Your Guide to SSL Certificates

SSL is short for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a security system employed by web browsers and servers. The SSL protects data during transfer within the web. SSL certificates have public and private key pair and identification information. When a client or a browser is directed to a secured domain, the server would share the public key with the client. Afterwards, an encryption method is established, with the client confirming that it trusts the SSL certificate issuer. When the whole process is through, a secure session is made, and then message and data shared are secured.

An SSL is a cryptographic protocol that secures communication on the internet. Segments of network connections are encrypted in different ways. Key exchange requires asymmetric encryption, while privacy requires symmetric encryption. On the other hand, message integrity requires message authentication codes. These protocols come in several versions used widely in various applications like web browsing, emailing, and instant messaging.

SSL certificates are essentially digital files or codes with two main functions-verification and data encryption. An SSL certificate has information about the identity of a website. It will show this information to the visitors after clicking on the browser's padlock symbol. Data encryption secures private information exchanged on the website. This ensures that data exchanged will not be intercepted by a third party.

Website owners should find a reliable SSL certificate authority that will provide the certificate. A trusted Certificate Authority or CA is necessary. Not everyone can receive one, though, because there are stringent policies to follow in order to obtain one. But that certificate is essential, for it makes your website trustworthy.

There are different types of certificates, like dedicated SSL certificate, shared certificates, and so on. Choosing the kind that you want or need involves some research. You only need to know what kind suits you. Different types come in different prices. SSL certificate suppliers are all online, so you should not have a hard time looking for them. It pays to shop around.

If you want a specifically assigned SSL certificate, you can choose a dedicated one, which are assigned to respective domain names. This means you need to obtain a unique domain name. This type of certificate is the most expensive of all types of certificates.

A shared kind is different, as the name implies. It can be supplied by web hosts and used by their customers. But this type will not make your domain name visible. That is why they usually offer it free.

You can't use someone else's certificate, because your website visitors may have problems getting to your website. They will not be able to see your information when they verify the certificate. Instead, they will see the information of the true owner. Worse, modern browsers will show an error page prompting the visitor not to proceed.

Is it possible to have a free one? It is, but do not expect that a free one would offer the same level of security that a paid one does. Free SSL's have unreliable encryption, thus faintly supporting your website's security.

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Online Shopping With Increased Safety

With the ease and convenience of the Internet, it is no surprise that more and more people are choosing to shop online in order to get the goods they need. Online shopping has become one of the most popular methods of shopping and the business and demand is continually growing.

Almost everything is available to purchase online these days. Many retailers are offering their goods and services to customers over the Internet and customers no longer have to spend hours wandering around shops or markets.

The business of shopping online has evolved to the point that even weekly grocery shopping can be done from the comfort of the buyer's home, saving them a lot of time, and often money. Goods can be purchased in just a few clicks and sent directly to the customer's homes, with some stores delivering in as little as a few hours.

There are many benefits of online shopping beyond just convenience and saving time. On the Internet, there are many alternatives offered to consumers and it is easy to browse around and compare deals in order to save money, with many sites also offering reviews of products purchased by others.

There has recently been a growth in the amount of product comparison websites on the market to enhance customers' shopping experiences and ensure they are getting the best deal available to them. There are no closing times on online stores, either, so customers have options to buy whatever they want 24 hours a day. The main disadvantage of online shopping is that customers are liable to pay shipping costs.

Over the last decade or so, more people have opted in to online shopping as Internet safety and security measures have increased and many people are no longer worried about entering their credit card details online.

Some people are still reluctant and sceptical about submitting their personal information over an Internet connection, but there are many security measures in place to ensure that their data remains private and secure. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is generally used to reduce identity theft and fraud by preventing credit card numbers being intercepted during transactions.

Before committing to buying anything online, though, the customer should make sure that they are shopping on a trusted site and that the data is being sent over a secure server. The URL in the address bar should begin with "https" as opposed to just "http". Shopping over a secure connection and from trusted and recommended retail will make a user's online shopping experience a lot easier and risk-free.

