Fight.comp.crime.like.a.paranoid.FBI.psycho

[nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)]

Coming to Terms with Computer Crime

   Computer Crime: A Crimefighter's Handbook
   David Icove, Karl Seger, and William VonStorch
   O'Reilly and Associates Inc., $24.95; 800-998-9938
   ISBN: 1-56592-086-4.

By Don Willmot

If you tend to be a paranoid type of person, Computer
Crime: A Crimefighter's Handbook will keep vou up at
night pondering the incredible number of computer crimes
that people can commit and the difficulties involved in
stopping them.

The book, split into sections that deal with defining
computer crimes. preventing them, and handling them, is
loaded with fascinating facts. When you stop to think
about it. the number of different types of crime is
alarming: sabotage. revenge, vandalism, theft,
eavesdropping, even "data diddling." For each type of
attack, the book suggests preventive measures and
strategies, all in commonsense style and plain English.

You'll feel like an FBI agent as you read the personality
profiles of different types of computer criminals.
Hackers, crackers, and vandals are all psychoanalyzed,
and interesting charts of "vulnerabilities" and
"countermeasures" will help you make plans to keep your
organization safe from outside attack. The book includes
discussions of everything from choosing locks and keys to
interviewing personnel, setting up "concentric circles"
of defense perimeters, and forming a crisis-management
team to handle the fallout from a successful computer
crime. There's even an entire page devoted to all the
passwords you should never use.

Almost one-third of the book is given over to the actual
text of federal and state laws used to prosecute computer
crime. This section is meant not to be read but to be
used instead as a reference.