Web and Information Security

Citation

du Preez, M. (2007), "Web and Information Security", Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 96-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520710731100

The Internet, and with it the World Wide Web (WWW), has become an information highway and this has resulted in an even greater need to manage data, information and knowledge. In their new book, Web and Information Security, authors Elena Ferrari and Bhavani Thuraisingham state that conventional tools, such as catalogues and databases, have become ineffective to control all the information that has become available. New tools and techniques are now needed to effectively manage these data.

Web and Information Security includes an edited collection of papers that were presented at a workshop held at the IEEE COMPSAC (Computer Systems and Applications) Conference in August 2002 in Oxford. Several additional papers appearing in this volume are on state‐of‐the‐art topics such as semantic Web security and sensor information security.

The aim of the book is to provide some of the key developments, directions, and challenges for securing the semantic Web, enforcing security policies, as well as securing some of the emerging systems such as multimedia and collaborative systems. It is written by experts in the field of information security, the semantic Web, multimedia systems, group collaboration systems and data mining systems.

The volume is divided into three sections:

1. 1.

   Section 1. Securing the Semantic Web. This section consists of five chapters addressing various aspects of securing the semantic Web, such as defining and enforcing security policies for the Semantic Web; describing issues on securing Web services, specifically those that need to be standardised; defining and enforcing security policies for Web services. The fourth chapter shows how inference problems can be handled, while the final chapter in this section shows how the concepts from secure semantic Web and secure grid can be integrated to secure the semantic grid.

2. 2.

   Section 2. Policy Management and Web Security. Five chapters focusing on various policy issues for Web‐based information systems constitute this section. It describes how users can be prevented from accessing harmful content; focuses on privacy for text documents; specifying and enforcing access control policies; the management and administering of Web‐based systems; and arguments as to why the Chinese Wall model cannot be used for mandatory access control only.

3. 3.

   Section 3. Security for Emerging Applications. This section focuses on the incorporation of security into some emerging systems such as multimedia systems; sensor information systems; and flexible data sharing as well as effective data replication mechanisms. The final chapter describes how one can carry out data mining while maintaining privacy.

This volume could be used as a reference book for senior undergraduate or graduate courses in information security. It also is useful for technologists, managers and developers who want to know more about emerging security technologies. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter prompt further research, and a useful index completes the volume.