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In “The Developer’s Playbook for Large Language Model Security,” Steve Wilson, Chief Product Officer at Exabeam, addresses the growing integration of large language models (LLMs) into various industries and the accompanying security challenges. Leveraging over two decades of experience in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, Wilson offers a practical guide for security professionals to navigate the complex landscape of LLM vulnerabilities.
A notable aspect of the book is its alignment with the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications project, which Wilson leads. This connection ensures that the security risks discussed are vetted by a global network of experts. The playbook delves into critical threats such as data leakage, prompt injection attacks, and supply chain vulnerabilities, providing actionable mitigation strategies for each.
Wilson emphasizes the unique security challenges posed by LLMs, which differ from traditional web applications due to new trust boundaries and attack surfaces. The book offers defensive strategies, including runtime safeguards and input validation techniques, to harden LLM-based systems. Real-world case studies illustrate how attackers exploit AI-driven applications, enhancing the practical value of the guidance provided.
Structured to serve both as an introduction and a reference guide, “The Developer’s Playbook for Large Language Model Security” is an essential resource for security professionals tasked with safeguarding AI-driven applications. Its technical depth, practical strategies, and real-world examples make it a timely and relevant addition to the field of AI security.
Our list of cybersecurity books has been curated to steer your professional growth in 2024. This selection aims to provide comprehensive information security insights and knowledge, ensuring you stay ahead in your career learning journey throughout the year.
Cyber for Builders provides an overview of the cybersecurity industry from entrepreneurial lenses, breaks down the role of various industry players, from investors to channel partners and acquirers, and offers insight into the trends shaping the future of security. Moreover, the book is packed with mental models, notes, and advice to help early-stage cybersecurity founders get their ideas off the ground and solve problems young companies face around problem discovery, hiring, building products, and fundraising.
Authors: Dr. Gerald Auger, Jaclyn “Jax” Scott, Jonathan Helmus, Kim Nguyen
This book is designed to help you confidently enter the world of cybersecurity, covering everything from gaining the right certification to tips and tools for finding your first job. The book starts by helping you gain a foundational understanding of cybersecurity, covering cyber law, cyber policy, and frameworks. Next, you’ll focus on choosing the career field best suited to you, from security operations to penetration testing and risk analysis. The book also guides you through the different certification options and the pros and cons of a formal college education versus formal certificate courses.
This book demystifies EDR, taking you on a deep dive into how EDRs detect adversary activity. The author uses his years of experience as a red team operator to investigate each of the most common sensor components, discussing their purpose, explaining their implementation, and showing the ways they collect various data points from the Microsoft operating system.
This book delivers an eye-opening exploration of the best―and worst―things the internet has given us. From instant connectivity between any two points on the globe to organized ransomware gangs, the net truly has been a mixed blessing. In this book, the author explores the transformative potential of the future of the internet, as well as those things that threaten its continued existence: government surveillance, censorship, organized crime, and more.
You’ll start by finding out what threat intelligence is and where it can be applied. Next, you’ll discover techniques for performing cyber threat intelligence collection and analysis using open source tools. The book also examines commonly used frameworks and policies as well as fundamental operational security concepts. Later, you’ll focus on enriching and analyzing threat intelligence through pivoting and threat hunting. Finally, you’ll examine detailed mechanisms for the production of intelligence.
Within this book, you’ll learn the fundamentals of cybersecurity architecture as a practical discipline. Once mastered, these fundamentals are evergreen approaches that can be applied and adapted to new and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. You’ll learn how to address and mitigate risks, design secure solutions in a purposeful and repeatable way, communicate with others about security designs, and bring designs to fruition.
This book delivers a hands-on and step-by-step guide to implementing an effective and practical Zero Trust security strategy at your organization. The book is written as an engaging narrative that follows the story of Dylan, a new IT Director at a company that experiences a ransomware attack on his first day. You’ll learn John Kindervags’ 5-step methodology for implementing Zero Trust, the four key Zero Trust design principles, and discover how to align this framework with your company’s operational and commercial requirements.
You’ll learn the most intriguing psychological principles exploited by attackers, including influence, manipulation, rapport, persuasion, and empathy, and gain insights into how attackers leverage technology to enhance their attacks using fake logins, email impersonation, fake updates, and executing attacks through social media. This book will equip you with the skills to develop your own defensive strategy, including awareness campaigns, phishing campaigns, cybersecurity training, and a variety of tools and techniques.
