IT Audit Field Manual. Strengthen your cyber defense through proactive IT auditing

Lewis Heuermann

As cyber threats evolve and regulations tighten, IT professionals struggle to maintain effective auditing practices and ensure robust cybersecurity across complex systems. Drawing from over a decade of submarine military service and extensive cybersecurity experience, Lewis offers a unique blend of technical expertise and field-tested insights in this comprehensive field manual.Serving as a roadmap for beginners as well as experienced professionals, this manual guides you from foundational concepts and audit planning to in-depth explorations of auditing various IT systems and networks, including Cisco devices, next-generation firewalls, cloud environments, endpoint security, and Linux systems. You’ll develop practical skills in assessing security configurations, conducting risk assessments, and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. This book also covers data protection, reporting, remediation, advanced auditing techniques, and emerging trends.Complete with insightful guidance on building a successful career in IT auditing, by the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with the tools to navigate the complex landscape of cybersecurity and compliance, bridging the gap between technical expertise and practical application.

Snowflake Cookbook. Techniques for building modern cloud data warehousing solutions

Hamid Mahmood Qureshi, Hammad Sharif

Snowflake is a unique cloud-based data warehousing platform built from scratch to perform data management on the cloud. This book introduces you to Snowflake's unique architecture, which places it at the forefront of cloud data warehouses.You'll explore the compute model available with Snowflake, and find out how Snowflake allows extensive scaling through the virtual warehouses. You will then learn how to configure a virtual warehouse for optimizing cost and performance. Moving on, you'll get to grips with the data ecosystem and discover how Snowflake integrates with other technologies for staging and loading data.As you progress through the chapters, you will leverage Snowflake's capabilities to process a series of SQL statements using tasks to build data pipelines and find out how you can create modern data solutions and pipelines designed to provide high performance and scalability. You will also get to grips with creating role hierarchies, adding custom roles, and setting default roles for users before covering advanced topics such as data sharing, cloning, and performance optimization.By the end of this Snowflake book, you will be well-versed in Snowflake's architecture for building modern analytical solutions and understand best practices for solving commonly faced problems using practical recipes.

Reconnaissance for Ethical Hackers. Focus on the starting point of data breaches and explore essential steps for successful pentesting

Glen D. Singh

This book explores reconnaissance techniques – the first step in discovering security vulnerabilities and exposed network infrastructure. It aids ethical hackers in understanding adversaries’ methods of identifying and mapping attack surfaces, such as network entry points, which enables them to exploit the target and steal confidential information.Reconnaissance for Ethical Hackers helps you get a comprehensive understanding of how threat actors are able to successfully leverage the information collected during the reconnaissance phase to scan and enumerate the network, collect information, and pose various security threats. This book helps you stay one step ahead in knowing how adversaries use tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to successfully gain information about their targets, while you develop a solid foundation on information gathering strategies as a cybersecurity professional. The concluding chapters will assist you in developing the skills and techniques used by real adversaries to identify vulnerable points of entry into an organization and mitigate reconnaissance-based attacks.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a solid understanding of reconnaissance, as well as learned how to secure yourself and your organization without causing significant disruption.

Scratch 1.4: Beginner's Guide. Learn to program while creating interactive stories, games, and multimedia projects using Scratch

