Web Security The World Wide Web grew out of the need for people on the Internet to share I information with one another. Originally, web pages only contained text and a few graphics because modem data-transfer speeds were slow. Today, with high-bandwidth home-cable modem access and high-speed corporate networks, users can download multimedia video and music over the Internet in seconds. Web site functionality has also changed, with the static web pages of years ago being replaced by dynamic, media-intensive sites with greater user interaction and online shopping and banking becoming routine daily tasks. With this increased functionality, especially where the transfer of confidential information is concerned, the need for security for web communications has become a top priority. Users must now be authenticated to use secure areas of a web site, and the communications channel between the client and the web server needs to be encrypted, so unauthorized users can’t capture the data. There are various web-security protocols and the types of attacks that might compromise your Internet servers. As programmers add increased functionality to web sites and web browsers, the potential for security vulnerabilities increases. The biggest danger is the tendency toward integrating the web browser functionality with other computer applications and even the operating system (OS) itself. This means if a web-browser security vulnerability is exploited, an unauthorized user has access to the core system files and data of someone’s computer. When choosing a web host always make sure you keep the programming languages it can run in mind and make sure there are no security holes.