Verifying website security certificates
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An Examination of Web Site Security Issues
An unfortunate fact is that there are several ways in which website security can be circumvented. Security risks are ever present that could affect Web servers and LANs (local area networks) where Web sites are situated, even by the normal use of a Web browser.
Web Masters face the flak when dealing with the critical threats. As soon as a Web server is installed at a site, a window materializes in the local area network through which anyone using the Internet can peep. Naturally, the majority of website visitors see only what they're meant to see, but a small number of them attempt to find areas of the site that aren't meant to be detectable by the public. Pernicious visitors want to do other than only look; they try to unfasten the window and slither in. The damage they can inflict might be mere vandalism, for example changing the web site's home page with one of their own which could say or put on view absolutely anything at all, or else it could be theft, such as appropriating a customers or sales database.
It is hard to elude the likelihood that complex computer software contains bugs. Regardless of how carefully it's tested, there's typically a particular combination of events or user actions, even if it may take place once in a blue moon, that leads to an error. Computer software bugs cause breaches in system security. A Web server is complicated software which may very likely contain a security defect.
It is not only the complexity of a Web server that can instigate a glitch, but also its open architecture. Consider a CGI script as an illustration. A CGI script can be run at the server in answer to a remote call from a client. It might be a request from a program or even the click of a button in a browser. If the CGI script contains a bug, there may be a danger of a security violation.
Network Administrators also have to confront problems from Web servers owing to the threat they pose to the security of the local area network. Whereas there ought to be no unauthorised incursions, admission has to be granted to website visitors. This means that access to the network should be controlled. The Administrator therefore must perform a delicate balancing act. Even the most robust firewall may be undermined if the Web server is configured badly. Bearing that in mind, normal use of the website may be impossible if the firewall is configured badly. Arriving at a model solution is still more tricky if an intranet exists as part of the system. Normally, the Web server in that case has to be configured to distinguish and verify domains and user groups, which are likely to have differing permission levels and access privileges.
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Most people using a browser to surf the Net suppose that they are doing it secretly and securely. It is not so. Web browsers may execute self-contained programs on the local computer which are resident on a web site. Current browsers display a warning and ask permission to execute these kinds of programs. Well-known generally as "active content", e.g., ActiveX controls or Java applets, these programs, if malicious, could easily leave a virus or other hazardous software on the browser user's PC. After it is in the system it can wreak all kinds of catastrophe and can be very stubborn to eradicate.
This is also a worry for Network Administrators. Web browsers present a path for potentially malicious software to seep through the local area network's firewall. After it is in the system, the damage it is able to inflict can range from furtively appropriating confidential information to meaningless demolition.
Aside from the problems surrounding active content, just surfing the Net records a trail of the user's activities in the browser's history. This could be utilised by web sites and installed programs to determine an accurate report of the user's behaviour and preferences. Although this might be thought of as an invasion of privacy by some people, it can be positively effective by providing relevant subject matter immediately, so unburdening the user of the chore of trying to find it.
Privacy is a problem which concerns not only browser users but also Web Masters and Network Administrators during the actual transmission of data by means of the Internet. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the basic language of communication for the Net. When it was created, security wasn't the principal feature of its blueprint. Both network and Internet transmissions should therefore not be thought of as as automatically private. Whenever the browser on a local machine downloads a confidential document 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 authorization.
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