Web Hosting

Concerns Raised by the PlayStation Network Outage

In the middle of April 2011, Sony faced an outage to the PlayStation network that revealed 100 million users private information. Approximately one month later the network is still down and raising plenty of questions regarding the security of cloud computing. This outage is sure to have an impact on the way in which most individuals perceive the security of the cloud.

Speculative Reports

Reports have been published indicating that Sony was using outdated software that helped the cyber criminals perform the attack. However, this information is speculative. Sony representatives have still not confirmed a date when the network is to be restored.

Giving Back to the Gaming Community

Historically Sony has had a loyal following. However, after this incident gaming experts have predicted that Sony may have to offer a lot to appease those same users. Many gamers are upset that the company has taken so long to speak out about the incident and are not keeping users in the loop.

The Attacks

According to a report published by CNET, Sony was initially aware of the attack on April 19^th, 2011 after several PlayStation Network servers were unexpectedly rebooted. Immediately after, four servers were taken offline to learn what exactly was occurring. By the following day, six additional servers were attacked and taken offline.

Sony has attempted to blame the hacktivist group, Anonymous, but they have denied involvement. An internet security expert had told Congress that Sony was running outdated Apache software during the attack. However, this information was passed along unconfirmed.

Sony’s Security Measures

Sony continues to defend its security measures stating that all procedures were in place and patches and updates were recently applied to the software and subsequent firewalls. In addition to the security measures, the organization is being called out for its treatment of users during the entire charade.

Wake-up Call for the Cloud Computing Industry

As a result, many cloud computing experts feel the new web hosting technology has taken a knock or even a wake-up call. One of the largest issues with cloud computing is the liability. The industry is currently developing standards and regulations for the new technology. Until these are implemented, public cloud adoption is expected to be cautious and therefore slow.

Aside from the affected 100 million PlayStation Network users, those in the cloud computing industry may see a significant decrease in the number of new customers. This debacle has proven that security is in fact an issue in the cloud.

Google Chrome Browser Cracked

Vupen Security, a group specializing in vulnerability research, claims to have broken through the Google Chrome browser as well as the sandbox thus denting claims regarding the security of the browser. A video was recently released on Vupen’s website displaying the exploit from Google Chrome v11.0.696.65 using Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 (x64). The exploit is also effective on Google Chrome versions 11.x and 12.x

The Exploit

A user visiting the page is tricked into thinking they are at the correct web page that hosts the exploit which executes a variety of actions that end in downloading the Calculator from a remote location to externally launch it from Google Sandbox.

Technical Details

According to Vupen, the exact details of the breach including the code have not been publicly disclosed and will only be shared with their government customers to prove the effectiveness of their services. The exploit has been noted as one of the most sophisticated codes as it completely bypasses all security features such as ASLR/DEP/Sandbox.

Also, the vulnerability does not crash following the execution of the exploit and it relies on zero-day vulnerabilities found by Vupen Security while working within a Windows system. Chrome is said to be one of the most secure sandboxes in the industry. Vupen is the first to find a reliable method of executing code on a default installation regardless of the security measures.

Chrome Security Features

Chrome was developed with advanced security technologies like Safe Browsing, auto updates and sandboxing to protect its users from malicious activities. Therefore, the browser shows the user a warning message before they visit the website. Meanwhile, the sandbox feature adds protection by eliminating web pages that leave malicious programs on a local computer while monitoring web activities.

The Vupen Team

Furthermore, the software analyzes and patches known flaws and other vulnerabilities. The Vupen Security team is dedicated to uncovering new vulnerabilities across widely used software to assist vendors with the elimination of vulnerabilities resulting in an airtight software program. However, since Vupen is under contract with the vendor, they are never allowed to release the exact technical details found with the security exploit.

Although it was difficult, cracking the Google Chrome web browser will significantly help the company improve security to make it almost impossible for any hacker to develop an exploit. In this situation, Vupen has definitely done their job well by helping the largest search engine company in the world.

Methods for Increasing Page Speed and Improving Search Engine Rankings

Google recently announced it plans to begin factoring in page speed more heavily with regards to search engine rankings. This change is being made because studies have shown that quicker sites create happier users. Therefore, ecommerce merchants must adapt to this algorithm change. As a merchant, improving your speed will depend on how easily you are able to change several technical factors in the page code.

For those new to ecommerce, page speed should not be your priority. Creating high quality, relevant content is the most important step. On the other hand, for those looking to gain an edge against the competition while giving users the best experience, this adaptation is necessary.

