It's the end of the year, which means it's time to name the winner of the Best Book Bejtlich Read award for 2009! Although I've been reading and reviewing digital security books seriously since 2000, this is only the fourth time I've formally announced a winner; see 2008, 2007, and 2006.
2009 was a slow year, due to a general lack of long-haul air travel (where I might read a whole book on one leg) and the general bleed-over from my day work into my outside-work time.
My ratings for 2009 can be summarized as follows:
- 5 stars: 6 books
- 4 stars: 5 books
- 3 stars: 4 books
- 2 stars: 0 books
- 1 stars: 0 books
Here's my overall ranking of the five star reviews; this means all of the following are excellent books.
- 6. Vi(1) Tips by Jacek Artymiak; devGuide.net. Every Unix admin should know how to use vi(1), and Jacek's book provides the right balance of commands and examples.
- 5. Web Security Testing Cookbook: Systematic Techniques to Find Problems Fast by Paco Hope; O'Reilly. Even though I am not a Web developer, I found this book to be very clear and helpful for security analysts trying to understand Web traffic.
- 4. IPv6 Security by Scott Hogg; Cisco Press. When it comes to IPv6 security books, there is really no alternative, and thankfully this book delivers.
- 3. Windows Forensic Analysis DVD Toolkit, Second Edition by Harlan A. Carvey; Syngress. Harlan's update to the first edition of his book is another winner; you must read this book.
- 2. The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws by Marcus Pinto; Wiley. This is an excellent book. I read several books on Web application security recently, and this is my favorite.
And, the winner of the Best Book Bejtlich Read in 2009 award is...
1. SQL Injection Attacks and Defense by Justin Clarke, et al; Syngress. This was a really tough call. Any of the top 4 books could easily have been the best book I read in 2009. Congratulations to Syngress for publishing another winner. SQL injection is probably the number one problem for any server-side application, and this book is unequaled in its coverage.
Looking at the publisher count, top honors in 2009 go to Syngress for 2 titles, followed by Wiley, Cisco Press, O'Reilly, and devGuide.net, each with one.
Thank you to all publishers who sent me books in 2009. I have plenty more to read in 2010.
Congratulations to all the authors who wrote great books in 2009, and who are publishing titles in 2010!
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