Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0120455978, Paperback)

Author Vijay Ahuja is manager for network security products at IBM, and he clearly knows his topic. Ahuja begins with a short history of the Internet, follows with a chronology of some major break-ins, and proceeds to explain increasingly complex security concepts--all in readable and non-technical English. Almost any topic you want to learn about is here, from the obscure (X.509 certificates) to the commonplace (HTML and proxy servers). Most of the guide's information provides groundwork for the last two chapters, which focus entirely on electronic commerce. Despite the rapid progress in this field, the information seems to be up-to-date as of this writing. The only glaring omission is the lack of a mention of Java, Sun Microsystems' programming language for the Internet. If you want to understand the details of Internet commerce, including how Amazon.com can process your credit-card payments securely, this is the book for you.