New Technology Reviews!.: Leave

If You Wouldn't Leave Your Front Door Unlocked, Why Would You Leave Your FTP Unlocked?

With the rise of something good usually also comes something bad and in the instance of the Internet providing us with so many good things, it has also opened up security holes for the less sincere people to come and have a go at ruining the enjoyment of the WWW. Owning and running a website is no different to running a high street store, the security of your site and your customers should be a priority, not an afterthought.Security should be any webmasters concern, because if your website gets hacked it will not just affect you, it will usually affect any visitor that visits your site who lacks virus protection. As our title suggests, you would never dream of leaving your front door unlocked and therefore if you own a website you should never leave your FTP unlocked because this is one of the most common ways of being hacked.By using a hosting company like Heart Internet who offer all customers the chance to unlock and lock their FTP means that you can prevent one of the most common forms of hacking, which is usually someone getting your FTP details and then altering your files to include malicious links or downloads. Although we and the rest of good side of the Internet despise anyone that does this kind of thing, it is actually a very clever process.The process is simple:Get your FTP details Download or auto inject code into your files, most commonly index / home Upload files again if not auto injected Infect people who come to the site with lack of securityIn the early days of this type of attack it was usually done manually, but as technology has become more advanced and sophisticated, so has the quickness of the procedure, with sites getting hacked in seconds rather than hours.We often get asked the question - "how did they get my details?"Well, in a very few cases they will actually land upon a security weakness with your host and steal everyone's details, but usually, and most frighteningly, the process normally begins right on your computer.If your PC becomes infected with a virus, some of the viruses variants will find which FTP program you are using, go through your login details and passwords, secure them and then they will be "moved on" to the people who are then going to cause you the harm. Once these details are in their hands it will take them seconds to infect your files and upload them again, often leaving webmasters unaware what has happened until a visitor reports the issue or Google Webmaster Tools drops you an email you wont forget in a hurry.Although locking your FTP will not 100% prevent your website being hacked, it is one of the most formidable defences against this kind of crude attempt to ruin your business. So, next time you are choosing a host make sure you pick one that will allow you to lock your FTP, because a locked FTP is a secure FTP, which means you are doing everything you can to help prevent yourself and your visitors and customers.	 	 		 			 				 					 						Ian Spencer works for Clear Web Services, a SEO Web Optimisation and Web Design company serving the Forest Of Dean, Gloucestershire and South Wales.He has worked in the SEO and Internet Marketing world for many years, and working in partnership with another company has launched the new SEO business.<a href="http://clearwebservices.com/" target="_new">http://clearwebservices.com/</a> For More Information, please call 01594 835 857 or email <a href="mailto:info@clearwebservices.com">info@clearwebservices.com</a>

If You Wouldn't Leave Your Front Door Unlocked, Why Would You Leave Your FTP Unlocked?

With the rise of something good usually also comes something bad and in the instance of the Internet providing us with so many good thing...

Gary Marshall: Hey, ConDems! Leave our ISPs alone!

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//images/broadband-exchange-200-200.jpg"/>Remember the kerfuffle over the Digital Economy Bill, now Act, where the Lib Dems made a lot of noise about how evil it was and the Tories said they'd fix it? No sooner were they in power than their objections magically disappeared, leaving ISPs facing the prospect not just of becoming copyright cops <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/14/illegal-downloads-music-industry">but paying for the privilege</a>. And that's not the only Coalition issue Net users should be concerned about. Plans to monitor all our online activity are back on the agenda, and to top that the government wants ISPs to become censors too.Censors? Communications minister Ed Vaizey reckons the Internet needs <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11669314">a mediation service</a> for disputed web content, citing an example where Google Street View showed the location of a women's refuge and didn't respond to complaints. "The fact that no meeting or dialogue could take place worries me greatly," Vaizey said.What worries me is that Vaizey's idea doesn't make sense.My ISP doesn't store Google Street View data; Google does. My ISP doesn't tend to store the offensive or inaccurate content that's posted elsewhere, either. Facebook does, or WordPress.com does, or Blogger.com does, or faraway forums do.If UK ISPs don't host it, they can't remove it.Ah, but Vaizey has thought of that. He wants the Government to broker "a conversation with the Internet industry… to discuss whether there is any way to remove access to that information."Not "remove that information". Remove access to that information. Censorship = a slippery slopeRather than, say, <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/28/ico_google_halfon/">reining in Google</a> or telling Facebook to get a grip - something the European Commission thinks the UK doesn't do properly, which is why we're being taken to court by the Commission for failing to comply with EU privacy rules - the government wants our ISPs to start censoring.I can't stress this enough: we're not talking about illegal information here. We're talking about information that allegedly breaches somebody's privacy, or that "is inaccurate". Bye, Facebook! See ya, Wikipedia!We've been warning about this for years: getting ISPs to monitor content is a slippery slope, and as soon as you dump the carrier immunity argument - that is, the argument that ISPs provide dumb pipes and they're no more responsible for what we put through those pipes than BT is for what we say on the phone - then more and more people will demand they monitor more and more things. Don't believe me? In 1999, ISPs became liable for users' defamatory postings after the Godfrey vs Demon court case. In 2002, the EU e-Commerce Directive made them liable for copyright infringement if they failed to act when informed of its presence on their servers. In 2006, the Terrorism Act added "terrorist statements or articles" to the list. This year's Digital Economy Act added enforcement to ISPs' duties. Now, we're looking at privacy protection and enforcing online accuracy. What's next? Blasphemy?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<img border="0" height="1" src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/9809/s/f46df8f/mf.gif" width="1"/><div class='mf-related'> This post was made using the <a href="http://www.webmagnates.org/auto-blogging-software.html" title="auto-blogging software">Auto Blogging Software</a> from <a href="http://www.webmagnates.org">WebMagnates.org</a> This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Gary Marshall: Hey, ConDems! Leave our ISPs alone!

Remember the kerfuffle over the Digital Economy Bill, now Act, where the Lib Dems made a lot of noise about how evil it was and the Tories ...