Little more than basic security information
I purchased the book in order to get some depth on the inner workings of code access security and version management as it pertains to strongly named assemblies. In neither case did the book offer anything more than a rehash of the documentation -- and not in a particularly well thought out or organized manor.
What an eye-opener
When I first saw this book, I thought "How can they write a whole book on security?" So out of intellectual curiosity, I started flipping through the pages. It was like getting kicked in the stomach, not because it was wrong, but because it was right. It made me fundamentally re-think how I write my code and really shifted my whole mental image. Too many times developers think that if an app does what users want and runs fast and is reliable, that's all there is to it. Not anymore. The most killer app written wouldn't impress anyone if it got hacked and cost them a lot of money. There days, too many people are trying to hack your stuff, and having your app busted is no less 'bad' than having a logic flaw miscalculate tons of money. Moreoever, security breaches often make the headlines so it's a lose/lose for everyone if your security is breached. The good news... buy this book, follow their guidelines religously, keep up to date with security issues, and sleep easy at night.
Worth the trip to the bookstore
I was a little bit skeptical to buy this book since Amazon hasn?t put up a description yet, so I went to my local bookstore to check it out. I got to readin it and couldn?t put it down. I was never really sure if my VB code was secure or not.. I?ve read other books that are heavy on security options, but light on recommendations. This book gave me both the options and recommendations. It told me exactly what I needed to do to use encryption in my program. Something I was never able to figure out from the documentation. Plus it gave me plenty of other ideas on how to make my VB code better and more secure. Now I feel like I?m in control of my VB code again. It was well worth the trip!
Finally...
My only criticism of this book is that it wasn't released sooner. Security for VB.NET covers what should already have been part of the VS.NET help or MSDN online library. I *love* the chapters on role-based and code-access security, which actually explains how you would use this stuff in real life. But my favorite chapter is the one on locking down Windows, IIS and .NET - this is exactly what I was looking for, a simple, unambiguous checklist for how to secure the platform.
Worthy of five stars
Security is becoming an essential topic and there is a lot of information available already, but up until now, no reference that brings it together for the VB programmer. I was after a book that gave me the basic knowledge for writing secure apps. This book is great. Ed Robinson and Mike Bond have previously written about VB migration. I often find that authors like the rest of us mortals grow in our jobs and this book is very well written. It starts out with the basics, and gets more advanced as the book goes on. I like the fact that the book has loads of example code which is designed to be cut-and-pasted into your applications.
As a final note, I think this is definitely one of the best MSPress .NET books. Unlike the other security books, which seem to be rushed to be first to market, this books is well thought out, and created by people who know VB.NET as well as knowing about security. This brings security down to earth, and is more relevant to the VB programmer than anything else I've read on security. This book is worthy of five stars.
(5 reviews)
