Chapter 3 covered some of the various "impersonal" attacks on computers that are most common, and spent some time distinguishing between the various types of malware. It also went into some detail on how best to deal with these attacks. One newer form of malware I wish they'd touched on in the textbook is ExtortionWare (such as CryptoLocker) because that's the way I think a lot of the newer malware is going. The textbook authors do deserve credit for one of the best and most succinct summaries of the difference between a virus and a worm I've seen in a while.
It's interesting to note that while the threats continue to evolve and change, a lot of the conventional wisdom (install AV software, back up your data, and have a firewall) is more or less "evergreen."
My one other gripe (besides the reminder that I need to back up more frequently) is that they didn't give a lot of time to warning about the dangers of risky browsing, malicious ad scripts, and so forth, but I suspect that may be coming in a later chapter.
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