Wiley CISO and CIO Sean D. Mack delivers an expert analysis of how to keep your business secure, relying on the classic triad of people, process, and technology to examine―in depth―every component of DevSecOps. In the book, you’ll learn why DevSecOps is as much about people and collaboration as it is about technology and how it impacts every part of our cybersecurity systems.
This book delivers an incisive and penetrating look at how contemporary and future AI can and will be weaponized for malicious and adversarial purposes. You will explore multiple foundational concepts to include the history of social engineering and social robotics, the psychology of deception, considerations of machine sentience and consciousness, and the history of how technology has been weaponized in the past.
If you’re into web API security testing, then you know that API hacking books are a valuable resource. They can teach you new things, introduce you to new concepts around breaking web application programming and help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends in your field. That’s why I’ve put together this list of 5 essential books for any API hacker!
API security and you
So before I go through the list of book recommendations, I want to preface that if you are a security researcher who wants to conduct web API security testing, the reality is it’s just as important to focus on the web applications themselves.
As such, a crash course in web hacking fundamentals never hurts. So some of my recommendations may seem more focused on that than on breaking web application programming interfaces.
You may also notice that I also recommend a few books that focus on bounty programs and make it possible to make a living as you break APIs.
The point is, regardless of where you are in your API hacking career, these books can help. I have organized them in such a way that if you can’t afford to buy them all just yet, start from the top and work your way down.
Book #1 : Hacking APIs: Breaking Web Application Programming Interfaces
This is one of the few books that is actually dedicated to API hacking.
This book is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about API security and how to hack into web applications. It provides in-depth information on how to break through various types of APIs, as well as tips on how to stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly changing field. Corey also shares his own personal experiences with API hacking, which makes the content even more valuable. If you’re interested in learning more about API security and want to start from the basics, then this is the perfect book for you!
Book #2 : The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws
This book is a tomb of information. It’s the oldest book on the list and by far the largest.
The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook is an essential read for anyone looking to understand how web application vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited. The book is filled with in-depth technical information and real-world examples that will help you understand the inner workings of web applications and how to protect them from potential attacks.
One of the best features of this book is the “Hands-On” sections, which provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to find and exploit various vulnerabilities. This makes it an ideal resource for both beginner and experienced hackers alike.
If you’re looking to beef up your skills in web application security, then The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook is a must-read!
Book #3 : Web Application Security: Exploitation and Countermeasures for Modern Web Applications
Sometimes before focusing on offense, we have to know defensive tactics.
This book provides in-depth coverage of all the major areas of web application security, from vulnerabilities and exploits to countermeasures and defense strategies. Written by security expert Andrew Hoffman, this book is packed with real-world examples and step-by-step instructions that will help you understand how developers protect their web applications from potential attacks.
If you’re serious about web application security, then this is the perfect book for you!
Book #4 : Bug Bounty Bootcamp: The Guide to Finding and Reporting Web Vulnerabilities
If you are looking at being an independent security researcher focused on web API security testing, finding high payout API bugs may be important.
Bug Bounty Bootcamp is a guide to becoming a bug bounty hunter. The book covers the basics of hunting for bugs, including how to find and report them. It also includes a number of case studies of successful bug bounty hunting, detailing methods and strategies.
In chapter 24 of the Expert Techniques section, Vicki goes deeper into discussing multiple API attack techniques.
Overall, Bug Bounty Bootcamp is an informative and well-written guide that should be of interest to anyone considering a career in API hacking through bug bounty hunting.
Book #5 : Real-World Bug Hunting: A Field Guide to Web Hacking
“Real-World Bug Hunting” is a brilliant resource for anyone who aspires to be a professional bug hunter. The book is written by Peter Yaworski, who is himself a professional bug hunter.
He begins by delving into the mindset of a bug hunter – what drives them to find vulnerabilities in software and systems? He then provides an overview of the bug hunting process, from identifying potential targets to writing up a report. The bulk of the book is devoted to teaching readers how to find and exploit common web application vulnerabilities.
