.NET Security   Buy it at Amazon Read a Sample Chapter From The Publisher
	Author Jason Bock, Pete Stromquist, Tom Fischer, Nathan Smith Publisher APress Length 336 pages vbRad Rating: 4 fingers up. (4 out of 5) Reviewed by Robert

So needless to say, if you work in the arena of, say, financial transactions where the privacy of data is of utmost importance, you should pick up either this or a similar book. Even though, the book lists 4 authors, this paperback is mostly Jason Bock's baby. The other authors stepped in to help when the guy previously helping Jason went MIA. A more detailed account of the story and more is here.

Despite such a turbulent beginning (or maybe because of it), the book is quite excellent. I quickly learned various concepts that have previously escaped me (or stuff I haven't yet had to deal with yet, like public/private keys). In addition to covering the appropriate .NET classes that implement the functionality, the authors also discuss the mathematical underpinnings of assorted algorithms. So you come away with practical knowledge of how, for instance, cryptology works in principle, not just how to use the .NET wrappers. Or you can skip through the explanations and just learn the .NET code.

The language of the book is mostly c#, which makes it fairly thin (about 300 pages), but it is packed. I feel that this is better approach than writing every example in C# and VB.NET, which wastes paper and insults my intelligence.

Anyway, you'll learn topics ranging from cryptography, digital signatures and certificates to XML encryption, code access security, role access security and remoting. In addition, there are a chapter each on securing IIS (or ASP.NET), Passport (like anyone is going to use it) and preventing nosy people from decompiling your code.