Introduction

Introduction

Babylonians were known for the establishment of a currency and focused much of their effort on hedonistic ventures. But unlike many civilizations of their time, they spoke a single language. And it was the power of this single language that enabled its members to develop remarkable structures such as the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

But Babylon's lingual unity also was its demise, according to Hebrew accounts in the Bible. In their arrogance, the Babylonians tried to build a tower as tall as the heavens to make themselves equal to God. But God became angry and caused them to speak in different languages. As a result, the Babylonians could no longer communicate with each other and construction of the tower stopped, never extending to the heavens. Thus the tower came to be known as the Tower of Babel and the word Babylon to mean a place of "confusion." And this is precisely what the Internet and the World Wide Web, or the Web, has become an empire of confusion and superfluous languages, all of which may contribute to its potential downfall.

In 1995, the ubiquity of the Web was a mere daydream, and the Web languages and technologies in place at the time were mere child's play. As a result, hackers simply weren't very interested in breaking into Web sites. Today, the landscape has changed, morphing from a singular purpose into a veritable smorgasbord of languages and technologies ripe for the hacker's picking. And plucked they are on a daily basis from the unsuspecting individual, company, organization, or government. Today's environment of stop-at-nothing cyber-terrorism isn't going away any time soon and, as the saying goes, "You must send a thief to catch a thief." So just get over any preconceived notions about how security works. If you don't understand the game, you'll be swept away by it.

This chapter isn't intended to be the de facto standard for detailing Web languages. Instead, it is meant to introduce Web programmers and security professionals to the languages being used today, their functionalities, syntaxes, and potential security risks. To comprehend the material in the later chapters, you'll need to understand the concepts presented in the early chapters. So read slowly, repeat if necessary, and if you don't altogether follow the content right away don't worry, you'll most likely pick it up as you go along.

 



Web Hacking(c) Attacks and Defense
Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense
ISBN: 0201761769
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 156

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