How to Protect Your Site from Cyber Crime – Avoiding Hacker Attacks

How to Protect Your Site from Cyber Crime – Avoiding Hacker Attacks

Website Security MalwareWhen you have a website, the last thing you want to deal with is a hacker. There are few things that can cause more frustration than a hacker attack. They can cause many problems for you such as deleting or altering your files, putting malicious content that spreads malware on your site and getting your site blacklisted by search engines, not to mention threatening all of your hard work. This is why it is detrimental that you learn how to protect your site from cyber crime. You need to therefore take defensive action on a daily basis so that you can strengthen your website against any unauthorized intrusions.Have Security Programs in PlaceYou?ll need security plugins such as malware scanners and firewalls so you can prevent an intrusion. Keep all of these virus protection programs up to date, and if you run a business your employees should run a total virus scan each day from their own workstation. Anyone responsible for LAN should also be doing this daily on the server.Update Your Website Software on a Regular BasisYou should be regularly updating the website platform software that you use, as updates become available. Drupal, WordPress and Joomla are commonly used platforms and they all release security software updates periodically. Many times these updates are to fix the vulnerabilities in the versions that are already being used. Plugin software should also be updated whenever new releases become available.Be aware of plugins made by third parties. Most of them are useful and helpful programs, however hackers have made their own versions which once installed on your website?s server will create much trouble with your files. You should only be using accredited plugins and themes which have been checked for any malicious content beforehand.Made Access to Your Website DifficultWhen learning how to protect your site from cyber crime, you should also learn how to make access to your website difficult. You need to replace the admin default username, and then make a very complicated password that contains a combination of numbers, letters and symbols. Hackers will look for simple logins weaknesses on your site, and the more advanced bots will search the Internet to look for default login data. Make sure your file permissions are restricted for administrators only and limit the permissions for any other authorized users. You should also consider a security key if your site does not automatically have one, as this will further encrypt your website data in cookies, which are the temporary text files that will have your browsing and login data in them.Keep Up-to-Date with Your Computer and Network SecuritySince hackers are finding less ways to attack a website directly, they have created flank attacks by making viruses which will infect computers or local area networks. These viruses will go through the networks and computer looking for FTP login weaknesses, getting the FTP user information and then indirectly accessing the websites. When a hacker has gotten in to your server files by FTP, they get past the file permissions and then act as the administrator and change your existing files or delete files. Plus, they can also upload malicious links or software to your website?s server.To avoid this sort of attack you need to update your software on a regular basis and install anti-virus and firewall software. Plus, you should scan your computer regularly for malware. Don?t click on any links that seem suspicious, or any files in emails from anyone you don?t know because they can take your computer to sites that are infected and which will download the malware without you even knowing it.Directory ListingLastly, check to see if your server allows directly listing, as this will let anyone see what the contents of your directory by typing in the web address and folder name. If you can type in your website name and a folder name and see the contents, you need to talk to the web host right away and get it disabled.?Yim Virak is an experienced web marketer, he show people how to get exposure to the blog and make money from the website and he also provides InMotion Hosting review and bonus on his blog . ?
Re-Defining Web Reputation

Re-Defining Web Reputation

Your Online ReputationIn an ever evolving digital landscape it is important for businesses, and individuals to maintain a proper online reputation. Such a task is often made difficult in a world shaped by facebook pictures, user reviews and disgruntled employee's taking to the twitter-sphere.It can become almost impossible not only to keep track of what is being said about your company,?never mind?trying to respond to it all!This is where Google's new "Me on the Web" tool comes in play, this new tool included ?on your Google Dashboard, allows you to monitor what is being said about your business (or related search term), and with this?google reputation management?option allowing you to gather your results in nearly real time you can finally have a competitive edge in tackling the otherwise staggering task of managing your online reputation."Your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you ? whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update," Google explains, gone are the days when the information about your brand was a controlled and well crafted marketing piece, in this modern age you are an open dialogue between users everywhere with minimal control over your own identity.Luckily however Google's been sure to provide links to help you deal with unwanted content, and to give you further insights into how you can manage your online identity; and with a growing number of digital marketing companies delving into the world of online reputation management you can rest assured that you can hire someone to take care of the mountain of alerts you get when it all becomes to much.As reputation management?continues to progress its important to remember a few key important factors to secure both your brand and personal data:1. Review all facebook security settings each month, not only is it very easy to make a mistake and post something publically but with the continued revisions not only to facebook security policy but also the fundamental changes to their control panel data can quickly change.2. Insure to keep backups of corporate social media account passwords in an offline and secure environment, also keep note of which employees have access and be sure that termination contracts include a clause disallowing their use of these accounts.?3. Set up ?Me on The Web? to search for company name, key employee names, key email addresses, phone numbers, and unique keywords (such as a unique service/product name). It can also be helpful to put in variations with?spelling mistakes in them as sometimes slanderous claims don?t come from the most reliable sources!?Janet McKenzie is a marketing associate for a new york based reputation management company specializing in corporate clients at?http://www.synqk.com

MicroSite Masters – SEO Rank Tracker

Signup With MicroSiteMastersMicroSite Masters is a SERP tracking device for SEO agencies and experts. I highly recommend Microsite Masters to anyone that relies on search engine ranking for their business and their revenue.
Microsite Masters - YouTube by MicrositeMasters
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Microsite Masters Serp Tracker:?With this SERP tracker you can better determine ROI and associated SERP impacts delivered from specific providers and vendors and cut the fat from those who aren?t adding value to your bottom line. Determining SERP efficiency when compared to dollars spent over time has never been easier.?MicroSite Masters ? Reliable and Accurate SERP Tracking for SEO Professionals. So What are you waiting for Sign up today!
WordPress Says Update, So Should I?

