The strength of this book lies in several areas. First, the authors probably have 50+ years experience between them and it shows. You really get the impression that they've "been there, done that". But they don't try and "wow" you with their intelligence and they aren't condescending, in fact they write quite clearly.

The "mile wide" crack I made in the title refers to the fact that this book covers everything from physical security and social engineering, to how to setup up integrity checking with tripwire and use PAM. Basically I found this book to be invaluable because while I could breeze through certain sections, there was a ton of material that I needed more knowledge about, but either never got around to it, or didn't even know I was lacking. An example is NFS. I knew I needed more background about NFS because I work in infosec, but every place I've ever worked has banned NFS outright, which makes it a little more difficult to learn.... Another 2 technologies pop into my mind: LDAP and PAM. I knew what they were, but now I know how to set up the basics and can branch out on my own.

In our infosec world it's simply not possible to know everything. This book gives the reader a solid grounding in a ton of stuff, which enables him to go out and Google around intelligently for more advanced information. In a pinch it can also be used as an anti-theft device since it weighs in at 900+ pages and is quite heavy.

If you have but one security reference, this should be it!

Significant time is spent explaining how unix-based systems work. The book covers things such as file systems, partition structure, file ownership/permissions, users and groups, inodes, ssh, backups, etc. Each command, utility, procedure or feature is detailed over several pages followed by an explanation of what you should be doing with said topic.

There are also a few real-world examples here and there; stories most of us have heard before, like the admin who had . in his path.

Unlike many computer books, this one is well written and an easy read, and it's certainly a lot more friendly than some unix geeks who's advice consists of RTFM.

I think this book would be great for someone who has a very basic understanding of unix-based systems but has never administrated one before, but for those of us who've already had some experience running unix there's probably not anything new here for you.

Practical Unix & Internet Security

Wow where to begin, First I would like to say that my forte is Network security and this book really covered it all.
Had nice presentation, easy to follow and was very detailed. From the opening line to the last page this book has
something for everybody that is interested in keeping there computers and network secure and safe!
I have tried several of the what-if's and scripts provided or recommended settings on my own network and they
worked as describe. There was a lot of research put into this book and also timely material so as to not be outdated
when it hits the shelves. The Appendixes very an especially nice touch with loads of valuable information and checklist.
I would not hesitate to recommend this book to everyone from Novices on there home computer to Network admins
running multi billion dollar operations.
Again very well done!
~Brett~
...

I was also pleased to see that many of the concepts covered for larger implementations were noticable in the security policies and paradigm of my workplace, which makes use of numerous LANs and WANs for day to day business, many of which requiring security anbd confidentiality.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in unix and internet security, be they new to the field or firmly established.

When you are required as an security expert, several tasks are usually to be faced:

New scenarios to analyze?, checklists to recommend?, good firewall architectures to suggest?, logs to watch? (and so on). Don't worry, with the only help of this Garfinkel, Spafford and Schwartz 'little giant' book, you are done.

Excellent book. A Must for security people.