Protecting information in the Web-position paper

Despite the growing interest, however, both public and private organizations are mainly performing cautious experiments and still refrain from massively using the Web and as their main information exchange medium. The reason of this apprehension is the insecurity of the communication channels and the lack of rules to regulate data accesses. The protection of data, while transmitted or stored at the servers, is now becoming the most critical issue to worry about. The problem is emphasized by the openness, the simplicity and the global nature of the enabling technology. New computational paradigms, such as agent technology, and languages such as Java, whereas enabling more and more applications on the Web, also introduce new security threats. Also, new Web-enabled applications such as electronic commerce introduce new requirements