It is important to first assess your website by utilizing the Google Webmaster Tools. This resurce will assess the performance from your website.  Google considers any website that takes more than two seconds to load as slow. This equates to a much lower rank of your pages. For those with load times much higher than two seconds, you may need to make structural changes to your website.

To find areas of improvement, use the Firebug extension for Firefox. This will evaluate the performance of your page in 30 different categories. Each item is clickable and provides addition information from Google. Those with the strongest impact on speed will be shown with a small red bullet.

The most common page speed factors include:

• Image optimization
• CSS and JavaScript references
• Browser caching
• Minify HTML and CSS

Image optimization ensures the images on your page are sufficiently compressed. Be sure to specify the image dimensions in your HTML code so the web browser does not need to work any harder to render a web page. This will result in much slower load times. CSS and JavaScript references are embedded resources that must be setup efficiently. This typically includes consolidating the number of external CSS and JavaScript files.

Browser caching are files stored locally to help web pages load quicker and operate more efficiently. For the majority of web server platforms, you can adjust the expiration of the cache files. Finally, minification is the reduction of extra space and unnecessary characters on a web page. This includes blank lines in the HTML code and extraneous characters.

By improving the speed of your web pages, you will rank higher in Google and make access to your site much easier. The aforementioned tips can help you achieve that speed and efficiency with a minimal amount of work.

mindSHIFT and Kentico Team Up

mindSHIFT Technologies is one of the leading provides of information technology and cloud services to small and medium-sized organizations. Recently the firm announced that it has achieved the Kentico Certified Solution Partner status. mindSHIFT currently utilizes Kentico’s content management system to develop affordable, fully interactive and dynamic websites.

The Use of Kentico CMS

mindSHIFT uses this technology because it is an easy-to-use program that meets the needs of website development and production.  The company is thrilled to be receiving this certification and recognizes that the Kentico software is the most important tool in their information technology toolbox.

Recent Uses

mindSHIFT recently utilized the Kentico CMS to create and launch the new VVA Project Managers and Consultants website. The CMS simplified the website updating process be more efficient and allowed for much more control. mindSHIFT also played a major role during the entire implementation process; from design to build to launch, the experts at the company helped achieve the shared organizational goals.

Kentico Values their Certified Partners

Kentico continues to hold their certified partners in the highest regard as they continue to help them deliver reliable web solutions. mindSHIFT continues to demonstrate their abilities with the platform while proving to be a valued partner focused on the highest quality and customer satisfaction.

About Kentico CMS

The Kentico CMS platform is an affordable solution with an entire set of features for the creation, development and implementation of websites, intranets, community sites and online stores utilizing Microsoft ASP.NET. The CMS boast a WYSIWYG editor, multi-language support, full text search, SEO, image galleries, online forums, blogs, polls, groups, media libraries, workflows and over 200 configurable web components.

More than 4,000 websites across 84 countries utilize the Kentico CMS software. The most well-known clients include Microsoft, McDonald’s, Orange, O2, Vodafone, Brussels Airlines, Ford, Mazda, Subaru, Samsung, Gibson, Guinness, DKNY, ESPN and Abbot Labs.

About mindSHIFT

mindSHIFT Technologies is a well-known, reputable technology advisor for small to medium-sized businesses that delivers the most innovative technology and cloud computing services available. Many firms use mindSHIFT’s information technology management services to keep their networks running around the clock while protecting critical data.

The partnership between these firms appears to be an excellent fit which will allow for the release of many new, innovative products and technologies. Both companies are reputable in their respected industries and should continue to be successful.

Web Mapping through HillTop Content Management System

Website content management system (CMS) HillTop recently announced the ability to share information with constituents utilizing a geographic context. HillTop CMS is currently used by over 50 congressional offices. GSL Solutions has combined Esri’s geographic information system (GIS) with the HillTop software to produce web mapping capabilities.

Viewing and Interactive Map

States across the nation should be able to utilize the best available resources to understand exactly how specific pieces of legislation from Washington, DC affect their lives. The software can produce an interactive map on governmental websites to indicate the work being conducted and way to become involved in community efforts.

Showing Areas of Interest

Many legislative representatives are also using the software to post maps depicting various types of project spending efforts, news coverage, suites of interest for visitors and community meeting details. This mapping functionality is built directly into HillTop’s platform allowing for the content to be easily entered with an interactive geographic format.

