Announcing ModSecurity Handbook

It is a pleasure to announce my next book, ModSecurity Handbook, which features an in-depth coverage of ModSecurity, an open source web application firewall. I am very happy because, finally, ModSecurity will have the documentation it deserves.

The main highlights are the following:

• Step-by-step instructions for those just starting out
• Detailed explanations of the internals, and advanced techniques for seasoned users
• Includes the official ModSecurity Reference Manual and Data Formats Guide
• Available in digital format (PDF, HTML and ePub, although not all straight away) and as paperback (once the first edition is complete)
• Continually updated as ModSecurity evolves (with the updates included with purchase)
• Readers can talk to me to shape the book to work better for them

The complete table of contents is available on the book's web site.

I estimate that the book is about 75% complete. In a week's time (on November 24th) it will be available for early access and pre-order. The idea with the early access is to avoid the problem I experienced with Apache Security -- writing in isolation. This time, I want to engage with my readers before my book is published.

Also, it is pretty important that this book is (and will be) continually updated. I have the entire publishing workflow automated so whenever I make a change to the book, the update is automatically made available to the readers. With this feature, again, I want to avoid the painful experience that I had with Apache Security, where for years I wanted to provide updates but I couldn't. (Apache Security readers, fear not, the second edition is being worked on.) In the future, I hope to evolve the publishing toolchain to enable readers to make comments straight to the HTML version of the book that is kept online.