Secure Your Perimeter

"Secure Your Perimeter" by Sharon Davis

This innovative cybersecurity educational text uses narrative storytelling to teach complex security concepts through two parallel tales set in Chicago and Kentucky.

The Chicago Tale follows Detective Maya Chen and a team of cybersecurity professionals defending the city's digital infrastructure from a coordinated cyberattack. Through their story, readers learn about SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), WAF (Web Application Firewall), Zero Trust Architecture, and other critical security technologies. The narrative demonstrates how layered defenses work together—from authentication systems like Kerberos and SSO to encryption protocols like TLS/SSL, with each character representing a different security component.

The Kentucky Tale shifts the setting to rural America, where Sarah Mae Hutchinson and her colleagues protect digital systems serving hospitals, universities, bourbon distilleries, and agricultural cooperatives. This story emphasizes the CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) as the foundation of information security, while exploring identity management through LDAP, certificate authorities through PKI, and access controls through RBAC and MAC.

Both stories culminate in successful defenses against sophisticated attackers, demonstrating how multiple security layers—authentication, authorization, encryption, monitoring, and access control—work in concert to protect digital assets. The book concludes with comprehensive glossaries translating technical jargon into accessible language.

Davis's unique approach makes abstract cybersecurity concepts tangible by personifying technologies and grounding them in relatable settings, making this an ideal resource for students, IT professionals, and anyone seeking to understand modern cybersecurity architecture.