Page 1487 - (ISC)² CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide

browsers. The web quickly outgrew this model because users wanted
the ability to access customized information based on their individual

needs. For example, visitors to a bank website aren’t interested only in
static pages containing information about the bank’s locations, hours,
and services. They also want to retrieve dynamic content containing
information about their personal accounts. Obviously, the webmaster
can’t possibly create pages on the web server for each individual user
with that user’s personal account information. At a large bank, that
would require maintaining millions of pages with up-to-the-minute

information. That’s where dynamic web applications come into play.

Web applications take advantage of a database to create content on
demand when the user makes a request. In the banking example, the
user logs into the web application, providing an account number and
password. The web application then retrieves current account
information from the bank’s database and uses it to instantly create a
web page containing the user’s current account information. If that

user returns an hour later, the web server would repeat the process,
obtaining updated account information from the database. Figure 21.2
illustrates this model.