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How Website Seals Secure Your Website

At some point of time when you are on online, you might have visited a website and have seen some sort of security emblem present in the website. Most of people frequently see it and don't know what exactly it means. Majority of the people think that websites include a website seal only for the matter of making them more official, but in reality a security seal can mean a lot more than its appearance on the website for adding an official look.

The first thing you need to consider if you start a website is that whether it requires a website seal or not. If your website is concerned with business where personal information is being sent and received every now and then, then make sure that you have a security seal for your site. Website seal not only protects your website, it also protects the people who are submitting their personal information to your website.

If a particular website had determined that it needs a website seal, it needs to qualify for the privacy verified seal. The first step to do this is to contact the website security seal verification service.

Once you make contacts with them, the verification service will validates the given information as well as your website. Website seal service will then validates any SSL certificates. This SSL protocol was mainly developed for the purpose of securing personal information between browser and a server. What exactly this does is that it protects information that is sent from one place to other, thereby preventing the fear of information being hijacked.

Website security seal services will make sure the sites are valid if they have SSL certificate. Finally, the site seal service will check on the company's website. This is to ensure that there are no glitches in the website that would possibly allow the hijacking of personal information of customers. In addition a second test is done by the website seal service with regard to the websites order pages.

Consider this simple way to safe guard your business. It is very imperative that when your business is approved by a third party. This will surely increase sales and revenues out of your business. A survey which was recently conducted, stated that customer feel more safe when they purchase from websites that are secure and more reliable. Having a website seal for your website, there will be rapid sales of your business products.

On the other hand, if your business website is not safe guarded by a website seal, it is highly vulnerable to threats. You will be losing many buyers for the reason that your website is not protected by a website seal. You should know that most of the buyers are uncertain about making purchases from online shops. The only way to solve this problem is to win their trust. This can be achieved only through getting websites certified by concerned authorities. By this way, you will be able to gain more traffic as well the trust mark of your business.

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7 WordPress Security Tips

Most WordPress users think that the chance of getting attacked by a hacker is slim to none. The truth is that it happens more often than you think and unfortunately most people are not aware of that danger.

Have you noticed sometimes when searching on Google that some results are labeled "This site may harm your computer"? Those are websites that have been hacked and therefore blacklisted by Google. Needless to say, most users will freak out and might never visit your site again. Even if you manage to recover your site from such an attack, this would definitely give a bad reputation to your business.

I compiled a list of tips that can greatly improve the security of your WordPress website. Please note that the following tips apply to all versions of WordPress.

1. Use Strong Passwords

It may seem obvious but you would be amazed by how many users ignore this. No matter how much you work securing your website, a weak password can ruin everything. Your whole website's security is dependent on that password. Do not even bother reading the rest of this article if your password is not strong enough.

Here are 3 tips when selecting your password:

Use something as random as possible (no single words, birthdays, or personal information) Use at least eight characters. The longer the password the harder it is to guess Use a mix of upper and lower-case letters and numbers. Passwords are case-sensitive, so use that to your advantage.

2. Keep WordPress Always Updated

It goes without saying that you always have to update your WordPress installation. If a vulnerability is discovered the WordPress development team will fix it by releasing a new version. The problem is that now the vulnerability is known to everyone so old versions of WordPress are now more vulnerable to attacks.

In order to avoid becoming a target of such an attack it is a good idea to hide your WordPress version number. This number is revealed in page's meta data and in the readme.html file of your WordPress installation directory. In order to hide this number you have to delete the readme.html file and remove the version number for the header by adding the following line to your functions.php file of your theme folder.

<?php remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');?>

3. Beware of Malicious Themes or Plugins

Some themes and plugins contain buggy or even malicious code. Most of the time malicious code is hidden using encryption so it's not easily detectable. That's why you should only download them from trusted sources. Never install pirated/nulled themes/plugins and avoid the free ones unless they are downloaded from the official WordPress themes/plugins repository.

Malicious themes/plugins can add hidden backlinks on your site, steal login information and compromise your websites security in general.

4. Disable File Editing

WordPress gives administrators the right to edit theme and plugin files. This feature can be very useful for quick edits but it can also be useful to a hacker who manages to login to the administration dashboard. The attacker can use this feature to edit PHP files and execute malicious code. To disable this feature add the following line in the wp-config.php file.

define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

5. Secure wp-config.php

wp-config.php contains some important configuration setting and most importantly contains your database username and password. So it is crucial for the security of your WordPress website that nobody will have access to the contents of that file.

