need ultra-secure site

i am about to ATTEMPT to build a basic website, information-based. My primary concern for this site is that NOBODY can go in and manipulate content. being a mac user, i have golive and pagemill software (and would appreciate if someone could tell me which is easier, as i just need the easiest to use and internet is NOT my best thing to do.

i also need some sort of firewall protection for my computers. one is an imac G4, one is an apple G4, and the other is a pentium pc with windows xp on it.

i am all too aware that people can and will hack, seek and destroy. i've got about a month to put up this site and secure it.

could any of you experts tell me the basic software i will need to protect this site and my children's computers?

any help before i get started would be GREATLY appreciated.

thanks,
c

Hello,

Not sure how technical you are, but I will try to cover everything. If you don't understand anything, or need more, please say.

Are you planning to host this site from your home computer, or are you going to get paid services?

Personally, unless you really know what you are doing - I wouldn't host from home. Setting up your own server is quite tricky unless you really understand the stuff. To this end, I would suggest paid hosting.

You could use free hosting, but I feel that if you are really concerned about security, then paid is best. You should try to get hosted on a *nix box, with control over the basic access. By this I mean htaccess and htpassword files, and ability to use thereof. This way you can passowrd protect your site, so only you control who gets to see it.

You can user scripting too, I am biased towards PHP. Lots of protection possiblilities with this too, eg. storing files outside root directory so they can only be access through a script.

When making files / pages / upload scripts, make sure that only authorized users can do what you think they should be able to do, eg. don't give write access to everyone, unless you are absolutely sure.

Bottom line is:
anywhere the user has a chance to manipultate things, there is a risk. eg: forms -> always validate, urls -> if you are doing dynamic web pages, check query strings for input, flase or otherwise.

TBH: if your's is going to be a family site, you are not a prime hacking target, but always make back ups of your website - this can be done using FTP or some other tools than can automagically download entire sites.

Don't know about firewalls for the imac or apple, but xp comes with one - you can also get free or pay-for ones too.. Zone Alarm has a free version that is pretty good. Don't forget anti-virus software. This suggests furst time usage of Internet at home - could be way off the mark here

Hope that helps.