Although the harrowing number of Internet-based attacks in recent years has elevated the importance of maintaining secure electronic networks, many developers continue to employ passive security administration strategies, addressing issues by using patches in a non-systematic fashion. This counterproductive strategy can be largely attributed to a lack of knowledge regarding the general concepts required to effectively prevent the attack and potential compromise of networked systems.
Developing Trust: Online Privacy and Security is an indispensable resource for system administrators and application developers, providing a means to understand, create, and maintain secure Internet systems. Matt Curtin's instructional approach facilitates a comprehensive understanding of online security by separating the core material into three sections:

• Understanding Security and Privacy introduces attack models, general privacy theory and policy, online privacy concepts, and provides a synopsis of the mechanics of threats to privacy.
• Prevention delves into secure design principles and deployment environments, closing with several case studies of major security problems uncovered by the author himself.
• The Cure investigates the mechanics of identifying and repairing flawed security design techniques before they are incorporated into the final product. Discussion regarding the failure of "opt-out" systems to protect privacy is also included in this section.