WordPress Says Update, So Should I?

Wordpress UpdateIf you have logged into your WordPress and found an alert to update, then this article is one you might want to read.You see, WordPress gets updated a lot. Sometimes the updates are small security fixes. However, once a year or so, there is a major update.Before we continue, I want you to think about something. When you see that WordPress released an update, what do you do?
  • Do you update right away?
  • Do you wait?
  • Do you ask your theme developer for compatibility?
  • Do you look at your plugins for updates related to compatibility?
  • Do you do something else?
The reason I ask is because with WordPress 3.5, there was a fairly major change in the core source code, that affected many WordPress theme and plugin developers. As the community guy for a company who develops WordPress photography themes, I can tell you first hand that the release of WordPress 3.5 drastically changed the daily activities of each employee for a few days.Wordpress UpdateWithout going into too much nerdy details, WordPress changed some of the code that many themes and plugins relied on. So in turn, development had to be made (by many companies) to add a workaround. In addition to the development time for the workaround, we had to do a lot of internal testing on various environments, and then release an update to all of our users.That short story is pretty much what sparked the question I stated above. So I went on Quora and Google Plus to ask communities the same question I just asked you. Here are some of the answers I received.
  • Richard Saasta on Google Plus said he does a full backup using BackupBuddy. He then updates WordPress and verifies that everything is working correctly. If something goes awry, he then has a clean backup that can be reverted to.
  • Tony Davis on Google Plus said that he keeps a separate domain with the exact theme and plugins of his other install. He will do an update in that test environment before making an update to the live site.
  • Mickey Mellen on Quora said that he updates his plugins daily, and because most of his websites run the same plugins that he will update one of the smaller sites first, and once verified he will roll out updates to the rest.
At this point you might be wondering how I deal with WordPress updates on my own website. I did a lot of research on good web hosts, and in the end decided on going with a WordPress specific host, WP Engine. ?One of the big advantages of hosting with WP Engine is that they handle the WordPress core updates. (They won't touch your theme or plugins) Another big advantage is the built-in staging option. So whenever a WordPress update is imminent WP Engine sends an email to users with a time frame when all users will be updated. They instruct users to take advantage of the staging feature and to update a test site. The beauty of the staging site is that it is identical to your live site. Doing this can verify if a site will fail with a WordPress update, before going through with the update on the live site. Make sense? So my workflow is as follows:
  1. WordPress update released
  2. WP Engines emails a deadline before the site will automatically be updated
  3. I create a new staging environment
  4. I manually update the staging environment to the latest WordPress
  5. Test everything
  6. If something fails, I email WP Engine to say "please do not update me because XYZ"
Make better sense?Now that I have gone through all of that, I want to ask you again. When you see that WordPress released an update, what do you do? Now that you've read the article, will you do something different?Thanks for reading,ScottScott Wyden Kivowitz is a NJ photographer and the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati.?
Re-Defining Web Reputation

Affiliate Summit West 2013 Recap

AffiliateSummitWest

This Affiliate Summit was off the hook! Great Keynote Sessions and some of the best parties yet! I met some amazing people in the industry. I decided to go to ASW13 a day early that way we can check in to the hotel and get my pass early trust me no lines is a big plus.
Day One: I attended the Coupons Deals & Sales - Oh My! I learned that $750 Billion in coupons are printed & that only 1% are used $6.5 billion which is a pretty decent number if you think about it how many times have you bought a product that has free shipping or a 10% off coupon this tactic works on me especially when buying domain names.

shareasale under the stars party

Later on that night I attended ShareASale Under The Stars Party which was hosted at the Chateau Nightclub. Great food and music from the DJ as well as the open bar and free drinks cant beat that for being an affiliate!ShareASale Under The Stars Party ASW13Day Two: I attended the keynote Session Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger. He Talked about his life and how it took him 10 years to get the movie deal with David Anspaugh. He mentioned to be positive and do not think goofy thoughts instead listen to them but do allow them to bring you down.Daniel ?Rudy? Ruettiger ASW13After attending sessions and going to the meet market for some coffee I headed to the Exhibit Hall for some free swag I met up with John Chow,ShoeMoney & Syed Balkhis. Big Thanks to ShoeMoney for signing my book and big shout out to Maxbounty for hooking me up with a Free book!

Affiliate Summit West 2013

Later on in the day I headed to the Affiliate Ball I had an amazing night VIP Access Profit Kings Media & EDK Inovations were nice enough to let me hang out at?their?booth Kathryn Ekman and I had a great time drinking?Champagne?cant beat bottle?service!

Affiliate Ball Girls

Register now for the early bird prices for Affiliate Summit East 2013, taking place August 18-20, 2013 in Philadelphia. Also Make sure you check out the Performance Marketing Summit which is taking place March 12, 2013