Web Security, Privacy & Commerce, 2nd Edition

About This Book

This is a book about how to enhance security, privacy, and commerce on the World Wide Web. Information in this book is aimed at three distinct but related audiences: the ordinary users of the Web, the individuals who operate the Web’s infrastructure (web servers, hosts, routers, and long-distance data communications links), and finally, the people who publish information on the Web.

For users, this book explains:

• How the Web works

• The threats to your privacy and your computer that await you on the Web

• How you can protect yourself against these threats

• How encryption works, and why a web server that you access might demand that you use this technique

For people who are operating the Web’s infrastructure, this book discusses:

• How to lessen the chances that your server will be compromised

• How you can use encryption to protect your data and your web site’s visitors

• Selected legal issues

For web content providers, this book discusses:

• The risks and threats facing your data

• How to control access to information on your web server

• Procedures that you should institute so you can recover quickly if your server is compromised

• Security issues arising from the use of Java, JavaScript, ActiveX, and Netscape plug-ins

This book covers the fundamentals of web security, but it is not designed to be a primer on computer security, operating systems, or the World Wide Web. For that, we have many recommendations.

Some especially good O’Reilly books on security- and web-related topics include the following: ...