Every personal, professional, corporate, and community library system should have on hand a reference copy of Thomas Greene's Computer Security For The Home And Small Office.

— Internet Bookwatch, July 2004

Computer Security for the Home and Small Office addresses the long-neglected security needs of everyday users in the home, company workstation, and SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) categories, with emphasis on system hardening, eliminating malware, user and Internet privacy, encryption, and data hygiene.

The book offers comprehensive tutorials for protecting privacy, preventing system attacks and, most important, avoiding difficulties from buggy programs and software laced with hidden functions and networking capabilities.

Furthermore, the book is packed with information about open-source products with related security strategies for Windows users. One recurrent strategy: replacing insecure closed-source applications and utilities with safer open-source alternatives, thereby eliminating numerous routes to system exploitation and privacy invasion.

Also included is plenty of guidance for Linux users, and a full chapter weighing the advantages and disadvantages of migrating to Linuxa step that can greatly simplify computer security, even for the novice user.

Read a review from the Sydney Morning Herald

Check out other great reviews from About.com and the Golden Triangle PC Club

Customer Reviews & Comments
I recently finished reading and reviewing the book Computer Security for the Home and Small Office by Thomas C. Greene (Apress). While it does seem to lose focus a bit towards the end and has a definite bias (which I agree with!), the overall content and information is vital to know and understand. The chapter breakdown: Introducing the Dark Side; Vectors; Social Engineering; From Newbie to Power User; Treasure Hunt; The Open-Source Escape Hatch; Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing; Glossary; Procedures, Processes, and Ports; Online Resources; Index First off, this is a highly readable and interesting book on how to secure your computer systems against attacks and keep your data private. The author is very vocal in his opinions, and you'll quickly learn where those biases are. He is a major proponent of using Linux and ditching Windows. The only reason you should use IE is because you're forced to. Even with that, he does go into each system and explain in detail what you need to do in order to harden your system. This includes shutting down unnecessary services, running anti-virus software, and using firewalls. All the stuff you'd expect to see in a book like this, and he delivers. The detail is sufficient for most intermediate users to follow, and after you're done you'll have a system that most script kiddies will bypass as it's not worth the time or effort to crack. Starting in the Trust Nothing chapter, he starts to rant about how security is portrayed in the media, along with the potential conflicts of interest between vunerabilities and the companies who fix them. While interesting material, the focus on home/small office seems to get lost in the mix. I don't know if it's just the style of the writing or what, but I was starting to wonder if we could just move on... Windows bashers will love the book, Windows defenders will think he's overly critical of the platform. Either way, this is material you can't afford to ignore in today's environment.