Secure Java: For Web Application Development

Most security books on Java focus on cryptography and access control, but exclude key aspects such as coding practices, logging, and web application risk assessment. Encapsulating security requirements for web development with the Java programming platform, Secure Java: For Web Application Development covers secure programming, risk assessment, and threat modeling—explaining how to integrate these practices into a secure software development life cycle.

From the risk assessment phase to the proof of concept phase, the book details a secure web application development process. The authors provide in-depth implementation guidance and best practices for access control, cryptography, logging, secure coding, and authentication and authorization in web application development. Discussing the latest application exploits and vulnerabilities, they examine various options and protection mechanisms for securing web applications against these multifarious threats. The book is organized into four sections:

• Provides a clear view of the growing footprint of web applications
• Explores the foundations of secure web application development and the risk management process
• Delves into tactical web application security development with Java EE
• Deals extensively with security testing of web applications

This complete reference includes a case study of an e-commerce company facing web application security challenges, as well as specific techniques for testing the security of web applications. Highlighting state-of-the-art tools for web application security testing, it supplies valuable insight on how to meet important security compliance requirements, including PCI-DSS, PA-DSS, HIPAA, and GLBA. The book also includes an appendix that covers the application security guidelines for the payment card industry standards.

About the Authors

Abhay Bhargav is the founder and CTO of we45 Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., an information security solutions company. As the CTO of we45, his primary role is to deliver information security consulting solutions for diverse clientele. He also oversees the information security research and application development activities of we45. He has performed security assessments for enterprises in various industries including banking, software development, retail, telecom, and legal. Previously, he was a security assessor for the payment card industry and has led several security assessments for payment card industry compliance.

He specializes in Web application security and has performed security testing and consulting engagements for a wide array of enterprises and governmental/quasi-governmental entities. He also possesses security code review, vulnerability assessment, and penetration testing experience. He has been involved in several such assessments for small and large clients from various industries.

Abhay is a regular speaker at industry events. He has spoken at the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) AppSec Conference in New York. He is a regular speaker at prestigious industry events such as the PCI Summit in Mumbai, December 2008, Business Technology Summit and events organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He is also a trainer and has led several public workshops on information security subjects including PCI, PA-DSS, Web application security, and risk assessment.

Apart from his professional interests, Abhay is also a trained Carnatic classical flutist and vocalist. He is also a playwright who has an English comedy play to his writing credits. He blogs actively and maintains an information security blog. He writes articles on computer education for the rural youth on a weekly basis for a leading daily.

Dr. B. V. Kumar, currently the director at SESCon Technology Solutions, has a Masters in Technology from IIT Kanpur and a Ph.D. from IIT Kharagpur. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of information technology at various levels and in organizations such as ComputerVision Corporation (Singapore), Parametric Technologies (Seoul, S. Korea), Sun Microsystems (India), and Infosys. Prior to SESCon, Dr. Kumar was director and chief architect at Cognizant Technology Solutions and was responsible for the research and development activities such as IP creation, technology evangelization, and branding and project support as well as new initiatives at Cognizant.

Dr. Kumar has been working on the enterprise technologies for more than 8 years, focusing on the new enterprise Java and Web services technologies. As a chief architect and director at SESCon Technology Solutions, Dr. Kumar is managing IP and asset creation, technology branding and evangelization, community development, project support, and educational services. Dr. Kumar has filed for two patents in the IT space and published many technological papers in international journals and conferences. He has coauthored Web Services: An Introduction (ISBN 0070593787), J2EE Architecture (ISBN 007059936X), and, more recently, Implementing SOA Using Java EE (ISBN 0321492153).