BKCMPCRM.RVW 951004 "Computer Crime: a Crimefighter's Handbook", David Icove/Karl Seger/William VonStorch, 1995, 1-56592-086-4, U$24.95 %A David Icove %A Karl Seger %A William VonStorch %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 1995 %G 1-56592-086-4 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$24.95 519-283-6332 800-528-9994 rick.brown@onlinesys.com 800-998-9938 %O 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com %P 464 %S Computer Security %T "Computer Crime: a Crimefighter's Handbook" As a guide for law enforcement personnel and systems managers, this provides a good overview and introduction to computer crime and the actions to take against it. Touching on crime, prevention and prosecution, the book is practical and helpful to those needing to get a quick handle on the problem. It is, however, easily evident that the authors are law enforcement, rather than systems, professionals. Those expecting a technical discussion, from the O'Reilly imprimatur, will be disappointed. The book started life as an official FBI training manual. The explanations and concepts are elementary-- and are intended to be so. Thus, while it might be possible to argue (rather weakly) for the definitions of viruses, worms and other malware as described in the book, security experts will likely feel a bit uncomfortable with them. The abdication of discussion on encryption is not going to help those who want to help protect their systems. (On the other hand, there is nothing to indicate any political bias in regard to encyption.) The bibliography, though, is of good quality, and should make up for the technical shortcomings in this work. I am delighted to see, for once, not only mention but actual listings of computer laws from outside of the US. The coverage is still a bit lopsided, with 130 of US federal and state statues and less than twenty devoted to the rest of the world, but it's a start. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCMPCRM.RVW 951004 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters roberts@decus.ca slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Rob_Slade@mindlink.bc.ca Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0