Security is an important in protecting the integrity of web content. When it comes to web applications, there are many security threats that exist today. Some of these threats include but not limited to: spoofing, tampering, information disclosure, denial of service, and elevation of privilege. All web applications must contain measure to protect its’ contents and users against these types of threats. Spoofing is a form of impersonation of a user or a process. Microsoft Developer Network talked about spoofing in that it, “mean(s) typing in a different user 's credentials. A malicious uses might also change the contents of a cookie to pretend that he or she is a different user or that the cookie comes from a different server” (Overview of …show more content…
One way to prevent this is to not store passwords or sensitive information at all. This way there is nothing to for anyone to steal to begin with. If you must store password information, Microsoft recommends “to store only a hash of the password. When a user presents credentials, you can hash the user 's password and compare only the hashes of the two” (Overview of Web Application Security). Storing hashed passwords is the best way to store passwords if it is necessary. Again, it is always best to use authentication when users’ are access sensitive information to ensure that they are authorized to access the information. One of the most common attacks that occur today is denial of service. Microsoft describes denial of service attacks as, “deliberate attacks to cause an application to be less available than it should be” (Overview of Web Application Security). This is done by servers receiving multiple requests for service at the same time. This is also known as overloading the server causing it to crash. This was recently in the news with attacks against the Ferguson and St. Louis County Police Departments causing their website to be completely unavailable for the public to access their information for several
Hackers have a multitude of tools and techniques to accomplish their goals, and as old tools and techniques become obsolete, new ones are created. Three questions regarding hacker tools and techniques are addressed here. What are the common tools used to conduct a denial of service attack (DoS)? What is a buffer overflow attack, and how does a SQL injection attack take place?
Denial of Service attacks (DoS) or Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS), have been around for many years, but only in the past few years have the frequency and magnitude of these attacks increased. They are a significant problem because they can shut an organization off from the Internet for extended periods of time and little can be done to stop them. DoS attacks occur when computer resources become unavailable to legitimate users after being exhausted by false requests for information (Houle and Weaver 1).
Phishing is a form of fraud in which attacker attempt to trick the user into surrendering private information. It is sending an e-mail or displaying a Web announcement that falsely claims to be from a legitimate enterprise. An attacker’s goal is to compromise systems to get personal information like passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account number, financial data or other information. It is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 new phishing attacks are lunched each month.
Identity theft is when someone steals your personal information and use it without permission which can damage your finances credit history and reputation.
There are several ways to protect your information from the outside world; you just need the ammunition to do it. Because this has become a focal point for computer and Internet user’s, many companies are capitalizing on a growing industry and producing software packages to prevent privacy intrudion. A couple of ways that you can protect your self are URL encryption, OS shielding, JavaScript filtering, and cookie control. All of these are effective ways of protecting your self. But take caution, these are not guaranteed to complete block out intruders and completely protect you and your information. They are merely preventive steps you can take.
With increasing attacks and internal data theft the organizations must strengthen their database security beyond the traditional methods, especially those databases which hold private data. This can be done by developing a security strategy which is a framework of control mechanisms for authentication, authorization, and access control mechanisms to enforce role separation, database auditing, monitoring, network and data encryption, data masking according to the needs and environment in the organization. To develop a high-quality security strategy detailed knowledge and understanding about the database control mechanisms is needed. So the main purpose of this paper is to give a detailed description of security mechanisms which are available till today and build a security strategy according to the needs and environment of the organization. Using the knowledge gained a working prototype which is a security strategy is designed, developed and evaluated for an organization according to the scenario described which contains the challenges or threats and present security mechanisms used in the organization. Finally a security strategy is developed which can help the organization in protecting their information assets and private data from inside and outside attacks.
Security misconfiguration is my second common Web application vulnerability and/or attack. If a network infrastructure supports any type of Web applications running on such things as databases, firewalls, and servers, there is a definite need them to be more securely configured and maintained. Some mitigation strategies might include a configuration with the minimal amount of privileges set. Making sure that users are adequately trained. It may also be beneficial to perform some penetration tests to determine if the Web applications are able securely configured and able to withsta...
In this report, the author endeavours to present the how the security issues generally presented on the B2C web sites can assured by technical controls and educating customers. The report presents levels of end-to-end security components that include: physical system security, operating system security and network security. With advent of web applications that are now being used extensively for deploying e-commerce applications, author also presented the web security threat profile of web services that is currently an active research topic. All of the discussed components are attached with advice that can be provided to customers that may not apparent to them, but can help reduce security issues.
In the case of web-based applications software, it must include controls to protect the value of the business and its information from the exposure to end users in the outside world. There is this mediation between end users, the valuable data, and the outside world.
Everyday tech users are increasingly engaged with web and mobile applications. These programs have many uses and can be very helpful in progressive usage. However, these applications also serve as the most accessible point of entry for malicious attackers to wreak havoc. The continual growth and usage of web-applications makes the infrastructure one that is susceptible to attack due to lack of thorough security implementation. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a community-based non-profit organization that concentrates on increasing the safety in the realm of web applications. It was started in 2001 and ever since then its primary goal has been to create a high level of transparency in the web applications and software in order to allow society to make informed decisions. They have a very open and collaborative mentality when it comes to the sharing of knowledge to include and empower the masses. Each year OWASP publishes a list of most common web application vulnerabilities. The top three have remained relatively dominant over the past few years, regardless of which place they fall into. In 2013 they were: injection, broken authentication and session management, and cross-site scripting. The purpose of this paper is to delve further into three of the top web application vulnerabilities from the past few years and evaluate their impact.
Outsider attackers often called hackers because they gain access to system without authorization or permission from the owners or legitimate user. With information technology, comes increase risk of fraud and information theft. Hackers can steel sensitive information from one organization and sell it to a competitor or rival to damage their integrity and operations. Financial organization are one of the main target for hackers. Their objectives to prove they can crack security codes or for personal gains such as to commit fraud, theft, alter or delete financial records. The most popular methods used today to break into a system are network spoofing, password cracking and taking advantage of any security weaknesses or vulnerability in the system. There ultimate goal is often achieved through denial of service attack.
The website will be able to avoid multiple intrusions by preventing human intrusion through the use of automation
The quality of a Web Application depends on the consideration of appropriate mechanisms that meets the user’s need. Popularity of Web applications is determined by the quality of security attributes. Development of the Web Application Security Challenge Over the past decade, the security challenge had been to simply identify the vulnerabilities that existed in web applications. Web applications signify special distinctiveness like evolution, immediacy, and constant growth that define their development process.
Conklin, W.A., White, G., & Williams, D. (2012). Principles of Computer Security: CompTIA Security+™ and Beyond (Exam SY0-301) (3rd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.
...of security you really need. How important or confidential is your data? Do you have network connections with trading partners that have even more sensitive data? Implement security measures in proportion to your needs.