Yaworski provides clear and concise explanations of each vulnerability, along with examples of real-world exploits. He also offers advice on how to avoid getting caught by security teams and how to maximize the value of your findings. “Real-World Bug Hunting” is an essential read for anyone who wants to make a career out of finding bugs.
Conclusion
These five books are essential readings for anyone interested in hacking APIs. They provide detailed information on how to find and exploit vulnerabilities, as well as defensive tactics and strategies. If you want to be a successful API bug bounty hunter, then these books will also give you the tools and techniques you need to get started.
Cybersecurity researchers warn of a now-patched critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-22205, in GitLab’s web interface that has been actively exploited in the wild.
The vulnerability is an improper validation issue of user-provided images the can lead to arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability affects all versions starting from 11.9.
“An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 11.9. GitLab was not properly validating image files that is passed to a file parser which resulted in a remote command execution. This is a critical severity issue (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H, 9.9). It is now mitigated in the latest release and is assigned CVE-2021-22205.” reads the advisory published by GitLab.
GitLab addressed the vulnerability on April 14, 2021, with the release of 13.8.8, 13.9.6, and 13.10.3 versions.
The vulnerability was reported by the expert vakzz through the bug bounty program of the company operated through the HackerOne platform.
The vulnerability was actively exploited in the wild, researchers from HN Security described an attack one of its customers. Threat actors created two user accounts with admin privileges on a publicly-accessible GitLab server belonging to this organization. The attackers exploited the flaw to upload a malicious payload that leads to remote execution of arbitrary commands.
“Meanwhile, we noticed that a recently released exploit for CVE-2021-22205 abuses the upload functionality in order to remotely execute arbitrary OS commands. The vulnerability resides in ExifTool, an open source tool used to remove metadata from images, which fails in parsing certain metadata embedded in the uploaded image, resulting in code execution as described here.” reads the analysis published by HN Security.
The flaw was initially rated with a CVSS score of 9.9, but the score was later changed to 10.0 because the issue could be triggered by an unauthenticated attackers.
Researchers from Rapid7 reported that of the 60,000 internet-facing GitLab installations:
However, Espinosa’s hard-earned experience is not simply limited to the boardroom. In his latest book, ‘The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity’, Espinosa shares his decades of experience in the fast-paced world of IT Security. The decades of combined experience can practically be felt dripping through the pages as the chapters outline the essential steps to overcome the biggest adversary in cybersecurity. No, not the cybercriminals, but the toxic culture that many cybersecurity professionals find themselves in. The book takes a holistic approach to self-betterment, discussing the importance of so called ‘soft skills’ in the world of cybersecurity.
Any good attacker will tell you that expensive security monitoring and prevention tools aren’t enough to keep you secure. This practical book demonstrates a data-centric approach to distilling complex security monitoring, incident response, and threat analysis ideas into their most basic elements. You’ll learn how to develop your own threat intelligence and incident detection strategy, rather than depend on security tools alone.
Written by members of Cisco’s Computer Security Incident Response Team, this book shows IT and information security professionals how to create an InfoSec playbook by developing strategy, technique, and architecture.
Learn incident response fundamentals—and the importance of getting back to basics
Understand threats you face and what you should be protecting
Collect, mine, organize, and analyze as many relevant data sources as possible
Build your own playbook of repeatable methods for security monitoring and response
Learn how to put your plan into action and keep it running smoothly
Select the right monitoring and detection tools for your environment
Develop queries to help you sort through data and create valuable reports
Know what actions to take during the incident response phase
The mass transition to working from home clearly shows the best technologies for a secure and convenient remote environment.
Users receive the maximum security benefits by connecting to virtual desktops from thin clients.
A thin client is a terminal-mode device. It often doesn’t even have any internal storage, being just a box that connects to a server and lets users connect a monitor and peripheral devices (configuration may vary depending on the specific model). The thin client does not process or store any work data.
Of course, a thin client requires a good communications channel. In recent years, however, that’s not much of a hurdle.
Communication between a thin client and a server is usually conducted over an encrypted protocol, solving the problem of the unreliable network environment.
Source: Thin clients from a security perspective
2020 Security Playbook
1) Data discovery
2) Compartmented Data Access
3) Move to thin client
4) Increase focus on AAA
![The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity by [Christian Espinosa]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KIWmjt6sL.jpg)
