Book Review: Malware, Rootkits & Botnets – A Beginner’s Guide
Malware, Rootkits & Botnets – A Beginner’s Guide, written by Christopher C. Elisan, offers a good introduction to information security. Written in a simple language, this book should be useful to students who want to get into the network security field, outsiders who want a peek into the infosec industry, and beginners in the field who want an overview. If you have some experience in the field, I don’t think this book offers detailed technical information on network security that you might expect.
This book gives an introduction to topics like History of Malware, Rootkits, Botnets, Advanced Persistent Threats, Malware Factory, Infection Vectors, Malware Control Mechanism, Detecting Threats, Mitigating Threats, Threat Classification, Insider Threats, etc.
The book is written well, but it could have been shorter. It could have covered more technology aspects instead of detailed description about processes. The author seems to have lot of experience working in infosec companies, still he keeps the writing simple enough for everyone to understand.
The book doesn’t explore advanced technical info on any topic, except rootkits, but it offers a good introduction to all the topics. I wish the author had given more technical insights and real-life examples. Some sections seemed very generic and I flipped over multiple pages because there was nothing new written in them. But there are some gems and interesting new information sprinkled throughout the book.
Some Useful Security Resources Mentioned in the Book:
- Windows Sysinternals Security Utilities
- GMER Rootkit Detector & Remover
- Memoryze memory forensic software
- TCPView Network Communications monitoring tool
- Wireshark Malware Network behavior analysis tool
- Ranking for Security Conferences
- National Vulnerability Database
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