Number of Web Application Hacks Up

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at Information Week, 'Web site hacks are on the rise and pose a greater threat than the broad-based network attacks...' Citing statistics from the Web Hacking Incidents Database, 'Web hacking attacks numbered 58 in 2005, up from 16 in 2004 and 9 in 2003. Another 20 attacks have been reported this year against sites including open-source repository Sourceforge.net and social network MySpace.com, putting 2006 on pace to be the worst year yet.'"

Re:Don't give the "hackers" that much credit...

[0x0000]

I can't say that I've *ever* seen PHP or Perl or ASP code that looked like someone put some thought into it.

You obviously haven't seen any of my PHP and Perl code (I've never written ASP). Of course, it may be that you haven't seen my web applications code because I'm not a "web designer" - can't get a job in that industry, which speaks to the truth of your assertions concerning who companies hire to create web applications.

Re:Don't give the "hackers" that much credit...

[jrockway]

> I can't say that I've *ever* seen PHP or Perl that looked like someone put some thought into it.

I think you should pay a visit to the CPAN [cpan.org]. It's 4G+ of perl modules that are well documented, fully unit-tested, and largely platform independent. I've seen some bad web applications in my time (all PHP incidentally), but there are plenty of excellent perl programmers writing excellent perl code.

If you're interested in learning to write good Perl, I suggest you take a look at Damian Conway's book, "Perl Best Practices".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596001738/102-74 64862-7276945?v=glance&n=283155 [amazon.com]

(And of course read Perl's excellent Fine Manual.)