Rating: 

This short (~160 pages) but informative book covers a wide range of security "precautions" for Cisco routers. It provides a foundation on how to limit or mitigate the risk of your Cisco router being attacked or compromised. These ideas and recommendations are a great help to anyone, even if you are an experienced Cisco router engineer or just starting out; all though the book assumes that you have hands on knowledge and experience configuring Cisco routers. As I read chapter after chapter, I found that a few very difficult to understand topics were presented fairly clearly but still difficult for a new beginner, and thus the more experience you have the more you will take out of this book.

Some of the best parts of the book have delved into topic that technical experts will sometimes forget. It explains what risk is and why routers for most are critical links today with "e-business" being mission critical. It should make you think about what the cost are to you being attacked both by reputation and real losses like lost sales, i.e. no email or web server available. This book touches all aspects of security, like physical issues, and better yet recovery after an incident. (But don't wait till then before you read the book or that chapter.)

The best part of the book is how it devotes just the right amount of time to each topic and indicates that if you have not understood a technology, where to go and, better yet, the author conveys that you need to get the jist of things and any work to help harden your router is worth the effort. I like the router configuration examples as well as summaries in each chapter and an over-all router configuration with all recommendations implemented.

This is a must read for anyone in charge of a router connected to the Internet, in essence it provides "rules-of-thumb" that make it harder for the attacker to do damage.