Summary

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In this chapter, we looked at the importance of security: you have assets to protect. Some assets are tangible and easy to value. Others are intangible, which does not mean they have no worth. Possibly the most important intangible asset you must protect is your name and reputation. If your name is tainted, you're likely to lose clients and be forced to endure serious financial ramifications.

Security can be grouped into seven main technology fields: authentication, authorization, auditing, privacy, integrity, availability, and nonrepudiation. When considering any security solution, you must consider all these disciplines and the eventual environment for your solution. All systems are subject to attack. Threats in vulnerable systems with inappropriate countermeasures are simply waiting to be acted on.

It's generally appreciated that three types of attack exist. A disclosure attack yields data to an attacker who should not have access to the data. An integrity attack involves malicious changing of data. And a denial of service attack prevents valid users from accessing a resource by maliciously consuming all the resources.