// Prerequisites
What to read before Linux Firewalls
If Linux Firewalls feels too steep at intermediate level, here is what to read first. Lighter books in the same topics that build the prerequisites this one assumes.
01 · 2017
Practical Packet Analysis
Chris Sanders' working manual for Wireshark, geared at troubleshooting and incident response rather than abstract protocol theory. Updated for Wireshark 2.x.
Beginner4/5Chris Sanders02 · 2019
Foundations of Information Security
Jason Andress' compact tour of the field: confidentiality / integrity / availability, identification and authentication, network and OS controls, written for newcomers and adjacent disciplines.
Beginner4/5Jason Andress03 · 2021
How Cybersecurity Really Works
Sam Grubb's gentle, exercise-driven introduction for non-specialists who need a working mental model of attacker behaviour and basic defence.
Beginner4/5Sam Grubb04 · 2013
The Practice of Network Security Monitoring
Richard Bejtlich's NSM playbook: how to deploy collection sensors, validate that you actually see what you think you see, and build detection workflows around open-source tools.
Intermediate5/5Richard Bejtlich05 · 2017
Network Security Through Data Analysis
Michael Collins on building situational awareness from network telemetry: collection architecture, statistical baseline-setting, and the analytic patterns that turn raw flows into detection.
Intermediate4/5Michael Collins06 · 2021
Practical Linux Forensics
Bruce Nikkel's reference for forensic analysts working post-mortem on Linux images: filesystems, journaling, logs, persistence locations, and the chain of custody discipline around them.
Intermediate4/5Bruce Nikkel07 · 2017
Zero Trust Networks
Evan Gilman and Doug Barth's pre-marketing-bubble treatment of zero-trust architecture — what it is when you actually implement it (trust evaluation, device identity, dynamic policy) versus what the vendor pitch turned it into.
Intermediate4/5Evan Gilman, Doug Barth08 · 2025
Linux Basics for Hackers
OccupyTheWeb's introduction to Linux from the angle that hackers and pentesters actually need it: shells, networking, scripting, and Kali tooling.
Beginner4/5OccupyTheWeb