BKSCDTVS.RVW   20071124

"Security Data Visualization", Greg Conti, 2007, 978-1-59327-143-5,
U$49.95/C$59.95
%A   Greg Conti www.gregconti.com
%C   555 De Haro Street, Suite 250, San Francisco, CA   94107
%D   2007
%G   978-1-59327-143-5 1-59327-143-3
%I   No Starch Press
%O   U$49.95/C$59.95 415-863-9900 fax 415-863-9950 info@nostarch.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593271433/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593271433/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593271433/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience i- Tech 1 Writing 1 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   244 p.
%T   "Security Data Visualization: Graphical Techniques for Network
      Analysis"

Data visualization is very valuable.  It is, however, difficult to
perform properly in many situations: interpretation of data into
graphics can be extremely useful, but it is often difficult to
determine how best to present the information, and in the same way
that proper visualization can be tremendously helpful, the wrong
choice can be terrifically misleading.  Conti somewhat avoids this
issue in the introduction, since all he claims for the book is
inspiration.

Chapter one provides a number of data visualization and user interface
examples.  Some simple data visualization experiments in chapter two
show a few interesting ideas that can be explored with text and simple
graphics files, as well as comparative images as simple processing is
pursued.  The port scan data displays suggested in chapter three don't
seem to work quite as well.  Similarly, chapter four looks at
vulnerability scanning, but the recommendations presented don't appear
to add much of value in displaying the data.  Slightly better results
seem to be obtained using real Internet data in chapter five, since
some notion of the implications of the information can be taken from
the illustrations.  Chapter six contains a number of examples of
impressive visualization of security data, but there is limited
discussion as to how to determine the best means of displaying data of
different types.  The aspects of creation of visualizations, for
firewall logs, is dealt with in chapter seven, and with IDS (Intrusion
Detection System) data in eight.  Chapter nine discusses ways of
attacking visualizations, usually by injecting spurious data.  General
principles for building visualization systems are in chapter ten. 
Chapter eleven turns to areas for additional research on the topic in
the future.  Chapter twelve lists references and resources.

The book is pretty, and it may provide inspiration.  However, it
probably won't provide an awful lot of assistance in getting your data
effectively visualized.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2007   BKSCDTVS.RVW   20071124