If you’ve never heard of an SQL injection, don’t worry; it’s a term that only really entered the public consciousness in the last few years. Describing a way for hackers and other criminals to steal data, an SQL injection basically makes let’s malicious people inject bad code into a website’s database and then they can tamper with the website, such as by sending customer details to somebody outside a company. [Read more…]
4 Major Website Disasters In The 90’s
It’s almost expected at this point for the web to work flawlessly. And it’s easy to see why: Titans like AOL and Microsoft are just expected to run their websites and services as they’re supposed to be run. As a result, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that these services are subject to flaws and failures too. [Read more…]
Your Privacy or Your Safety: Is it Really a Zero Sum Game?
If there is one thing that Americans can agree on, regardless of age, race, political affiliation or their views on whether or not meat really is, in fact, murder, it’s this: privacy is important and we do not want the government snooping through our business or our social media feeds….at least, not until someone drops the word “terrorism” into the conversation. Then suddenly a massive number of analysts immediately change their position to “well yeah, we need to know what those people are doing, for the safety of our kids!” [Read more…]
Five Ways You Can Prevent Your Website From Getting Defaced
Editor’s note: This post was written by Rachel Gillevet, the technical writer for WiredTree, a leader in fully managed dedicated and vps hosting. Follow Rachel and WiredTree on Twitter, @wiredtree, Like them on Facebook and check out more of their articles on their web hosting blog, http://www.wiredtree.com/blog.
It’s the Internet version of petty vandalism – a hacker cracks into your site and wreaks havoc, defacing it beyond recognition. How can you protect yourself?
It’s the online equivalent of throwing a brick through a window or covering a wall with crude graffiti. Out of either boredom, malice, or spite, a hacker cracks into a website, at which point they go absolutely wild. They delete pages, replace images and copy, and generally just destroy every last shred of the original site.
In a world where their website is usually the first impression a brand makes on the end user, this can be almost catastrophic, resulting in a ton of lost revenue.
Thankfully, it’s fairly simple to prevent all but the most expert of attacks, provided you know what you’re doing. Truth be told, it’s all a matter of due diligence. So long as you take the necessary steps to protect your website, you should be fine. [Read more…]
The Most Destructive Viruses of All Time
Computer viruses have existed for as long as we can remember. Well, almost.
The first computer virus (externally released) is thought to be ‘Elk Cloner’. It is attributed to Rich Skrenta. It infected Apple DOS 3.3 computers and was spread via floppy disc – in those early days, the floppy disc was the main method of spreading viruses. That was back in 1982.
Funnily enough, Skrenta created the Elk Cloner as a simple prank when he was 15 years old. Elk Cloner embedded itself in a computer’s memory when an infected disc was used. It then spread to other discs that were used later on. [Read more…]
A Quick Guide on Beefing Up Your WordPress Security
WordPress is one of the best CMS platforms for users to build their websites on. It has an intuitive interface with easy-to-use features to help them develop the best-looking site or blog possible. This is one of the many reasons why WordPress has more than 75 million users worldwide.
Due to its popularity, WordPress is also prone to security threats, if not outright hacker attacks. WPWhiteSecurity.com found out that more than 70% of websites running on WordPress are vulnerable to attacks.
There’s a slim chance that your site or blog will be hacked anytime soon, unless it’s one of the most popular ones out there, in which case it has 33% chance of contracting malware. However, if you’re really serious about making a living with your site or blog, then you need to take these threats seriously as well.
Below are tips on how you can beef up your WordPress security to safeguard your site or blog from possible attacks. [Read more…]
The Importance of Cybersecurity in Real Life
We hear about cybersecurity all the time, and we know “everything” we need to do in order to make sure that we are safe from unscrupulous individuals who branch out their illegal activities online.
Or do we?
On a personal level, you might have to admit that you do not change your passwords regularly or that you use the same password across several accounts. We know what happens when hackers get into the databases of credit card companies and even gaming entities.
On a larger scale, cybersecurity is even a bigger issue.
[Read more…]
How to Safeguard Your Website and Customers from Data Breaches
Cyber attacks became a little bit more personal in 2014.
That’s one of the feelings people may get upon reading SingleHop‘s blog post about data breaches from last year.
If you’re an employee of Sony, iCloud, Goldman Sachs, or any of these companies whose securities were breached by hackers, another prominent impression would be anger.
Hackers slipping through the security cracks and stealing sensitive information from employees and subscribers is frustrating, to say the least.
Worse, these cyber attacks have instilled a feeling of fear to people.
No one is safe from data breaches, despite the processes that ensure the alleged safety of information entered online.
The question now remains: what should you do?
As a site owner, should you stop asking for personal information from users to keep yourself from being a target by hackers?
Before doing anything rash, follow the tips below to secure the personal information of your online customers.
How to Protect Your Blog From an Advanced DDoS Attack
Although it’s pretty much unlikely that any high profile hacktivists are going to be targeting your website via a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack anytime soon, that’s not necessarily grounds for sitting back relaxed and complacent without a backup / protection plan. DDoS attacks are becoming more prevalent and much easier to execute thanks improvement in technology, bandwidth and accessibility to tools and information on how to do it. We continue to see big brands like Sony get brought down momentarily by these attacks, and even the CIA’s website suffered this pain in 2012. It’s a serious threat.
For clarification, DDoS attacks happen through an overpowering of numerous computers, usually through the use of bots, that continuously send traffic to an IP address or website. As simple as this might seem, the effects can be brutal to a website. What’s worse is that the typical common security protocols that are set up to defend against hacking and intrusion just don’t work against DDoS attacks and taking matters into your own hands, whether it’s through WordPress security plugins or code tweaks and improvements are not sufficient. [Read more…]
Actionable Tips to Keep Your Website Safe and Secure
Your site is not that big that it would attract the attention of hackers, is it? That’s what some people think, and thus they don’t spend all that much time putting measures in place to ensure that their website is safe and secure.
But surely you’ve heard of that massive DDoS attack on almost 200,000 WordPress sites not so long ago? For all you know, you could have been one of the targets. These days, hackers don’t always target just the big sites. Every website is at risk.
Why is website security important?
IT expert Neeraj Tewari says it clearly: “Many people use their blog to communicate with friends or family, or for work purposes. If your blog is compromised, it puts those critical relationships at risk. Your blog or blog profile may contain important personal or identifying information. If your blog is vulnerable, so is this info.” [Read more…]
