With the rapid increase in the volume of e-commerce, the security of web-based transactions is of increasing concern. A widespread but dangerously incorrect belief among web users is that all security issues are taken care of when a website uses HTTPS (secure HTTP). While HTTPS does provide security, websites are often developed and deployed in ways that make them and their users vulnerable to hackers. In this article we explore some of these vulnerabilities. We first introduce the key ideas and then provide several experiential learning exercises so that readers can understand the challenges and possible solutions to them in a hands-on manner.
Research for Practice: Web Security and Mobile Web Computing
