Has your web site ever come under attack? Have aplication security experienced an SQL injection attack? Would you know the symptoms of such a security threat if you did? Do you know how good your web applications security and overall website security really is? Are you vulnerable to security threats?

Every day millions of web servers and systems are probed, scanned and attacked. Attacks have gone beyond viruses and worms. Especially vulnerable to attack are web applications, application security software, web server security, and overall website security.

One of the more malicious hacking methods is SQL injection, also called an inference attack. In an inference or SQL injection attack, the attacker adds SQL code to a web form input box to access resources or change the data.

Suppose you have a form on your web page that requests a username and password for access into a trusted database. If a user enters the correct response, the system authenticates the user and allows access to the guarded pages. If the user enters the incorrect username and password, they are usually sent some sort of error message and asked for the information again. At some point, if the correct information is not provided, the system times out and the user must start all over again.

Sometimes excessive numbers of errors invoke a black listing of the username and password resulting in the attempted access being denied. But, what would happen if an attacker entered an SQL command instead of a username and password? In approximately 60 per cent of the web applications using dynamic content, the command will be executed allowing the attacker to download the entire database or worse.

According to many experts, SQL injection attacks are possible because web application code is not secured during application development. One of the best ways to secure applications is by limiting access to those authorized to access the application. This means using Secure Shell or Secure Socket Shell (SSH). SSH provides strong and secure communication over unsecured channels. SSH uses a TCP connection and encrypts the session utilizing public-key cryptography and the symmetric encryption algorithm to protect the session.

Client computers access the web server and database server through the Internet via a TCP connection.

Enabling a web application to authenticate and access the database requires a Secure Sockets Shell (SSH) client on the web server and a SSH server on the database server. SSH secures the connection by encrypting the data stream including passwords and other sensitive data and eliminating network level attacks.