Chapter 20. Security Issues

As the Bible tells us, "Love is patient, love is kind" (1 Corinthians 13:4). The problem is that there is not much love around when it comes to the Internet and security. Not every computer programmer is a loving one and not everybody can be trusted unreservedly. Therefore security is an important subject that you should think about when designing an IT environment or an application.

In the past few years, security has become an increasingly important issue. In the early days, only a few machines were connected to a network, so only a few machines were vulnerable. With the introduction of modern technologies such as e-business, many companies are running online stores that can be accessed by thousands of users. Can you be sure that there is not a single person who wants to harm you? Just think of Web sites such as amazon.com. Millions of people are visiting sites like that every day. One in a million is enough if there is one professional hacker among one million people, it can be enough to make your business collapse.

Modern business sites are an interesting target. Many companies store data such as credit card information or other important information. This data can be interesting for crackers around the globe. Just think of having 300,000 credit card numbers. For many people this is an enormous treasure and it can be worth hacking a machine.

In this chapter we will discuss security in general. You will learn about the fundamentals of network security and take a look at potential threats.