Under normal circumstances the content of that file are not accessible to the public. But it is a good idea to add an extra layer of protection by using.htaccess rules to deny HTTP requests to it.

just add this to the.htaccess file on your website root:

<files wp-config.php> order allow,deny deny from all </files>

6. Do not allow users to browse in your WordPress directories

Add the following line in the.htaccess file in the directory you installed WordPress:

Options -Indexes

This will disable directory browsing. In other words it will prevent anyone from getting the listing of files available in your directories without a index.html or index.php file.

7. Change username

Hackers know that the most common user name in WordPress is "admin". Therefore it is highly advisable to have a different username.

It is best to set your username during the installation process, because once the username is set it cannot be changed from inside the admin dashboard but there are two ways to get around this.

The first way is to add a new administrator user from the admin dashboard. Then log out and log in again as the new user. Go to the admin dashboard and delete the user named admin. WordPress will give you the option to attribute all posts and links to the new user.

If you are more tech-savvy you can change your username simply by executing an SQL query. Go to phpmyadmin select your database and submit the following query:

UPDATE wp_users SET user_login = 'NewUsername' WHERE user_login = 'admin';

It is important to keep in mind that even if you implement all my advice you can never be 100% protected from hackers. But the above tips should be sufficient to decrease the chances of getting hacked.

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How Online Reputation Management Enhances Internet Privacy

Privacy continues to be a major concern for individuals on the internet. Everyone should know to look for an "s" at the end of the "HTTP" part of a domain name when browsing the web to make sure that the website they are about to send information to is secure. Unfortunately, many may not realize that their information is still vulnerable. Hackers have infiltrated some of the most secure websites, stealing log-in details for accounts with large organizations such as LinkedIn. Conventional tips for protecting one's internet privacy include using different passwords on different sites, using a single bill-paying website instead of entering credit card information into an unfamiliar site, and not opening emails from senders one does not recognize. Taking the proper precautionary measures is no longer enough anymore. Internet users must constantly be vigilant to make sure that sensitive information has not been made publicly available. The best way to protect one's internet privacy is through the use of proper reputation management techniques.

Proper Reputation Management Techniques

Reputation management is the collection of techniques and strategies that an individual uses to ensure that his online reputation, what those on the internet think of them, portrays himself in a positive way. Individuals usually obtain a poor online reputation when damaging, inappropriate content becomes associated with their name. For instance, if a college student is in a photo drinking from a beer bong, Google could index that photo and prevent the student from landing a job once he graduates. Alternatively, an individual who uses Twitter to complain about past online dating partners will eliminate this chance of landing another date as potential suitors come across those tweets. Here are a few reputation management techniques that will help individuals reclaim internet privacy:

- Google yourself. Conducting a quick Google search of one's name is a great way to find out what employers, friends, family members, and strangers see when they search for that individual. If one sees content he does not want publicly available (whether it is private information or something reflects negatively on him) he will know to devote his efforts to removing it.

- Set up a Google alert. Google alerts are a great tool for keeping track of what is being said about someone or something. By setting up a Google alert for one's name, one will receive emails from Google whenever that name is mentioned online. This way the individual will find out right away when negative or private information makes its way online.

- Hire a reputation management firm. Recently an entire industry has emerged in order to help individuals to clean up their online reputations. Using tools like public relations and search engine optimization, these companies will find out what is being said or shared about a specific client and remove or suppress that information. Hiring one of these firms is the most effective way for someone to regain control of his or her reputation.

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PPTP Is an Easy-To-Implement Solution

PPTP is an easy-to-implement solution, but it also provides the lowest level of security. If you are configuring a VPN connection into a sensitive network, you shouldn't use PPTP. It's an acceptable solution for home wireless implementations if you are using it to secure the connection between the wireless client and your network. However, WPA is much easier to implement devices come with PPTP servers built in and may be used for remote access to your private network.

