Book excerpt: High-level overview of the information security field. Covers key concepts like confidentiality, integrity, and availability, then dives into practical applications of these ideas in the areas of operational, physical, network, application, and operating system security. In this high-level survey of the information security field, best-selling author Jason Andress covers the basics of a wide variety of topics, from authentication and authorization to maintaining confidentiality and performing penetration testing. Using real-world security breaches as examples, Foundations of Information Security explores common applications of these concepts, such as operations security, network design, hardening and patching operating systems, securing mobile devices, as well as tools for assessing the security of hosts and applications. You'll also learn the basics of topics like: Multifactor authentication and how biometrics and hardware tokens can be used to harden the authentication process The principles behind modern cryptography, including symmetric and asymmetric algorithms, hashes, and certificates The laws and regulations that protect systems and data Anti-malware tools, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems Vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows and race conditions A valuable resource for beginning security professionals, network systems administrators, or anyone new to the field, Foundations of Information Security is a great place to start your journey into the dynamic and rewarding field of information security.