Michael Badger, Lifelong Kindergarten Group

If you have the imaginative power to design complex multimedia projects but can't adapt to programming languages, then Scratch 1.4: Beginner's Guide is the book for you. Imagine how good you'll feel when you drag-and-drop your way to interactive games, stories, graphic artwork, computer animations, and much more using Scratch even if you have never programmed before.This book provides teachers, parents, and new programmers with a guided tour of Scratch's features by creating projects that can be shared, remixed, and improved upon in your own lesson plans. Soon you will be creating games, stories, and animations by snapping blocks of code together.When you program you solve problems. In order to solve problems, you think, take action, and reflect upon your efforts. Scratch teaches you to program using a fun, accessible environment that's as easy as dragging and dropping blocks from one part of the screen to another.In this book you will program games, stories, and animations using hands-on examples that get you thinking and tinkering. For each project, you start with a series of steps to build something. Then you pause to put our actions into context so that you can relate our code to the actions on Scratch's stage. Throughout each chapter, you'll encounter challenges that encourage you to experiment and learn.One of the things you're really going to love is that, as you begin working through the examples in the book, you won't be able to stop your imagination and the ideas will stream as fast as you can think of them. Write them down. You'll quickly realize there are a lot of young minds in your home, classroom, or community group that could benefit from Scratch's friendly face. Teach them, please.

Appcelerator Titanium Smartphone App Development Cookbook. Over 100 recipes to help you develop cross-platform, native applications in JavaScript

Boydlee Pollentine, Jason Kneen, Jason Kneen

This book will take you through the process of building cross-platform, native UI applications for the mobile from scratch. You will learn how to develop apps, how to use GPS, cameras and photos and how to build socially connected apps. You will also learn how to package them for submission to the App Store and Google Play.This cookbook takes a pragmatic approach to creating applications in JavaScript from putting together basic UIs, to handling events and implementation of third party services such as Twitter, Facebook and Push notifications. The book shows you how to integrate datasources and server APIs, and how to use local databases. The topics covered will guide you to use Appcelerator Studio tools for all the mobile features such as Geolocation, Accelerometer, animation and more. You’ll also learn about Alloy, the Appcelerator MVC framework for rapid app development, and how to transfer data between applications using URLSchemes, enabling other developers to access and launch specific parts of your app.Finally, you will learn how to register developer accounts and publish your very own applications on the App Store and Google Play.

Visual Basic and Algorithmic Thinking for the Complete Beginner. Master Visual Basic and Algorithmic Thinking: From Fundamentals to Advanced Concepts

Aristides Bouras

This course begins with a fundamental overview of how computers operate, setting a solid foundation for your learning. You'll then delve into the essentials of Visual Basic, exploring integrated development environments and necessary software packages. As you progress, you'll tackle basic algorithmic concepts, variables, constants, and how to handle input and output efficiently. Moving forward, the course introduces you to control structures, starting with sequence control, and advancing through various decision structures, including single, dual, and multiple-alternative decisions. You'll gain practical experience with flowcharts and decision-making processes, equipping you with the skills to manage complex programming scenarios. The latter part of the course focuses on loop control structures, both simple and nested, and teaches you to implement them effectively through practical exercises and flowcharts. Finally, you'll explore advanced topics such as data structures, including one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays, and dictionaries. The course also covers subprograms and object-oriented programming, ensuring you have a comprehensive understanding of Visual Basic. With a practical approach, this course is designed to build your confidence in programming, enabling you to tackle real-world problems with ease.

OpenGL 4 Shading Language Cookbook. Acquiring the skills of OpenGL Shading Language is so much easier with this cookbook. You'll be creating graphics rather than learning theory, gaining a high level of capability in modern 3D programming along the way. - Second Edition

David Wolff

OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) is a programming language used for customizing parts of the OpenGL graphics pipeline that were formerly fixed-function, and are executed directly on the GPU. It provides programmers with unprecedented flexibility for implementing effects and optimizations utilizing the power of modern GPUs. With Version 4, the language has been further refined to provide programmers with greater power and flexibility, with new stages such as tessellation and compute.OpenGL 4 Shading Language Cookbook provides easy-to-follow examples that first walk you through the theory and background behind each technique, and then go on to provide and explain the GLSL and OpenGL code needed to implement it. Beginner level through to advanced techniques are presented including topics such as texturing, screen-space techniques, lighting, shading, tessellation shaders, geometry shaders, compute shaders, and shadows.OpenGL Shading Language 4 Cookbook is a practical guide that takes you from the fundamentals of programming with modern GLSL and OpenGL, through to advanced techniques. The recipes build upon each other and take you quickly from novice to advanced level code.You'll see essential lighting and shading techniques; examples that demonstrate how to make use of textures for a wide variety of effects and as part of other techniques; examples of screen-space techniques including HDR rendering, bloom, and blur; shadowing techniques; tessellation, geometry, and compute shaders; how to use noise effectively; and animation with particle systems.OpenGL Shading Language 4 Cookbook provides examples of modern shading techniques that can be used as a starting point for programmers to expand upon to produce modern, interactive, 3D computer graphics applications.

