Lacking in technical detail - OK for historical information

I read this book quite a while ago. When searching for a new book on viruses to read it came up in the list of search results. Reading all the positive reviews I find it hard to believe we read the same book. Unfortunately I cannot recommend this book for a variety of reasons. Firstly it is now out of date, a lot has changed in the last 5 years. Secondly even when it first come out I found the book quite superficial and lacking in technical detail. Certainly for someone seeking an indepth knowledge of how viruses are designed and can be defended against this book wasn't up to the task. The audience I can see this book as being useful for would be someone who is not a programmer but is looking for a detailed history of the different types of computer viruses. For those looking for discussion and analysis of virus or antivirus source code please look elsewhere !!

I think the reason the author didn't provide much detail was that he didn't want to make his own job producing antivirus software any harder than it already was. Also he wasn't about to give away any trade secrets to his competitors. Perhaps as well he wanted to make the book reasonably accessible to people without a strong programming background.

So for those looking for detailed and current technical information, look elsewhere, for those after a history and taxonomy of computer viruses this book might be adequate.

Author: Tony Brown


Complicated, Confusing

This book as a lot of good information, but it is seems to be more difficult than it should be at times. The examples are based in x86 ASSEMBLER. So if you don't have a clue about x86 assembler, it's going to be difficult.

The book does NOT show the code to infect programs, just what it looks like before the infection and after the infection. I understand why. If it included the code, it would be a manual about how to write viruses. Clearly, we don't need one of those. But, it does make the descriptions more obtuse than they would need to be if it just showed the code.

There are several typos in the book, but most of them are easy to overcome.

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My big complaint is the physical book itself. The binding is not good, and the pages are starting to come loose from the spine.

Author: spkmn


Fried Air

Computer viruses are code. And this waste of paper would want to be a book on computer viruses without any viral code? You must be kidding me....


Author: Riccardo Audano


The virus researcher's Bible

Peter Szor's book is definitely THE book any aspiring anti-virus researcher and computer security professional must read. It is very broad and information-packed, covering just about every single important aspect of computer viruses and anti-virus research. The book is very technical which, from my point of view, is a big plus - although beginners might find some parts of it daunting. This is definitely no "viruses for dummies" book. In the field of computer viruses and anti-virus research, this book is what Donald Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, The, Volumes 1-3 Boxed Set (2nd Edition) (The Art of Computer Programming Series) is for computer scientists.

The only gripe I have is that it is perhaps not deep enough. While every important aspect of viruses and anti-virus defense is covered, some of them are not covered deeply enough. This is not the author's fault but the publisher's. Originally, the author intended to write two separate volumes (one dedicated to computer viruses and one dedicated to anti-virus defenses), covering in depth every aspect of these two areas. However, the publisher imposed size restrictions on him. Although the book is rather thick (700+ pages), the space is still not enough to cover in sufficient depth every important aspect of this field.

However, each chapter contains references for further reading and the interested reader can do their own research of the aspects that are not covered deeply enough.

In summary: excellent book, useful both as a textbook and as a reference. Great read, information-packed, useful. Just don't expect to find any "how to write a virus" recipies there - fortunately, the author went to great lengths to avoid them.

Author: Vesselin Bontchev


Excellent Source of Information

As a relative amature in the subject of computer viruses, this book was very helpful. With a little background in basic computing, you can easily understand this book. The book starts off simple virus from back in the day, describing the first viruses to appear. The book then goes into detail about the more advanced forms of virus infections and viruses to appear on more modern systems. After reading the book, i came away with a new respect for the art of self replicating code (aka Virus), and the techniques that virus researchers use to develop software to protect your PC from these threats.

Author: MikeZ