The Future of Geographic Software

GSL Solutions is planning to create a working group to guide future geographic software applications in the HillTop system including national maps displaying important issues of interest which would allow legislators to include the viewpoint from the state government that citizens would be able to track from the website.

The platform has the potential of being a communication vehicle between Senate officials and other agencies which could collaborate to enhance the resources available to citizens. For example, national parks have numerous stakeholders but are managed by two separate entities of the government. Therefore, by sharing pertinent data and displaying it on a map, the public will be more informed.

The Programming

GSL Solutions used Esri’s ArcGIS API for JavaScript to add to HillTop due to the ability of enabling basic web mapping for customers. This allows for support of powerful geographic applications in the future. Additionally, Esri web maps feature customization abilities and an interactive interface without displaying advertisements.

About Each Company

Esri is the industry-leader in GIS technology being that it is used in 300,000 organizations across the globe. Most national governments, more than 7,000 colleges and universities and two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies use the software. GSL Solutions simplifies web use by implementing cutting-edge technologies and value-added services.

This software has proven to be a major convenience for the legislators that are using it. In the future, each company will continue to improve various functions of the software to make it more accurate and reliable to those government officials that use it.

An Overview of Facebook Deals

Facebook recently released the details regarding a new coupons and deals segment of their enterprise. There will initially be five test markets including, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. However, this is not your everyday print and cut coupon site. Facebook plans to revolutionize this system by placing a different spin on discounts by focusing on deals that individuals would do with their friends.

New Discounts at Facebook

Therefore, Facebook is continuing their innovative ideas with a social spin. For instance, instead of displaying teeth whitening deals, Facebook will show discounts for activities like white water rafting, concerts and wine tasting events. These are all fun activities for a variety of people.

Using Current Facebook Technology

Interested users will be able to access these discounts through a Facebook button. Users will then be able to “like” and share offers to others in their network which will appear on their news feeds. Those interested in participating in one of the deals will be given the option to pay with a credit card, through the PayPal payment processing system or virtually using Facebook credits which can be used to acquire the voucher used to buy the offer.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Groupon currently boasts 70 million members and LivingSocial 28 million. Since Facebook has over 500 million users worldwide, they will have complete access to each member. Therefore, Facebook is in the position to significantly outgrow the two aforementioned sites. Additionally, the social networking website maintains a database of hundreds of partners and many local businesses with Facebook pages.

Ironically Groupon and LivingSocial both utilize Facebook pages as a form of advertising. Facebook has partnered with smaller daily deal websites like Plum District, Tippr and PopSugar City to feature brand-specific deals.

Bigger Discounts for Consumers

Adding Facebook to the mix of major discounting websites will certainly bring on fierce competition. Luckily the real winners from competing websites will be the consumers as they will become inundated with largest discounts and better deals than are currently available.

More competition always equates to more deals and lower prices for the consumer and discounting websites are no different. With the advertising power and sheer volume of users currently on the Facebook platform, it is inevitable they will be the victor. In turn, this may completely eliminate Groupon and LivingSocial or Facebook may attempt to acquire them.

An Update on the Playstation Network Security Scandal

Since the attack occurring on April 28^th, 2011, the Playstation Network has been left with millions of players unable to engage in multiplayer action. Unfortunately, Sony has not been forthcoming as to the repairs of the network and when it will go back online. On April 30^th, 2011, Sony expected to have some services available within a week. That never happened.

Confusing Statements

Other statements revealed that the service would be fully functional as of Tuesday, May 3^rd, 2011. That also never happened and Sony has continued to go out of its way to hide whether or not the network would be available tomorrow. This silence by the company cannot be good for sales or their reputation. More importantly, it is not a good sign for the customers that just want to log back in and play their favorite MMO.

Giving back to the Customer

At least Sony and their affiliates are giving back to those customers with paid subscriptions. For instance, Hulu Plus members will be receiving one week of free service due to this network debacle. Unfortunately, Hulu may be forced to extend this credit past one week.

Continued Advertising

Sony continues to fiercely advertise SOCOM 4 despite the lack of multiplayer functionality. Additionally, during the early stages of the outage Sony mentioned that the Playstation Network would be rebuilt once it came back online. Like so many other promises made by the company, this is unlikely. It would involve an extreme engineering undertaking to complete this task in less than two weeks.