Learning Python Design Patterns. - Second Edition

Chetan Giridhar, Gennadiy Zlobin, Anand Balachandran Pillai

With the increasing focus on optimized software architecture and design it is important that software architects think about optimizations in object creation, code structure, and interaction between objects at the architecture or design level. This makes sure that the cost of software maintenance is low and code can be easily reused or is adaptable to change. The key to this is reusability and low maintenance in design patterns.Building on the success of the previous edition, Learning Python Design Patterns, Second Edition will help you implement real-world scenarios with Python’s latest release, Python v3.5. We start by introducing design patterns from the Python perspective. As you progress through the book, you will learn about Singleton patterns, Factory patterns, and Façade patterns in detail. After this, we’ll look at how to control object access with proxy patterns. It also covers observer patterns, command patterns, and compound patterns.By the end of the book, you will have enhanced your professional abilities in software architecture, design, and development.

Unity Game Development Essentials. If you have ambitions to be a game developer this guide is a must. Covering all the fundamentals of the Unity game engine, it will help you understand the different elements of 3D game creation through practical projects

Will Goldstone

Game engines are central to the video games we know and love. From the artwork to the mathematics that underpin the frames onscreen, the engine calls the shots. Aside from offering one of the leading 3D game engines, Unity also provides a superlative development tool ñ a tool that can produce professional standard games for Mac, PC, and the Unity Web Player.This book is a complete exercise in game development covering environments, physics, sound, particles, and much more, to get you up and working with Unity quickly.Taking a practical approach, this book will introduce you to the concepts of developing 3D games before getting to grips with development in Unity itself. From creating 3D worlds to scripting and creating simple game elements you will learn everything you'll need to get started with game development for the PC, Mac, and Web.This book is designed to cover a set of easy to follow examples, which culminate in the production of a First Person 3D game, complete with an interactive island environment. By introducing common concepts of game and 3D production, you'll explore Unity to make a character interact with the game world, and build puzzles for the player to solve, in order to complete the game. At the end of the book, you will have a fully working 3D game and all the skills required to extend the game further, giving your end-user, the player, the best experience possible. Soon you will be creating your own 3D games with ease!

Zero Trust Overview and Playbook Introduction. Guidance for business, security, and technology leaders and practitioners

Mark Simos, Nikhil Kumar, Ann Johnson

Zero Trust is cybersecurity for the digital era and cloud computing, protecting business assets anywhere on any network. By going beyond traditional network perimeter approaches to security, Zero Trust helps you keep up with ever-evolving threats.The playbook series provides simple, clear, and actionable guidance that fully answers your questions on Zero Trust using current threats, real-world implementation experiences, and open global standards.The Zero Trust playbook series guides you with specific role-by-role actionable information for planning, executing, and operating Zero Trust from the boardroom to technical reality.This first book in the series helps you understand what Zero Trust is, why it’s important for you, and what success looks like. You’ll learn about the driving forces behind Zero Trust – security threats, digital and cloud transformations, business disruptions, business resilience, agility, and adaptability. The six-stage playbook process and real-world examples will guide you through cultural, technical, and other critical elements for success.By the end of this book, you’ll have understood how to start and run your Zero Trust journey with clarity and confidence using this one-of-a-kind series that answers the why, what, and how of Zero Trust!

