Nowadays, websites and web applications are used globally by organizations and enterprises to cover very important aspects of their operational purposes and goals. The arrival of mobile browsing and mobile online applications also acted as an augmenting factor to the importance of websites in the 21st century. However, along with the increased usage and utilization of websites, comes the increase on cyber attacks as an unavoidable side effect of the previous statement.
Web security, rises as a very sensitive area of cyber security because, as stated before, websites and web applications are used on a daily basis by all kinds of clients and businesses, and due to the increased demand for instant and operational applications, programmers and web developers sometimes neglect the security effectiveness of their product.
As a result, many websites come with severe vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities that malicious users can very easily and effectively take advantage of with severe consequences for the owners of the websites.
Greece as a country is not a stranger to cyber attacks and website vulnerabilities. Last May, hacking collective Anonymous launched a successful attack against the Central Bank of Greece website, disabling the website's services for several minutes . At this point, the critical question is whether Greek websites in general have adequate security mechanisms and protocols to effectively prevent and disrupt cyber attacks.
This dissertation paper has a two-fold purpose: First, to indicate some common vulnerabilities and frequently used cyber attacks that are faced globally and next to present the reports on a study conducted to determine the security posture of the most popular Greek websites. The list of websites was chosen utilizing Amazon's Alexa service. The study is mostly focused on the security mechanisms and protocols adapted by the chosen websites.
Collections
Show Collections
