Public Key Infrastructure: Building Trusted Applications and Web Services

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Summary: Handshakes
Review: "Trust used to be all about a handshake - and nothing has changed..."

So begins Appendix F in Vacca's book. The entirety of the book defines that critical handshake, which has been made so much more complex by Internet freedom and opportunities. Layers of certification and handshaking, both online and offline, hashing, third parties, CA's.

Vacca includes costings, comparatives, definitions, implementation instructions, and white papers written by others with expertise in the area.

Previously a developer and implementor, and now a user, I wish that we had had this information then when we were implementing PGP, and I can only hope that my host sites now are compliant.



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Summary: E-Commerce users - feel secure!
Review: As usual, John writes a very timely book on contemporary IT issues. Most people are still afraid to use their credit cards on the net and businesses have huge constraints in terms of what can and can't be done through the web. As the rules of the game toughen for the every-ready hacking minds, government are also cracking down on such culprits, however, for the average user of electronic commercial transactions, there needs to be a stronger feeling that their money is safe. John's PKI book helps to educate those with this understandable concern, that it may now be getting safer to do business on the net.

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Summary: Secure Internet - fact or fiction ??
Review: John Vaccas recent book dealing with Public Key Infrastruture (PKI)goes a long way to answering this question.
With the tremendous need for true secure internet services PKI implementation is paramount. This book covers the various issues of PKI from start to finish. Adding to the tremedous knowledge of John Vacca are contributions from various knowlegable colleagues.
The risks that are involved if proper security is not implemented are what makes this book and it's vast wealth of knowledge a must read!

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Summary: A comprehensive reference,
Review: PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE, edited by John Vacca, is geared toward security professionals, IT departments, programmers and technical staff, as well as executives and anyone responsible for creating and/or implementing long-range computer security within a company. The book provides an extensive analysis of standards, certificate authority services, design and architecture considerations, as well as in-depth examinations of implementation issues such as schedule, cost, and performance. The Overview section identifies PKIs at the highest levels of application security and deals with security of key files. The chapter by Binder establishes PKI basics and discusses how to maintain privacy, integrity, and control. Section II, which covers analysis and design, contains a very useful chapter on assessing the ROI on PKI software and concludes that the return on investment is "too difficult and not necessary to assess." The author suggests using one of the PKI experts now readily available and states that the cost of PKI is less than the financial returned guaranteed on PKI-enabled applications. Section III on implementation outlines development and management issues, and Vacca's chapter concludes that the value of PKI grows exponentially once companies can authenticate both internal and external entities (for example, partners and suppliers). Section IV deals with management issues, and Ellison and Schneier's chapter lists ten risks of PKI. Basically, the authors believe that PKI is being promoted as an easy fix, and they caution the buyer to beware. This book is comprehensive and fair in its coverage and should serve as an invaluable guide for businesses and governments concerned with privacy and computer security.

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Summary: Must read for IT Security Professionals
Review: This book covers the entire spectrum of PKI technology with an emphasis on the pratical aspects of design,implementation and use. As an IT security professional, I have found this book to be extremely useful in my job as we must constantly be on guard and make use of the latest technology to stay one step ahead of the multitude of security threats we face on a day-to-day basis.

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Summary: Public Key Infrastructure Unraveled
Review: This is an excellent book that explains how to build the appropriate layers of security throughout networks. The book helps enablers to alleviate their concerns of how to protect assets and to concentrate on their organizational values. Public key infrastructure examines in-depth why security is crucial to internet users. The book is an effective educational tool organized into five sections and twenty six chapters with appendices and an excellent glossary. The book also recommends what to consider before implementing public key infrastructure.

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Summary: Understanding PKI
Review: To successfully transact business on the worldwide web, a secure network is essential. John Vacca's book explores public key infrastructures (PKIs)as a technology to provide that security. This book would be a good resource for anyone responsible for maintaining network security in big business or small.

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Summary: A comprehensive reference,
Review: With his latest book "Public Key Infrastructure" John Vacca provides a wealth of information related to the technologies available to ensure trust and confidentiality in data transmission and storage within open business environments. This book is a useful reference for anybody with a need to understand the different public key infrastructure implementations used throughout industry today. Public Key Infrastructures also contains a multitude of illustrations that explicitly describe everything from encryption implementation methods to enterprise network design. I highly recommend this book as a desk reference for any security professional, software developer, or network administrator.