วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 19 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2551

Protecting your HTML and PHP Source Code

Author : Vince Edwards

There are many reasons now as a web designer, software
programmer or website owner that you may want to start
considering the safety of your HTML or PHP source code. Some
related reasons are:

1. Email Address theft â€" Have you ever wondered how you get SPAM
mail even though you’ve been super cautious NOT to subscribe to
anything, yet it still comes your way? One of the reasons could
be that you have your EMAIL link on a website. With email
harvesting software available (even for free trials) anyone can
harvest your email address right off your website automatically.
2. Picture Theft â€" Most average users are aware that you can
right-click pictures on a website and download them to their own
computer. It is common knowledge for most internet users and
webmasters. 3. Return URLs â€" For some credit card processing
companies (such as PAYPAL and EGOLD) it is possible to view the
source of web pages and look at the return (thanks for
purchasing) page, where you can directly go to the URL, click on
the link to download the software without paying for it 4.
Website Layout - If a Webmaster likes your site, they can save
out the page (and structure) and edit it in their own HTML
editor software and claim the design layout for themselves 5.
PHP Scripts - If you have a clever script (i.e. written in PHP)
and you need to send it to someone, they could easily have a
look at your PHP script to see how you did it. They can then
copy the code or re-write it slightly and call it their own Or
use it for their own PHP software and scripts.

These are just some of the reasons why you need to consider
encrypting your web pages or source code. Encryption of web
pages and source code is becoming more and more popular and in
the future will become an absolute necessity. We can now see a
huge market (on the web) of HTML encryption software that
enables you to protect your source code from prying eyes.
Although HTML encryption is not 100% foolproof, it is effective
enough to keep out MOST users and acts as a good deterrent,
since not everyone has the time to decipher encrypted HTML
source just for the fun of it.

Fortunately, the technology for PHP Encryption is foolproof
since it works on the server side and cannot be tampered with.
In the market, there are now various PHP encryptors available
(at varying prices) that enable you to encrypt all of your
source code (as well as your HTML generated output ) so that it
is virtually unreadable to humans, but still functional to
computers.

If you are a PHP developer and create your own scripts, then it
is absolutely vital that you make the decision to encrypt your
scripts before distribution. If you don’t, you run the risk of
your code being stolen, modified, emulated or copied. All it
takes is one hacker or experienced programmer to “Learn” from
your code, make a few of their own modifications and bring out
their own “Version” of the software under a different name. This
can cause serious problems as well as the problem of ruining
your own market because you have contributed towards creating a
competitor.

If your script is exclusive or unique then you must encrypt your
code to protect your intellectual property. It’s like creating a
secret recipe on how to cook your favorite food dish, then
posting your recipe on the local supermarket’s notice board for
everyone to see (sound silly doesn’t it?). If you value your
work at all, then you need to seriously consider protecting and
encrypting it!

Category : Meditation

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