3D Game Design with Unreal Engine 4 and Blender. Combine the powerful UE4 with Blender to create visually appealing and comprehensive game environments

Jessica Plowman

Unreal Engine 4 now has support for Blender, which was not available in earlier versions. This has opened up new possibilities and that is where this book comes in. This is the first book in the market combining these two powerful game and graphic engines. Readers will build an amazing high-level game environment with UE4 and will show them how to use the power of Blender 3D to create stunning animations and 3D effects for their game. This book will start with creating levels, 3D assets for the game, game progression, light and environment control, animation, and so on. Then it will teach readers to add amazing visual effects to their game by applying rendering, lighting, rigging, and compositing techniques in Blender. Finally, readers will learn how to smoothly transfer blender files to UE4 and animate the game assets. Each chapter will add complexities to the game environment.

Learning R Programming. Language, tools, and practical techniques

Kun Ren

R is a high-level functional language and one of the must-know tools for data science and statistics. Powerful but complex, R can be challenging for beginners and those unfamiliar with its unique behaviors. Learning R Programming is the solution - an easy and practical way to learn R and develop a broad and consistent understanding of the language. Through hands-on examples you'll discover powerful R tools, and R best practices that will give you a deeper understanding of working with data. You'll get to grips with R's data structures and data processing techniques, as well as the most popular R packages to boost your productivity from the offset.Start with the basics of R, then dive deep into the programming techniques and paradigms to make your R code excel. Advance quickly to a deeper understanding of R's behavior as you learn common tasks including data analysis, databases, web scraping, high performance computing, and writing documents. By the end of the book, you'll be a confident R programmer adept at solving problems with the right techniques.

Practical Cybersecurity Architecture. A guide to creating and implementing robust designs for cybersecurity architects

Ed Moyle, Diana Kelley

Cybersecurity architects work with others to develop a comprehensive understanding of the business' requirements. They work with stakeholders to plan designs that are implementable, goal-based, and in keeping with the governance strategy of the organization.With this book, you'll explore the fundamentals of cybersecurity architecture: addressing and mitigating risks, designing secure solutions, and communicating with others about security designs. The book outlines strategies that will help you work with execution teams to make your vision a concrete reality, along with covering ways to keep designs relevant over time through ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and continuous improvement. As you progress, you'll also learn about recognized frameworks for building robust designs as well as strategies that you can adopt to create your own designs.By the end of this book, you will have the skills you need to be able to architect solutions with robust security components for your organization, whether they are infrastructure solutions, application solutions, or others.

Building Web Applications with Flask. Use Python and Flask to build amazing web applications, just the way you want them!

Italo M Campelo Maia, Jack Stouffer, Gareth Dwyer, Italo Maia

Learning Qlik Sense: The Official Guide. Get to grips with the vision of Qlik Sense for next generation business intelligence and data discovery

QlikTech International AB, James Richardson, Christopher Ilacqua, Henric Cronström

Simplifying 3D Printing with OpenSCAD. Design, build, and test OpenSCAD programs to bring your ideas to life using 3D printers

Colin Dow

Want to bring your 3D designs to life with OpenSCAD, but don’t know where to start? Simplifying 3D Printing with OpenSCAD will teach you the key skills so that you can focus on your ideas, not troubleshooting your 3D printer.With the help of this book, you’ll build a solid foundation in 3D printing technology, the software used for designing your objects, and an analysis of the G-code produced by the 3D printer slicer software. You’ll also get to know your 3D printer and find out how to set up a printing job effortlessly — from configuring the parameters to build well-defined designs.Consider yourself a practical learner? Use real-world examples such as designing and printing a 3D name badge, model rocket, and laptop stand, to dive into the world of 3D printers build your skillset.By the end of this 3D printing book, you'll be ready to start designing and printing your own 3D printed products using OpenSCAD and being your ideas into reality.

