Hacking and electronic crimes sophistication has grown at an exponential rate in recent years. In fact, recent reports have indicated that cyber crime already surpasses the illegal drug trade! Unethical hackers better known as black hats are preying on information systems of government, corporate, public, and private networks and are constantly testing the security mechanisms of these organizations to the limit with the sole aim of exploiting it and profiting from the exercise. High profile crimes have proven that the traditional approach to computer security is simply not sufficient, even with the strongest perimeter, properly configured defense mechanisms like firewalls, intrusion detection, and prevention systems, strong end-to-end encryption standards, and anti-virus software. Hackers have proven their dedication and ability to systematically penetrate networks all over the world. In some cases black hats may be able to execute attacks so flawlessly that they can compromise a system, steal everything of value, and completely erase their tracks in less than 20 minutes!

The Network Defense Series from EC-Council | Press is comprised of 5 books designed to educate learners from a vendor-neutral standpoint how to defend the networks they manage. This series covers the fundamental skills in evaluating internal and external threats to network security and design, how to enforce network level security policies, and how to ultimately protect an organization's information. The books in the series cover a broad range of topics from secure network fundamentals, protocols & analysis, standards and policy, hardening infrastructure, to configuring IPS, IDS, firewalls, bastion host and honeypots. Learners completing this series will have a full understanding of defensive measures taken to secure their organization's information, and along with the proper experience these books will prepare readers for the EC-Council Network Security Administrator (E|NSA) certification. An organization is only as strong as its weakest link. The same is true in network security. Mis-configurations, outdated software and technical glitches are often the easiest point of entry for a hacker. This book, the third in the series, is designed to teach the potential security practitioner how to harden the network infrastructure, evaluate hardware and software configurations and introduce log analysis, creating a strong foundation for Network Security Troubleshooting, response, and repair.