Secure and Resilient Software Development 1st Edition

"Secure and Resilient Software Development" by Mark Merkow and Laksh Raghavan is a really good book. It addresses a key security area that is generally given short shrift, even though purportedly more than 70 percent of breaches result from attacks on the application layer. The book is one of only a handful of texts about information security written by practitioners for practitioners. Even fewer practitioner books address software security ... and most of those have been written or co-authored by Mark Merkow! The majority of publications in the field of software security are written by academics or vendors' employees, both of whom have their own agenda. The former group is dominated by publishing or perishing; whereas the latter generally promote particular products or methodologies supplied by their employers. The true value of Mark and Laksh's book is that it is both impartial and extremely informative.The book is comprehensive. It covers areas with which most infosec professionals and software developers are not likely to be familiar. For example, the authors recount the history of application security testing as far back as the Orange Book and Common Criteria (CC). Incidentally, Mark co-authored an excellent book on the CC, namely "Computer Security Assurance Using the Common Criteria" (Thomson, 2005). In the current book, issues with the CC approach are raised ... and by someone who should know!Among the many useful chapters, I personally derived the most from Chapters 8 and 9, which are about testing custom applications and commercial-off-the-shelf software respectively. I also was interested in reading Chapter 11 on metrics and maturity models. I found the coverage of these topics to be extensive, although I have my own opinion regarding the lack of meaningful metrics for security in general and application security in particular.I suspect, however, that many readers will be more interested in the design and coding phases of the SDLC (software development life cycle), rather than the testing phase. And these readers will not be disappointed. It was encouraging to see that resiliency is given top billing, as it is often neglected by developers, although software engineers might well see the importance of building resilient systems.Having given the reader a taste of what he or she needs to know in order to produce or acquire secure and resilient software, the authors point the reader to sources of further education, including the various certifications that can be earned.The book is rounded out with a very helpful glossary of terms, and a couple of appendices. The first covers the top 25 most dangerous programming errors (according to CWE/SANS), and the second describes OWASP's Enterprise Security API project.All in all this is a book packed with valuable information for those designing, developing or supporting secure and resilient software. It is full of useful and actionable suggestions. And it fills a gap that really needed filling. It gives the reader a sound grounding and good understanding of the issues relating to the development of secure and resilient software and points the reader in the right direction for building further upon the base established by the book.[This review was excerpted from a column published on [...] on July 19, 2010]

As a software developer I need this information.Good book, great price, seller is A++++++++++

In the interests of full disclosure, I should start by noting that I am slightly biased. Both of the two authors, Mark Merkow and Laksh Raghavan, work on my team.They are a perhaps an ideal pair of book authors because they have such complementary viewpoints and skills. I have known Mark for - good grief! - about twenty years. There is a great deal of solid theory that underpins information security, and Mark is one of few practitioners who both understand this theory, as well as know how to put it into practice. This is surprisingly rare. Laksh, on the other hand, is one of the best application security guys you'll ever meet. He knows the theory and the practice of both how to defend and attack applications. (They're both really nice people too, although that might be less relevant to their writing skills.)Individually, they're both very strong. In combination, they and - therefore this book - are very, very good. The book builds from a firm theoretical foundation, and works up into a detailed explanation of the various ways in which applications and systems can be attacked, and how these attacks can be defeated by careful system design, coding and testing. It takes that and then moves into the ways in which enterprises can build full-blown programs to secure their applications, and finally into emerging industry standards such as BSIMM & OWASP.I have a bunch of security books on my bookshelf, and the majority of the ones on secure / resilient software practices are not great. This, on the other hand is one of those rare books that is both interesting and informative on the first read, and very helpful as a reference work on subsequent reads. Strongly recommended.Legal disclaimer - Please note that nothing in the above should be construed as anything other than the personal / professional opinion of this reviewer, and certainly not as the formal view of our employer.