Some of the advice on how to defeat attackers is entertaining, like the authors' suggestion that you give your Windows NT administrator a user name other than "Administrator," then create another account--one with no access rights--with the "Administrator" user name as a sort of straw man to sap crackers' energy. Other advice makes up more of a litany of technical best practices and policy rules of thumb. Still other sections focus on tools, both offensive (like L0phtCrack and NetBus) and defensive (like Syslog and SuperScan). There are also multiple-choice assessment questions--with annotated answers--and lab exercises accompanying each chapter. --David Wall