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+---
+title: 'Technical book review: Cybersecurity for Small Networks'
+category:
+- blog
+abstract: A very short review of a great technical book.
+date: 2023-12-14T10:54:48+02:00
+draft: false
+---
+{{<img-pull-right "cybersec-for-small-net.webp">}}
+Like every good neckbeard, I have become much more interested in networking in last few years.
+I have no interest in becoming a network guy, but cybersecurity is on the radar[^llm].
+Of course, there is a huge overlap of those two.
+[^llm]: It seems safe from LLM dread we see in software engineering.
+
+Unfortunately, [*Cybersecurity for Small Networks*](https://nostarch.com/cybersecurity-small-networks) doesn't fill my knowledge gap.
+It's a good book, but it assumes close to zero knowledge.
+And this is a cool realization: you assume you know nothing and then boom.
+Suddenly you become a know-it-all.
+Earned? 
+Nope.
+But cool nevertheless.
+
+Back to the book: it covers creating and securing networks.
+It gives an overview of doing things across most popular OSes and popular consumer-grade solutions (like pfsense).
+It is a good **introduction**, but if you already know all the words in [table of contents](https://nostarch.com/download/CyberSecuritySmallNetworks_TOC.pdf), it won't teach you much.
+Know what a VLAN is? 
+Half of the chapter is boring. 
+Don't use the exact product the author is describing? 
+There goes the rest.
+
+There was a moment when I would benefit from reading this book and it was a few years ago.
+If you are a bit technical and want to secure your network - go ahead.
+It will help you.
+
+But if you want to expand existing knowledge, I'd look somewhere else.
+Personally, I skimmed most of the book. 
+The last chapter, Monitoring, had a lot of good info as I use an Ubiqity network gear and it gives a lot of it out of the box.
+I am planning to move to open source alternative (most likely, my next router will run raw OpenBSD), and now I have something to think about.
+
+But it's not USD 30-40 worth. 
+
+Read as PDF on Onyx Boox Note Air 2.   
+book bought as part of a [Cybersecurity Humble Bundle](https://www.humblebundle.com/books/hacking-2023-no-starch-books)  
+Next up: [Hacking APIs](https://nostarch.com/hacking-apis)