While Internet connectivity offers enormous benefits in terms of increased access to information, Internet connectivity is not necessarily a good thing for sites with low levels of security. The Internet suffers from glaring security problems that, if ignored, could have disastrous results for unprepared sites. Inherent problems with TCP/IP services, the complexity of host configuration, vulnerabilities introduced in the software development process, and a variety of other factors have all contributed to making unprepared sites open to intruder activity and related problems.
The following sections present a brief overview of the Internet, TCP/IP, and then explain what some of the Internet security related problems are and what factors have contributed to their seriousness.