Planning for Survivable Networks

Rating:
Summary: Right On
Review: Finally, updated info on setting up decent disaster recovery that I can understand. The other books I tried were completely outdated and way too detailed. If you need a plain English explanation of disaster recovery, and who doesn't these days, get this book.

Rating:
Summary: Must read
Review: In Planning for Survivable Networks, Hines lays out 21 top vulnerabilities for network disasters. She shows the opportunities for the hackers, the types of disasters--intentional and unintentional--and most importantly, the planning for preventing them. She gives illustration what damages can be done to the property, the business, and the systems. For either physical disaster or a cyber-attack, planning for survival is essential. For this, she provides a great deal of examples and the consideration for network survival planning. Hines also discusses how to perform network recovery and restoration from the attack and what's important to prepare to handle an attack again. In sum, this book contains wealth of information about the likelihood of network breakdown and the planning necessary for disaster handling. It is easy reading for experienced professionals. For beginners, it's also a useful resource about Network Security in addition to the Network textbooks.

Rating:
Summary: Must read
Review: In Planning for Survivable Networks, Hines lays out 21 top vulnerabilities for network disasters. She shows the opportunities for the hackers, the types of disasters--intentional and unintentional--and most importantly, the planning for preventing them. She gives illustration what damages can be done to the property, the business, and the systems. For either physical disaster or a cyber-attack, planning for survival is essential. For this, she provides a great deal of examples and the consideration for network survival planning. Hines also discusses how to perform network recovery and restoration from the attack and what's important to prepare to handle an attack again. In sum, this book contains wealth of information about the likelihood of network breakdown and the planning necessary for disaster handling. It is easy reading for experienced professionals. For beginners, it's also a useful resource about Network Security in addition to the Network textbooks.

Rating:
Summary: Survivability is more than Security
Review: Some books grab you from the first page. While I wouldn't call Annlee "Ishmael", as in Moby Dick, I'm reminded of David Kahn's The Codebreakers, opening the 3000 year history of cryptology with the tension of December 7, 1941.

In this case, it opens with the author being rocked by a terrorist-caused explosion. I was surprised, given the current popularity of books about 9/11, that the event took place 20 years ago. A retired Air Force officer, she has dealt with these threats, all over the world, for many years. Her direct command and control experience teaches that there is only a certain level of protection that mission-critical networked applications can provide, without geographic diversity. Below that level is a constant range of tradeoffs, which she identifies in detail.

There are many books that go into great detail on computer and network security techniques, such as firewalls and encryption. While this book identifies these and puts them in their proper context, the strength of this book is what variously could be called a systems, business or economic justification for survivability, based on a solid technical and economic foundation.

Consider the title carefully -- it's not planning "secure" networks, but planning "survivable" networks. Many networks in the World Trade Center complex were secure, but not survivable for reasons such as having their backups in the other tower. Even in an era where we worry about terrorism, there's far too little attention given to ordinary fire, flood, and other natural disasters. People have told me that the discussion of floor drains to cope with fire sprinklers or firefighting elsewhere in the building is something they never thought about until they read my book, _Building Service Provider Networks_.

I highly recommend this book as a different way of ensuring business and technology continuity, in a world with hacker, terrorist, criminal, and natural threats -- as well as the traditional Murphy's Law inspirations of software and hardware bugs, as well as human error.

Rating:
Summary: Survivability is more than Security
Review: Some books grab you from the first page. While I wouldn't call Annlee "Ishmael", as in Moby Dick, I'm reminded of David Kahn's The Codebreakers, opening the 3000 year history of cryptology with the tension of December 7, 1941.

In this case, it opens with the author being rocked by a terrorist-caused explosion. I was surprised, given the current popularity of books about 9/11, that the event took place 20 years ago. A retired Air Force officer, she has dealt with these threats, all over the world, for many years. Her direct command and control experience teaches that there is only a certain level of protection that mission-critical networked applications can provide, without geographic diversity. Below that level is a constant range of tradeoffs, which she identifies in detail.

There are many books that go into great detail on computer and network security techniques, such as firewalls and encryption. While this book identifies these and puts them in their proper context, the strength of this book is what variously could be called a systems, business or economic justification for survivability, based on a solid technical and economic foundation.

Consider the title carefully -- it's not planning "secure" networks, but planning "survivable" networks. Many networks in the World Trade Center complex were secure, but not survivable for reasons such as having their backups in the other tower. Even in an era where we worry about terrorism, there's far too little attention given to ordinary fire, flood, and other natural disasters. People have told me that the discussion of floor drains to cope with fire sprinklers or firefighting elsewhere in the building is something they never thought about until they read my book, _Building Service Provider Networks_.

I highly recommend this book as a different way of ensuring business and technology continuity, in a world with hacker, terrorist, criminal, and natural threats -- as well as the traditional Murphy's Law inspirations of software and hardware bugs, as well as human error.