L2TP is a more secure, and also more complex, protocol than PPTP. The most important thing to remember is when you use L2TP, you need to use IPSec in conjunction with it to provide encryption to the tunnel. L2TP establishes the tunnel, and IPSec policies dictate the encryption rules. In a Microsoft environment, L2TP and IPSec is much more difficult to configure than PPTP; however, if you require the security they provide, you need to master these configuration challenges.

SSH is a little different than the previous two, in that it is implemented within an application. The most popular and secure version of SSH is SSH2 (Secure Shell version 2), and it is often used to secure FTP and Telnet traffic. By default, FTP and Telnet send their authentication packets as clear text. On a wireless network without encryption, this is a huge problem. You can either enable encryption or use an SSH-compatible FTP or Telnet client and server.

Even on a wired network, it is dangerous to use standard FTP or Telnet as an administrator. Though it may be more difficult to intercept than it is on the wireless LAN, data can be intercepted on the wired network. The best practice is to use secure channels any time you perform administrative functions. Use SSH-compatible admin tools or create a VPN connection in which you perform the administrative functions.

The most common implementation of VPN technology, as it relates to wireless LANS, is in public hotspots. Public hotspots generally use unencrypted communications with wireless clients because it allows for simpler configuration. Imagine if users who wanted to connect to the hotspot had to configure WEP keys or WPA passphrases. They would be required to go to a service desk and acquire the needed information.

Then they would have to reconfigure their wireless client to use these settings. The complexity would keep many novice users from taking advantage of the hotspot and would reduce the benefits of providing the service in the first place.

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DEA Extortion Cons - Online Pharmacies Let Criminals In

Online pharmacies are on the rise, and so is the number of people going to them to fill their prescriptions. Even with insurance, necessary medications can be very expensive. The economy being the way it is now, most of us don't have that kind of money anymore. Online pharmacies often fill your prescriptions at a far cheaper rate than your local Walgreens or CVS. They also usually don't require a prescription from your doctor. It sounds like a good deal, but most of these pharmacies are running against U.S. pharmacy laws. You're careful when you order your medications, but not too careful. You might not even know that these pharmacies are operating illegally.

And then you get the phone call. A DEA Agent is on the other line. He warns you that he knows you're buying prescriptions from illegal online pharmacies, and that you're going to jail. He knows all of your information, he knows which medications you ordered and he knows where you live. He might even show up at your doorstep. It's not uncommon. On the phone, he says he'll find you. But you have a choice, you can be arrested, or pay a fine.

It's almost a no-brainer. The fine is very hefty, but would you rather go to jail? You offer to pay willingly, seeing no other option. Then the DEA Agent asks you to wire the money to him via a money order. That's odd. Doesn't really seem like the way the DEA would handle money.

Probably because it's not. If you're in this situation, you've probably been scammed. It all seemed so real. How did they have your information? How did they know what your prescription was? The answer, unfortunately, isn't a pleasant one. They most likely run the online pharmacy you ordered from. They have your name, your address, your credit card or bank account number. They know your order. They call you, sounding cool and calm, and threaten you with imprisonment unless you pay them money. In some cases they'll even show up at your house with the same intimidating plan. But they aren't real. These online pharmacy extortion scams have been increasing and the real DEA has put out press releases and warnings against them.

Be careful when buying any medication online or over the telephone. It is a felony to impersonate a law official, and the DEA is out to get these criminals. DEA Agents will never contact you by phone or ask you for any sort of payment. Do not give these people your money. If you think you've been scammed, or you know someone who has, please contact the DEA Office of Diversion and report the scam at 1-877-792-2873.

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Tips to Reduce Chargebacks and Credit Card Fraud

Credit card fraud and chargebacks are fast becoming major merchant concerns, and the statistics are rising. Credit card validation and other security measures are no longer just optional - fraud is a very serious matter for business, especially engaged in e-commerce that, while flourishing, pose a growing number of challenges.

Chargebacks are a fearsome reality: they are reversed transactions due to a variety of reasons, including expired cards, double-charging, bank errors, and customer disputes. A merchant account can be lost because of too many chargebacks. But there are ways to reduce instances of chargebacks and fraud or potentially eliminate the risk, including credit card validation and these other nuggets of wisdom.