Learn Java with Projects. A concise practical guide to learning everything a Java professional really needs to know

Dr. Seán Kennedy, Maaike van Putten

Learn Java with Projects bridges the gap between introductory Java guides and verbose, theoretical references. This book is crafted to build a strong foundation in Java programming, starting from the Java environment itself. It goes far beyond a superficial review of the topics; it demonstrates, with practical examples, why these fundamentals are crucial for developing a deep understanding of the language. You'll not only learn about classes and objects but also see how these concepts are used in practical scenarios, enhancing your ability to write clean, efficient code. The engaging projects throughout the book provide real-world applications of complex topics, ensuring you can connect theoretical knowledge with practical skills. What makes this book stand out is the expertise of its authors. Seán, a seasoned university lecturer with over 20 years of experience, brings academic rigor and real-world insights, thanks to his work with a prestigious software company. Maaike, a passionate software developer and award-winning trainer, brings hands-on experience and a love for teaching. By the end of this book, you'll not only understand Java's core concepts and the critical advanced ones, but also gain practical experience through projects that mimic real-life challenges.

(MCTS) Microsoft BizTalk Server (70-595) Certification and Assessment Guide. This book does exactly what it says on the cover, giving in-depth guidance to intermediate BizTalk developers on how to pass the Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 (70-595) exam. It’s your essential aid to success

Morten la Cour, Johan Hedberg, Kent Weare

Practical System Programming for Rust Developers. Build fast and secure software for Linux/Unix systems with the help of practical examples

Modern programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, and Java have become increasingly accepted for application-level programming, but for systems programming, C and C++ are predominantly used due to the need for low-level control of system resources. Rust promises the best of both worlds: the type safety of Java, and the speed and expressiveness of C++, while also including memory safety without a garbage collector. This book is a comprehensive introduction if you’re new to Rust and systems programming and are looking to build reliable and efficient systems software without C or C++.The book takes a unique approach by starting each topic with Linux kernel concepts and APIs relevant to that topic. You’ll also explore how system resources can be controlled from Rust. As you progress, you’ll delve into advanced topics. You’ll cover network programming, focusing on aspects such as working with low-level network primitives and protocols in Rust, before going on to learn how to use and compile Rust with WebAssembly. Later chapters will take you through practical code examples and projects to help you build on your knowledge.By the end of this Rust programming book, you will be equipped with practical skills to write systems software tools, libraries, and utilities in Rust.

The Machine Learning Workshop. Get ready to develop your own high-performance machine learning algorithms with scikit-learn - Second Edition

Hyatt Saleh

Machine learning algorithms are an integral part of almost all modern applications. To make the learning process faster and more accurate, you need a tool flexible and powerful enough to help you build machine learning algorithms quickly and easily. With The Machine Learning Workshop, you'll master the scikit-learn library and become proficient in developing clever machine learning algorithms.The Machine Learning Workshop begins by demonstrating how unsupervised and supervised learning algorithms work by analyzing a real-world dataset of wholesale customers. Once you've got to grips with the basics, you'll develop an artificial neural network using scikit-learn and then improve its performance by fine-tuning hyperparameters. Towards the end of the workshop, you'll study the dataset of a bank's marketing activities and build machine learning models that can list clients who are likely to subscribe to a term deposit. You'll also learn how to compare these models and select the optimal one.By the end of The Machine Learning Workshop, you'll not only have learned the difference between supervised and unsupervised models and their applications in the real world, but you'll also have developed the skills required to get started with programming your very own machine learning algorithms.