Some Services Back Online

New information has been released stating that the server hosting the Playstation Network was running an outdated version of Apache without the protection of a firewall. However, Sony continues to promise that some services will be available tomorrow.

Soiling the Sony Name

Aside from damaged technology, Sony is severely crippling their brand image through a lack of simple communication. Although they should be careful with their words, representatives should not continue to make false promises and lead the gaming community on. This is an unethical, cowardly business practice that is sure to result in the loss of customers.

It would make much more sense to continue communicating the status of the network, good or bad so at lease customers are aware of the issues. Many loyal fans are frustrated and ready to make the switch over XBOX 360 and cancel their Playstation Network game subscriptions.

Important Features of Content Management Systems

Although well organized and informative content has always been vitally important to the success of a website, it is now even more important in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) because of Google’s new algorithms. Unfortunately, writing and then manually uploading content to a website can be extremely time consuming and tedious. As a result, many web hosting companies also provide access to automated content management systems for their customers to utilize.

The Benefits of Content Management Systems

One of the main boons of a content management system (CMS) is the ability to add content daily without being tied to a computer. Since a constant influx of well crafted and informative content is vital to page rank a good CMS can help automate the process. The webmaster can simply schedule when and how much content to upload and then go on about his or her business.

Establishing and Maintaining User Accounts

A good CMS will allow for the website owner to establish and maintain multiple user accounts so that a number of authors and content providers can also schedule content to be easily uploaded as needed. Each user can be assigned a unique user name, password and level of access so that the task of uploading content can be delegated out. This is perhaps one of the most useful features to websites that will be accessed by more than one user.

Flexibility and Creativity

Another important feature of a content management system is the flexibility needed for creativity. Since it is possible to preview what the content will look like prior to hitting ‘submit’ or ‘update,’ each user can view various templates and layouts before scheduling submission. Keep in mind that Google is cracking down on content so creativity is more important than ever before.

Local and Server Side Access to Content

Many times a website owner may be working with scheduling topics for content creation at home or on a laptop that for one reason or another isn’t connected to the internet. Since content management systems store everything on a hard drive as well as on the server side, it is possible to access content to see what has already been written and what still needs to be created. Once the content has been written the CMS can be scheduled to upload at some point in the future when a connection is made.

Automation Is the Key

It should be apparent by now that automation is the key to any good content management system. In order to be most beneficial to the user it is vital to automate as many tasks as possible. There is an old adage that says “Time is money” and that is never truer than in terms of providing a constant stream of content to a website. In the past webmasters spent hours manually uploading files but with the advent of content management systems they are now free to spend their time seeking other ventures while their website is virtually on autopilot!

When comparing web hosting plans make sure to check out whether or not they provide a content management system and what features their system has. Since the point of a CMS is to streamline tasks you will want as many features as possible and good web hosting companies provide the best content management systems available.

HP Awarded NASA Cloud Hosting Contract

HP recently announced that its enterprise services unit was awarded $2.5 billion in a newly drafted contract with NASA. The deal is for a fixed price and will require HP to provide user desktop services that will improve the efficiency at NASA while allowing employees to easily communicate ideas across a secure computing environment. The contract is set for four years with two, three year optional extension periods.

Upgrading NASA’s Entire Infrastructure

This project will be a consolidated end-user program in which HP will upgrade NASA’s entire infrastructure through the deliverance of a suite of computing services and devices to over 60,000 end-users. The process will require HP to provide, maintain and manage a variety of computing options, an advanced level of customer support and connect all NASA facilities in the United States to improve productivity and implement cost savings.

Focusing on Security

The cellular seat and computing services will be designed with a focus on security and collaboration to allow all NASA employees to share information in a safe and reliable environment.

Evolving NASA’s Information Technology

According the to the Senior Vice President and General Manager of HP Enterprise Services, this contract will assist with the evolution of NASA’s information technology platform and centralize and infrastructure allowing for agency-wide availability and a significant improvement in security and manageability. HP will utilize its industry knowledge to support this transition as easily and seamlessly as possible.

Incorporating Smaller Businesses

HP will be working in conjunction with numerous smaller businesses to ensure NASA’s small business participation guidelines are met and enforced. This contract will be developed and managed by the NASA Shared Services Center in Stennis, Mississippi and will become functional across all NASA facilities in the United States.

