A breach in security can cost a company revenue, customer confidence, trade secrets, even threaten their very survival. Web Security encompasses computer system security, network security, authentication services, message validation, personal privacy issues and cryptography. There are security risks that affect Web servers, the local area networks that host Web sites, and even innocent users of Web browsers. The level of risk differs for each user group.

The risks are most severe from the Webmaster's perspective. The moment you install a Web server at your site, you've opened a window into your local network that the entire Internet can peek through.

From the viewpoint of the network administrator, a Web server represents yet another potential hole in an organization’s local network's security. A poorly configured Web server can punch a hole in the most carefully designed firewall system. A poorly configured firewall can make a Web site impossible to use. Things get particularly complicated in an intranet environment, where the Web server must typically be configured to recognize and authenticate various groups of users, each with distinct access privileges.

To the end-user, Web surfing feels both safe and anonymous. It's not. ActiveX controls and Java applets can pass viruses or other malicious software into the end-user's system.

Last but not the least, both end-users and Web administrators need to worry about the confidentiality of the data transmitted across the Web. If the TCP/IP protocol is not designed with security in mind, it is vulnerable to network eavesdropping. When confidential documents are transmitted from the Web server to the browser, or when the end-user sends private information back to the server inside a form, someone may be listening in.

At i3 Software, we have seasoned experts in each of these Web Security specialties and we make sure that you are safe and secure.