Security for Web Developers

Preface

Ransomware, viruses, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, security breaches, and the like all bring to mind the one thing that anyone involved in managing applications hates—nightmares. It gets to the point where anyone who does anything to affect the security of an application or its associated data becomes gun shy—conservative to the point of absurdity. You don’t actually want the responsibility for securing the application—it just comes with the territory.

Adding to your burden, the disastrous results of any sort of mistake could haunt you for the rest of your life. Unlike most mistakes, you likely won’t sweep this one under the carpet either, because it’ll appear in the trade press where everyone can see it. Even if your name doesn’t become synonymous with security failure, there are always the ramifications of a security issue—legal woes, loss of job, and so on. So, how do you deal with this issue?

Hiding your head in the sand doesn’t appear to provide a solution—at least, not for very long. Security for Web Developers isn’t intended to tell you about every threat out there or resolve every security woe you’ll ever encounter. Instead, it provides you with guidelines and tools you need to resolve any security issue on your own—to be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel that doesn’t have something to do with a train. What this book is really about is being able to get a good night’s sleep knowing that you have what you need ...