Chapter 6. Security Services

It has become a truism that we live in a dangerous interconnected world. Malicious users, hackers, worms, and viruses are abundant in the open world of the Internet. With the advent of massively multiuser online applications, the importance of implementing solid, unbreakable security solutions while building scalable high-performance online applications cannot be overestimated.

Portals are usually built to provide access to a multitude of disparate corporate applications and data sources. Users of a portal site demand secure and reliable access without sacrificing the features that make the portal attractive such as single sign-on and smooth access to heterogeneous enterprise applications. The scope of a large enterprise portal combined with usability demands increases the role of the security implementation. A portal site with overbearing security features will turn off many users, and the lack of solid security implementation might allow a determined hacker to gain access to many applications on a corporate network.

This chapter introduces basic security concepts and explains how new .NET Framework security features combined with the features of other backend products help you design and build impregnable yet easy-to-maintain online applications.