Common sense is a great friend. If the customer is present, examine the credit card closely. Check the expiration date and signature panel, and check the customer's ID if the card doesn't carry a signature. Verify the CVC2 and CVV2 verification numbers, too. The back of MasterCard and most Visa and Discover cards carry a three-digit security code, while American Express has a similar 4-digit code. You may check with your payment gateway provider for further details.

To validate credit card information is smart, but using address validation provides added benefits. The Address Verification System (AVS) matches entered address on the order form with the cardholder's address on the billing statement. And since AVS has been developed only for the United States for now, scrutinize orders from developing countries, since a large percentage of fraudulent online transactions are made of these developing foreign countries.

If you are using a third-party processor, let your customers know what name will appear on statements to eliminate confusion. This is because the company name that appears is usually that of the third-party processing company and not the company name of the site where they made the purchase. Suspicious orders should also be paid attention to; either you call or e-mail the customer to verify the order that has been placed.

Signatures are a great security detail, so if your company delivers products that use a carrier requiring signature on delivery, retain the records. You may also want to request from your customer fax copies of both sides of their credit card. This technique usually works excellently in B2B transactions.

Free email addresses, like those from Yahoo and Hotmail, are almost impossible to track, so you must be extra wary of orders placed through them.

A warning message will work on your Order page in helping ward off those who attempt making a fraudulent order. Reiterate that IP addresses are being logged, and that you can trace their identity through these IP addresses when needed.

Check BIN as well through high-quality tools like a programmable, XML Web service used by online businesses to integrate credit card and location validation into their online software applications and business processes. Through credit card validation, companies can improve business results through better insight of credit card information, reduced chargebacks, and fraud prevention.

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The Malware Threat Landscape Creates an Increasing Need for Strong Authentication

If a polymorphic financial malware variant does not make sense to you, then it is doing its job. With the malware threat landscape growing rapidly through new malicious applications, it is very difficult to keep up with terminology for the majority of computer users. It is estimated by The Aite Group that 25 million new types of malware were distributed in 2011 and the number could possibly rise to 87 million released per year by 2015. So what is a polymorphic financial malware variant? Why is it increasing the need for better online banking security and ultimately the overall need for strong authentication?

Polymorphic just means the malware is ever-changing, constantly growing into a more malicious and nefarious program to steal information. Some variants are targeted to hijack browser sessions and in extremely targeted attacks they are solely financial based. The real threat behind these new forms of software used to trick internet banking users is that they are incredibly hard to detect and get rid of.

Shylock is the name of a sophisticated new malware which hi-jacks financial live chat sessions to impersonate a member of the bank and steal confidential data which can be used for greater attacks. This is considered a browser-based man-in-the-middle attack which is very deceptive and effective.

It is the new form of phishing since traditional phishing attacks required a user to visit the false site through some sort of initiation. These phishing sites are now quick to be taken down and often blacklisted before too much damage can be made so hackers needed a new trap. Now instead of initiating the victim to visit a hacked website, the malware lays dormant hiding until the user accesses a secured banking application. By being between the user and the bank this man-in-the-middle attack allows the thief to ask personal questions to steal confidential data. This is a combination of social engineering and hacking.

Malware is becoming so sophisticated that the programs can now avoid antivirus scans. Shylock actually utilizes 3 ways of staying active on an infected machine while also being undetectable. Instead of the software running its own process it instead latches onto every other application on the victim's machine, effectively hiding in the memory. Even with an up-to-date anti-virus detection is still not a solution because the program will actually detect when a scan has started. By removing all files on the computer related to the malware it can avoid detection however the application remains hidden in the memory still active. Now that the program is hidden from antivirus software it is still hidden deep in the victim's computer and has actually taken over the window shutdown process. During shutdown of the computer all files are recreated for the next time the user starts up their device.

If a victim's computer can be hijacked without them knowing and the malicious software running undetected can be reinstated at startup then how secure could any security process be? Strong authentication which utilizes an out-of-band authentication method can protect against these types of man-in-the-middle attacks by separating a piece of the login process from the malware. Through a time based one-time password banks can securely identify a user by transmitting the OTP to the customer's mobile phone. Not only does this remove a piece of the login credential from malware but it provides the customer with an alert when access is requested.

