Book details of 'Always Use Protection: A Teen's Guide to Safe Computing'

Title	Always Use Protection: A Teen's Guide to Safe Computing
Author(s)	Dan Appleman
ISBN	159059326X
Language	English
Publisher	Apress

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Always Use Protection: A Teen's Guide to Safe Computing':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
In the introduction, the author is at pains to point out that this is not another "don't talk to strangers in chat rooms" book. He seems to be primarily concerned with virus infections and other malware. Part one is about protecting the computer. Chapter one is a very brief mention of the possibility of gremlins in your machine. Some sloppy definitions of malware and a warning about cyberterrorism are in chapter two. There is some good advice on avoiding virus infections in chapter three. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of questionable or useless material that will not help give the reader any protection. Chapter four's advice on antivirus scanners isn't necessarily wrong, but it certainly isn't great. It's marginally better than just saying "get antiviral software," but not by much. Firewalls, in chapter five, deals only with network address translation and packet filtering types, and is not clear about their limitations. The details on configuring routers tends to be both too specific to a particular model, and also not technical enough to really provide assistance. Windows Update does not work well with older versions of windows, and generally refuses to work with non- Internet Explorer browsers, which chapter six fails to mention. Chapter seven has a bit of a grab bag: some good suggestions on securing the Outlook email client, some good but incomplete material on services, and three basic recommendations on wireless LANs which are good as far as they go. (Changing the SSID is fine, but if you keep broadcasting the information it doesn't do much good, and Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption will protect you against those who don't even know they are logging on to your network, as well as those opportunists who only want a free Internet connection, but it is hardly secure against even the novices among your script kiddie friends.) The advice on backups, in chapter eight, is quite realistic. Chapter nine is quite a complex troubleshooting tool to use if you have been hit, and I really don't know how useful it would be in that case. Part two deals with privacy. Chapter ten discusses identity theft, but glosses over the most common form, simple impersonation. Some generic, but decent, advice on passwords is provided in chapter eleven. Chapter twelve has a good overview of your information on your machine that you may not know about. Various ways that data about you can be collected, and some things you can do to prevent it, is in chapter thirteen, but in rather random and ragged fashion. Part three examines some more direct attacks. Chapter fourteen suggests that chat rooms aren't all *that* dangerous, and has some brief words of advice. Some of the more common scams (mostly email) are listed in chapter fifteen. This book is better than nothing, quite a lot better. Thomas Greene's "Computer Security for the Home and Small Office" (see reviews) is more complete and technically accurate, but few teens will be interested enough to follow it all the way through. In fact, I can think of quite a few adults who should read this book. They won't be completely protected, or even mostly protected, but they'll have fewer problems. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2005
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Book description:

You Know You're in Trouble When... * Your family and friends know everything you're doing on your computer! * Someone is impersonating you during an instant messaging session. * Sudden dropouts and lag occur during online game play. * Your computer crashes unexpectedly and for no apparent reason. * Mysterious pop-up windows appear at strange times. This is a book about computer security and privacy, written especially for the many people who, just like you, are taking advantage of all the Internet has to offer. It goes beyond the "beware the dangers of chat room" warnings you're already aware of and tells you not only how to protect your computer from the latest invasions of viruses, worms, and Trojans, but also how to fight back and actually do something about them. You Know You're Safe When... * You know how anitvirus tools and firewalls actually work—and how they can fail. * You play online games without leaving your system open to attack. * You can surf the Web and shop without leaving any traces to follow. * You can clean viruses off a system—and even get paid for it!