Chapter11.User Authentication
Chapter 11. User AuthenticationIN THIS CHAPTER
When the World Wide Web emerged in the early 1990s, security was not much of a concern. All information was freely available, and everybody could access each Web applicationas long as the URL was known. Nowadays, however, this has fundamentally changed. More free services on the Web vanish each day, and more applications are available only for registered (and paying) users. However, there is also a good side. Internet access is available almost everywhere, so even if you are abroad, chances are that you can get online easily, accessing personal information via the WWW. In both cases, the information must be secured; access must be granted only to authenticated users. PHP would not be PHP if there was not a solution for that. This chapter discusses several possibilities to secure a PHP application so that access is not available for everyone. Furthermore, general security issues are discussed. Even if your website does not require user authentication, it does not mean that it is secure. On the other hand, even websites without sensitive information might require a registration; therefore, user authentication is one of the key challenges every Web technology must master. |