It has been said by Kaspersky Labs that 780 new malware applications are created everyday to siphon confidential financial data. This means man-in-the-middle attacks such as this are more common on the horizon as the malware threat landscape becomes more aggressive. Without effective, efficient and customer friendly security adoption of another process may not be easy. Strong authentication which utilizes an out-of-band one-time password not only provides a low-cost solution but also creates a notification platform for online banking access.

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The Future of SOPA

SOPA did not make it. The bill lauded as the cure to online piracy did not pass, but has it really gone away? Most internet users were confronted with many popular web sites self-censoring in protest of the act. This protest was successful as both SOPA and PIPA did not make it into law. So, what was the uproar about?

At first glance, both bills seem like they were legitimate solutions to the issues of online piracy. SOPA, short for Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, short for Protect Intellectual Property Act, had several flaws that overshadowed any positive potential.

The bills targeted web sites primarily foreign websites which peddle or cater to the pirate market. Such sites were frequently labeled, "rogue." As with many bills, the devil was in the details of SOPA. On the surface, who wouldn't want to stop piracy of any form? The real issues came in the fine print. Much of the verbage, as it was authored, was open to interpretation and that could mean much trouble for many online.

For example, if web sites were reported or found to be dedicated to piracy of intellectual property, the major search engines would be forced to completely remove them. This would also mean legitimate web sites could indeed be on the chopping block.

Technically, copyrighted works are already protected on the internet. An act called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in 1998 and it clearly dictates enforcement measures. SOPA goes beyond that. Supporters of SOPA say the DMCA has no influence or jurisdiction against overseas entities.

SOPA takes web regulation up to a new level. If web sites, believed to be illegally distributing copyrighted works, refuse to take the content down, other measures can be taken. What if you can also stop companies in the United States from offering services to those web sites? What if you can restrict their traffic, through the search engines, to the point that no clients in the United States can even find those web sites?

SOPA made web sites responsible for what users do. For example, an overseas version of YouTube could be held accountable if one of their members posts a work that is considered to be copyright infringement. The broad use of language prompted many to take drastic and immediate action against the bill.

It is believed the overzealous nature of the bill would grind the internet to a halt. Tech companies and like-minded individuals were concerned that innocent sites might be penalized before any due process is observed.

The process is stringent. Every network operator in the arena of payments or advertising must arrange a process to verify that no sites within the company or its customers is infringing upon intellectual property. If such a site is located, the service provider has 5 days to cut off all service to that particular customer. Could people charge rival web sites with infringement? Absolutely, they could. The owner of the web site accused would also be responsible for the burden of proof as well as all fines, fees and legal charges that stem from fighting those allegations.

Perhaps, the greatest bit of information we can take away is that while the act did favor the copyright owner, it could also strip innocent web site owners of their rights.

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The Importance Of Website Security - Safeguard Your Business And Website

Online business owners are regularly trying hard to enhance their business security level. Well, one of the most important things to remember here is that by enhancing the website security one can easily enhance the total amount of sales. Most of the customers claim that they decide upon a particular website after considering their level of safety. If you consider your website as your second home then website security is very important. By going for complete website security one can easily safeguard his/her business and website in the best probable way. In this article, we are going to talk about website security in detail.

Internet is a big platform for diverse growth and activities. A large number of hackers and malware are also present on the internet and this is the reason why you should go for it all the time. Crafting a comprehensive official website over time requires a lot of dedication and hard work. Well, losing your website can be very devastating for your business. Therefore, you need to look out for some effective ways of protecting your website and business.

If you operate your business entirely on the internet then website security becomes even more important for you. I can assure you one thing that once you secure your website in the best possible way you would be able to ensure higher sales and profits. Well, with absolute trust and high quality services you can easily win over the customers in double quick time. Even customers prefer dealing with companies that have secured websites.

Now, let us talk about a few things in regard to the importance of website security. Some of the benefits of it are: You can easily protect the loss of traffic by making full use of website security, all your information remains safe in every sense, you can increase the company sales when the website is completely secured, you can easily avoid money hungry computer hackers if you opt for website security online and can ensure complete customer satisfaction.

