Free online website security test
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Website Security Considerations - An Assessment
It's unfortunate, but there are numerous ways in which web site security can be compromised. For example, security risks are ever present which can impinge on Web servers and LANs (local area networks) where Websites are situated, even by the regular use of a Web browser.
Web Masters bear the brunt when coping with the major challenges. As soon as a Web server is installed at a site, a window materializes in the local area network through which anyone on the Internet can peer. Certainly, most website visitors see only what they are meant to look at, but some try to locate areas of the site that are not designed to be perceptible to the general public. Unscrupulous visitors want to do other than just look; they make an attempt to undo the window and sneak through it. The damage they can inflict might be sheer vandalism, like substituting the web site's home page with their own which could say or display absolutely anything at all, or else it could be larceny, like appropriating a customers or sales list.
It's difficult to elude the likelihood that complicated computer software has bugs. Regardless of how systematically it is tested, there will be more often than not a certain combination of events or user actions, even if it might be infrequent, that creates an error. Software bugs create holes in system security. A Web server is complicated software which may very probably include a security defect.
It's not just the complexity of a Web server that may instigate a glitch, but also its open architecture. Consider a CGI script as an example. A CGI script may be executed at the server in answer to a remote request from a client. This could be a request from a program or even the click of a button in a browser. If the CGI script contains a bug, there could be a danger of a security violation.
Network Administrators also have to tackle problems from Web servers owing to the threat they pose to the security of the local area network. While there ought to be no unauthorised incursions, access must be granted to website visitors. This means that access to the network has to be controlled. The Administrator therefore must perform a delicate balancing act. Even the most robust firewall may be compromised if the Web server is configured badly. By the same token, normal use of the web site may be unachievable if the firewall is configured badly. Attaining a model answer is yet more complicated if an intranet is part of the system. Usually, the Web server then must be configured to identify and validate domains and user groups, which are likely to have differing permission levels and access rights.
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Almost everyone using a browser to surf the Web trust that they're doing it secretly and safely. It is not the case. Web browsers can run self-contained programs on the local computer that are hosted by a web site. Modern browsers display a warning and request authorisation to execute those programs. Described generally as "active content", e.g., ActiveX controls or Java applets, these programs, if malicious, could easily leave a virus or other dangerous software on the browser user's computer. As soon as it is in the system it can inflict all kinds of catastrophe and can be extremely stubborn to remove.
This is also a concern for Network Administrators. Web browsers offer a way for possibly malicious software to filter all the way through the local area network's firewall. As soon as it is in the network, the damage it may inflict can go from clandestinely appropriating sensitive data to willful spoliation.
Aside from the issues involving active content, just browsing the Net leaves a trail of the user's activities in the browser's history. This might be used by web sites and installed software to determine a precise report of the user's behavior and interests. Whereas this may be frowned upon as an invasion of privacy by some people, it can be beneficial by showing germane subject matter right away, thus unburdening the user of the chore of looking for it.
Secrecy is a problem that worries not only browser users but also Web Masters and Network Administrators for the duration of the actual transmission of information by means of the Internet. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic language of communication for the Internet. When it was formed, security was not the most essential feature of its blueprint. Both network and Internet transmissions should therefore not be considered as essentially private. Each time the browser on a local PC downloads a private file from the remote Web server, or the browser user completes a form with personal data and clicks the 'Submit' button, the transmitted information may be intercepted without authorisation.
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