Chapter 27. Security in the .NET Framework

Application security is a consideration that is often put off until the end of a development project or, in all too many cases, ignored completely. As our applications become increasingly interconnected, the need to design and build secure systems is becoming increasingly important. Fortunately the .NET Framework provides a full suite of security features that make it easier than ever to build security into our applications.

In Chapter 28 you'll see how to secure your data by implementing cryptography, and in Chapter 29 protecting your source code is explained through the process of obfuscation. However, before you approach either feature within Visual Studio 2008 application programming, you should be familiar with the basic concepts that underpin how security works within the .NET environment.

Because security is such an important requirement for many applications, this chapter introduces these concepts, rather than examining any specific technical feature of the IDE.