Security

In its yearly Mapping the Mal Web report, computer security firm McAfee rated Cameroon’s .cm domain as the “Most Dangerous Country Domain.” How could what was once a relatively unknown extension obtain such a ranking? A year ago, very few domainers cared about .cm because the government restricted public registration …

SSH is a great tool to have when you need remote access to a server, and it is naturally more secure than other methods, such as Telnet. Nevertheless, you should still take care to make sure your OpenSSH server is as secure as possible. Here are two tips to get …

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are an unfortunate fact of life on the web. These attacks can be hard to stop once they occur, but did you know many dedicated server hosts provide protection against them? This service usually takes the form of a firewall or dedicated proxy, and …

Nearly all of us have used URL-shortening services such as bit.ly or TinyURL. They are a great convenience, but according to Symantec , pose a security threat. The computer security firm says their malicious use is on the rise, and that they are especially dangerous because users do not always …

Winter is quickly approaching, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some spring cleaning on your shared hosting account or dedicated server. After just a few months of use, your main directory can be full of all sorts of garbage needlessly taking up space, including: Unused CMS or script installs …

FXP stands for File eXchange Protocol, and is a method of data transfer that allows a user to transfer files from one server to another, without going through the user’s computer or network. The Good: In essence it is the closest thing to server-to-server transfer without direct access and the …

ModSecurity, a free and open source application firewall, is one of the best in the industry. Packt Publishing will soon be releasing a book about the software called ModSecurity 2.5 by Magnus Mischel. “This book is written for system administrators or anyone running an Apache web server who wants to …

Few issues with dedicated servers are more important than security, and no security software is overlooked more than firewalls. Most people expect firewalls to work the way they want them to without any effort. While that is impossible, there is a free software firewall solution available that makes installation, setup, …

Question: How do I password protect a directory on my website? Answer: Many web hosting control panels offer a “password protect” feature for your directories. If not, there is a moderately easy way to do it with an Apache .htaccess file. First, create an .htaccess file that looks like this: …

Recently there has been heated debate about whether or not WHOIS privacy protection, an inexpensive service that lets domain registrants hide their contact information from the public, should be allowed. In the recent case U.S. v Kilbride, an American judge ruled that using privacy protection constitutes “material falsification.” The defendant …