The Development of OpenStack

This is not the first information technology project given to an outside company. This past July 2010, NASA partnered with Rackspace, a popular web hosting provider, to develop OpenStack, an open-source cloud platform created to guide an emergence of technology standardization and interoperability within the cloud. The platform integrates technology used in powering the NASA Nebula Cloud Platform.

Since HP is a leading developer of innovative computing technology, they will greatly assist some of the top scientists, engineers and experts in the world. With a high performing, centralized, visible computing space, information will be transferred quicker and more efficiently thus allow for the quicker development of ideas.

A Look at Security in the Cloud

With the recent outage of the Amazon EC2 network and the data breach of the Sony PlayStation Network, many experts and customers are wondering if security is a larger issue in cloud computing than any other type of hosting. The answer is no, cloud services are not riskier than typical applications found in a corporate data center.

The Two Recent Problems

Amazon EC2 or Elastic Compute Cloud services were affected on April 21^st, 2011 by an outage that shut resulted in major websites being unavailable for three days. To this day, the cause of the outage is not known. Two days prior, Sony shut down two of its cloud servers due to an external intrusion in which the hacker or hackers obtained the personal information of over 77 million subscribers.

These two problems are proving to be significant. However, they are unusual in the cloud computing world. The outage of Amazon’s servers moved the focus to reliability and availability issues. However, these concerns also existed in the traditional web hosting environments of old. Therefore, it appears as if naysayers to the new cloud technology are simply trying to blame old problems on web hosting progress.

Historical Outages

These outages, whatever the cause, used to occur on a regular basis. Most individuals were unaware due to it affect one or even a handful of organizations, completely on a small scale. These more frequent outages equated to much more lost time, money and business.

A Lack of Preparation

The biggest result of the Amazon EC2 outage were the weaknesses shown by Amazon not have redundant backup servers in another location or the lack of a failover system utilizing another cloud computing supplier. This major mistake could result in large businesses dropping Amazon for a more reliable carrier.

New Users to Cloud Computing

For many organizations that recently made the move to cloud computing, these types of outages so close in occurrence could be nerve-wreaking. The technology is new and not all the kinks have been ironed out, therefore they are worried about massive data loss and security exploits. Luckily most security applications in the cloud include, spam filtering, hosted email, malware scanning and firewalls. Therefore, if any of these applications went down, it would not be the end of the business.

Cloud computing has proven to be the most reliable and best-performing type of web hosting available. Despite these security breaches and outages, cloud hosting will continue to improve and be utilized by most organizations.

Ecommerce Tutorials from Allied Wallet

Allied Wallet recently published their first online ecommerce guide on their website. This is the first of many video tutorials to come. These manuals are targeted for those clients and users to understand the inner-workings of Allied Wallet and methods of easily accepting credit cards. The first video highlights the primary differences between their two payment systems: Business Pro and QuickPay.

The QuickPay Solution

The QuickPay solution targets the smaller to medium size business clients searching for a simple system to accept credit cards online. The QuickPay interface makes the integration of an online retailer’s website to the Allied Wallet payment system easy with only a tiny amount of programming required.

The Business Pro Solution

The Business Pro solution is geared toward larger organizations in search of a seamless checkout process. During the QuickPay checkout procedure, the client is transferred to an Allied Wallet payment page and redirected back to the online retailer’s website upon completion of the transaction. On the other hand, with the Business Pro version, the customer remains on the retailer’s website where all payment processing is performed by Allied Wallet in the background.

Instant Credit Card Processing

Furthermore, these two services allow online retailers to instantly accept a credit card from any location across the globe at any time. Also with ACH processing, online paperless checks can be processed to save on business expenses and ease implementation. Additionally, ACH processing allows for debit, credit and recurring credit payments based on a predetermined increment.

Video Tutorial Series

The upcoming video tutorial series will help users find exciting new uses of Allied Wallet’s payment gateway. The tutorial series is applicable to both the QuickPay and Business Pro versions. With so many uses and other functions, these two payment software tools will assist in many other areas of ecommerce. These videos intend to present these functions that most users are not aware of.

About Allied Wallet

As an internationally-based merchant services provider, Allied Wallet specializes in ewallet services, online payment solutions and ACH processing. The release of these new tutorials is sure to drive many more customers to the software solutions once they see the power of the payment gateway.

With so many additional features besides payment processing, QuickPay and Business Pro are two of a kind and should be reviewed by every online retailer in the industry. Based on the number of features, it appears as if this could be the solution for you. Stop by the Allied Wallet website to view the video tutorials for more information.