Dealing with Security

In this chapter we'll deal primarily with security of data while in transit. Security of data within your enterprise is certainly very important, but it can involve fundamentally different problems. The scope is different and the mechanisms to enforce security can be different. Referring to one of my observations above, you want to make sure that your system makes it very difficult for both internal and external hackers to steal sensitive information such as credit card data. The mechanisms for ensuring this type of security often involve firewalls, operating system and file system protections, database security, and individual user authentication. As we'll see, these can be very different from the mechanisms commonly used to secure data while in transit. In this chapter we'll focus on what happens between the firewalls, not on what happens within the firewall or how to keep the firewall from being penetrated.