The Statistics and Machine Learning with R Workshop. Unlock the power of efficient data science modeling with this hands-on guide

Liu Peng

The Statistics and Machine Learning with R Workshop is a comprehensive resource packed with insights into statistics and machine learning, along with a deep dive into R libraries. The learning experience is further enhanced by practical examples and hands-on exercises that provide explanations of key concepts.Starting with the fundamentals, you’ll explore the complete model development process, covering everything from data pre-processing to model development. In addition to machine learning, you’ll also delve into R's statistical capabilities, learning to manipulate various data types and tackle complex mathematical challenges from algebra and calculus to probability and Bayesian statistics. You’ll discover linear regression techniques and more advanced statistical methodologies to hone your skills and advance your career.By the end of this book, you'll have a robust foundational understanding of statistics and machine learning. You’ll also be proficient in using R's extensive libraries for tasks such as data processing and model training and be well-equipped to leverage the full potential of R in your future projects.

Sculpting the Blender Way. Explore Blender's 3D sculpting workflows and latest features, including Face Sets, Mesh Filters, and the Cloth brush

Xury Greer

Sculpting the Blender Way is a detailed step-by-step guide for creating digital art with the latest Blender 3D sculpting features. With over 400 reference images, 18 Sculpting in Action videos, and dozens of 3D sculpture example files, this book is an invaluable resource for traditional and digital sculptors looking to try their hand at sculpting in Blender.The first part of the book will teach you how to navigate Blender's user interface and familiarize yourself with the core workflows, as well as gain an understanding of how the sculpting features work, including basic sculpting, Dyntopo, the Voxel Remesher, QuadriFlow, and Multiresolution.You’ll also learn about a wide range of brushes and all of the latest additions to the sculpting feature set, such as Face Sets, Mesh Filters, and the Cloth brush. The next chapters will show you how to customize these brushes and features to create fantastic 3D sculptures that you can share with the ever-growing Blender community.By the end of this book, you'll have gained a complete understanding of the core sculpting workflows and be able to use Blender to bring your digital characters to life.

Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to. A step-by-step guide to backing up and restoring your database using safe, efficient, and proven recipes

PostgreSQL, Shaun Thomas

Backing up a database is something that all system admins must eventually face. Larger warehouses and critical enterprise data requires advanced techniques and tools to handle this complex data. PostgreSQL provides you with the basic tools for accomplishing this complex task.Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to is a practical series of proven recipes showing you how to preserve critical business data, and also teach you some advanced methods for restoring this data. It is a perfect manual for managing your critical PostgreSQL data.Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to is your practical guide to the unique features that PostgreSQL offers to create quick backups and efficient restores.Starting by backing up a simplistic database and learning how-to restore it to working order, we then move on to more complex backup techniques including creating and restoring binary backups.Covering advanced topics such as Warm and Hot standby restore and Streaming replication, Instant PostgreSQL Backup and Restore How-to gives you the power to make complete backups to guarantee you will always be able to restore your database to full working order!

Django: Web Development with Python. Web Development with Python

Aidas Bendoraitis, Samuel Dauzon, Arun Ravindran

Data science is hot right now, and the need for multitalented developers is greater than ever before. A basic grounding in building apps with a framework as minimalistic, powerful, and easy-to-learn as Django will be a useful skill to launch your career as an entrepreneur or web developer. Django is a web framework that was designed to strike a balance between rapid web development and high performance. This course will take you on a journey to become an efficient web developer thoroughly understanding the key concepts of Django framework. This learning path is divided into three modules. The course begins with basic concepts of the Django framework. The first module, Django Essentials, is like a practical guide, filled with many real-world examples to build highly effective Django web application. After getting familiar with core concepts of Django, it's time to practice your learning from the first module with the help of over 90 recipes available in this module. In the second module, Web Development with Django Cookbook, you'll learn varying complexities to help you create multilingual, responsive, and scalable websites with Django. By the end of this module, you will have a good understanding of the new features added to Django 1.8 and be an expert at web development processes.The next step is to discover the latest best practices and idioms in this rapidly evolving Django framework. This is what you'll be learning in our third module, Django Design Patterns and Best Practices. This module will teach you common design patterns to develop better Django code. By the end of the module, you will be able to leverage the Django framework to develop a fully functional web application with minimal effort.