BKHPYIIA.RVW   20020826

"Hack Proofing Your Identity in the Information Age", Teri Bidwell,
2002, 1-931836-51-5, U$29.95/C$46.95
%A   Teri Bidwell
%C   800 Hingham Street, Rockland, MA   02370
%D   2002
%G   1-931836-51-5
%I   Syngress Media, Inc.
%O   U$29.95/C$46.95 781-681-5151 fax: 781-681-3585 www.syngress.com
%P   370 p.
%T   "Hack Proofing Your Identity in the Information Age"

Chapter one does say a bit about what identity theft is, and suggests
some basic protections against it.  The rest of the book, however,
seems to be just another attempt to provide an "easy" security book
for home users.  And it doesn't do it very well.

Chapter two is a miscellaneous grab bag.  It recommends keeping all
your files in a standard place (bad), has some nice content on
cleaning up temporary files (good), suggests novice users change the
Registry (dangerous), promotes the use of a power on password (good),
has rotten material on viruses and trojans (conflicting definitions on
facing pages as well as a confusion of adware and spyware, although it
does get a point for mentioning F-Prot), insists users install all
patches (possibly bad), outlines how to set up multiple accounts
(good), and has some decent advice on choosing passwords (also good). 
There is a range of information on email security in chapter three,
although the details are questionable.  The "man-in-the-middle" attack
is described as TCP hijacking and is said to be foiled by
cryptography, when, in fact, it is usually an attack on cryptography. 
There is good advice on scams.  Web security, in chapter four, is
heavy on cookies and e-commerce, and light on many more serious
issues.  Chapter five is generic Internet connection information.  It
defines a sniffer correctly once but elsewhere as a keylogger, and
oversimplifies firewalls.  Random topics loosely related by being
popular with kids make up chapter six.  Chapter seven does return to
the topic of identity theft and discusses what to do if it occurs. 
Some of the advice is helpful (particularly if you live in the US),
but most is vague common sense.  There is a repeat of the material
(with slightly more detail) on firewalls and browser settings, in
chapter eight.

There is little here that is specific to the titular topic.  As for a
general security text, Jeff Crume (cf. BKININSC.RVW) as well as
Cronkhite and McCullough (cf. BKACCDEN.RVW) have already done it
better.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2002   BKHPYIIA.RVW   20020826