as possible. I hope you enjoy it!¤ 4) Paperback Book Botnets: The Killer Web App by Syngress. To put it bluntly: this book looks like it was written by a high-schooler. The English is simply atrocious, with bad sentence structure, inconsistent use of the past tense, unreferenced demarcation of time... it´s just plain poor. Take this sample paragraph:
***START QUOTE***
Early in 2002, SDBot appeared. It was written by a Russian programmer
known as sd. SDBot is a major step up the evolutionary chain for bots. It was
written in C++. More important to the evolution of botnet technology, the
author released the source code, published a Web page, and provided e-mail
and ICQ contact information.This made it accessible to many hackers. It was
also easy to modify and maintain. As a result, many subsequent bot clients
include code or concepts from SDBot.
***END QUOTE***
Then there are the pages of useless information. By useless, I mean quoting pages worth of collection files used by Cain. Or pages worth of court documents on a botnet-related settlement. No highlighting of the most relevant bits, or explanations as to how it pertains to the situation.
Oh, and the book also overtly references Wikipedia as it´s prime resource of information for a section on botnet history. Not what Wikipedia may cite - but Wikipedia itself. This is not prime textbook material.
This would of course all be forgivable if the book had some good technical information. But it doesn´t. Honestly folks, I thought I didn´t know that much about botnets. But everything that´s in this book, I already knew - with the exception of how to use Ourmon. This book feels more like a rehash of Symantec´s information on popular botnet programs than it does a proper technical text.
The book also references papers that were published in January...2007. Given that the book is on the shelf already (barely a month later), one really has to wonder how much quality control Syngress Publishing puts into it´s products. Yeesh.¤ 5) Paperback Book Botnets: The Killer Web App by Syngress. As a conscientious system administrator, network administrator, or security professional, you´ve no doubt been frustrated by the lack of good usable information about the latest, and most deadly internet attack, botnets. From diagrams to help you explain botnets to management, to working code to help you detect and respond to them, Botnets: Killer Web App has it all. Botnets are being hired to take out the competition, via DDOS attacks, in Clicks4Hire schemes to defraud Internet Advertising sites, in launching targeted Spam and phishing attacks. They use trojan horse software with remote control capabilities, stealth features that kill A/V software. The Command and Control servers use Fast Flux domains, sites that rapidly change their domain name or even IP addresses, to play an Internet version of the shell game. They steal identity and financial account information from infected hosts. They can be used to store prohibited materials, like child pornography, on your Mom or Dad´s computer rather than on one that might lead to the actual pedophile´s conviction. Botnets: Killer Web App, answers your questions about this new technology threat. What are they? How do they spread? How do they work? How can I detect them when they don´t want to be seen? What tools are available to fight this menace? What kind of help is there across the Internet and within Law Enforcement? Botnets: Killer Web App, covers all this and more.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Sep-2008, 15974913579781597491358, 210-890-780-041-411-571-8 
Botnets: The Killer Web App, Book, Image © Syngress
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