There are several areas of site architecture and content where security can become a major concern. By far the most critical is back end security, meaning your secure connection to change, remove and upload material to your site.

This is generally handled very well by the username and password that your provider or site hosting company gives you to access the server that your sites files are located on. Password/usernames should generally always contain both numbers and letters and preferably, not dictionary or proper names! If you are using a set that are plain directory names or simply numbers, you should change them to something incomprehensible. For instance, a username like 'richard' is easy to guess but 'richd2' is not only shorter but unlikely to be guessed or generated automatically by a hacker. The people who maintain your server should also be technically competent, removing UNIX or NT native master 'back door' commands from the installed system. Likewise you should also be careful where you record these codes, and ensure your own home or office data security.

Access Security: CGI

High quality content or services require you to install special server-script programs, generally referred to as Common Gateway Interfaces or CGI scripts to control entrance to areas of your site that can be secured with them. CGI is a powerful method of locking away content from unauthorized persons, that usually permits either a few frequently changed passwords or unique passwords for each individual user you authorize to see the content. These programs can be garden variety, or highly customized and as programming is involved, quite expensive to impliment. Management of complicated CGI systems is also an issue, as you must have utilities to look up, cancel or amend users records, and frequently timed access, quantity access or other methods of control also come into play.

These scripts can be written in several languages, either PERL, C/C++, JavaScript or VBScript can be used to make these control programs work, but the most popular are PERL and VBScript. Many are available pre-made for common applications.

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