Developing Trust: Online Privacy and Security

Although the harrowing number of Internet-based attacks in recent years has elevated the importance of maintaining secure electronic networks, many developers continue to employ passive security administration strategies, addressing issues by using patches in a non-systematic fashion. This counterproductive strategy can be largely attributed to a lack of knowledge regarding the general concepts required to effectively prevent the attack and potential compromise of networked systems. Developing Trust: Online Privacy and Security is an indispensable resource for system administrators and application developers, providing a means to understand, create, and maintain secure Internet systems. Matt Curtin's instructional approach facilitates a comprehensive understanding of online security by separating the core material into three sections: Understanding Security and Privacy introduces attack models, general privacy theory and policy, online privacy concepts, and provides a synopsis of the mechanics of threats to privacy. Prevention delves into secure design principles and deployment environments, closing with several case studies of major security problems uncovered by the author himself. The Cure investigates the mechanics of identifying and repairing flawed security design techniques before they are incorporated into the final product. Discussion regarding the failure of "opt-out" systems to protect privacy is also included in this section.