You need to understand one thing that if you don't opt for website security then you might be the victim of loss of brand value and complete loss of customer confidence. Besides, all these things website security would ensure higher conversion rate and higher amount of profits. You can also avoid the risk of viruses and Trojans. So, these are a few important points regarding the importance of it. We can easily say that security means trust and in order to attract more traffic and visitors you need to offer them complete safety.

There are several levels of security that can be taken up. Basically, you need to choose a security system according to the needs of your enterprise. Some of the different security types are: managing your website over several encrypted connections, a suitable anti - virus freeware, proper verifying of website against trust seals and privacy policies, having complete PCI scans and keeping your website updated all the time. You need to do everything that you can in order to enhance the security level of your company and website. This will certainly help you to boost up your sales and profits a great deal!

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SSL Certificates - Do You Need One For Your Site?

SSL stands for secure socket layer and is a protocol for managing the secure interactions between a web browser and a web server; it works by encrypting such information as credit card numbers, logins, passwords and the like. Banks and online merchants use SSL to maintain the security of their websites.

If you sell products or services directly from your site and except credit card payments it's a good idea to have SSL; it instills confidence in your customers by making them feel safe to use their credit cards on your website. SSL is also necessary if you have created a Canvas or Page Tab app in facebook, such as a welcome page. Facebook requires secure connections to ensure all those using HTTPS (SSL cert.) still have the same functionality of HTTP users (non-secured).

Before you can begin you will need to verify that your hosting account supports SSL. You will also need to purchase an SSL certificate from a retailer; be aware that there are many grades of SSL certificates to choose from, most people will do fine with the basic level. Once you've purchased a certificate you will need to install it onto your server.

There are a number of methods to install SSL onto your server depending on the type of software your hosting company uses. This article will go over installing SSL using cPanel. CPanel is a web-based administration tool that is supplied by many hosting companies and is used to setup and control a web page or site.

Private Keys

The first step is to create a private key. A private key is a string of characters that a computer uses to encode or decode encrypted messages it receives. The private key file must be used with the specific SSL certificate for which it is created. This private key is secret and should not be given out. There is no way to recover a private key file if it is lost.

Login to your cPanel control panel, the information on how to do this was supplied by your hosing company. Click on SSL / TLS Manager Icon in the security window. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the domain name you want the SSL installed on. Select the key size, the bigger the key the more secure. Finally, click Generate to create your new key and click "Return to SSL Manager".

SSL Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

A CSR is a request which you send to a certificate retailer asking them to grant you an SSL certificate. You must have a key before generating a CSR.

Under "Generate a New Certificate Signing Request" select the Host; the site the SSL is to be installed on.

Fill in all the required information

Country State City Company - you can use the name of your website. Company Division - you can use the niche you are working in. Email address - this is where the SSL certificate will be sent Pass Phrase - Not required, it's a challenge password used by Apache at startup to decrypt your SSL private key.

Once all the information is complete click the "Generate" button to create the certificate. Make a copy of the CSR, you will need it when purchasing the SSL certificate and then click "Return to SSL Manager".

Purchase SSL Certificate

Cpanel is now ready to accept a new SSL certificate. Do a search for "SSL certificates" to find a retailer.

Purchase a certificate and fill in the required information. You will be asked to paste the CSR that you generated in cPanel into a form to complete the transaction. Confirm you are the site owner - each retailer will be a bit different, some may have phone confirmation others will have email or both. Once you have confirmed you are the owner of the site the retailer will send you the SSL certificate and an intermediate CA certificate which you will install using cPanel.

Install the Certificate

Know that you have all the certificates you are ready to install them on cPanel. Copy the certificates you received from your retailer and the key you generated at the beginning into a word pad document for easy access.

Go back to cPanel and the SSL / TLS Manger Click the "Setup a SSL certificate to work with your site" at the bottom of the page. If this link does not appear contact your hosting company. Select your domain from the drop down menu. Copy the SSL Certification and paste it into the "Certificate (CRT)" window. Copy the Key and paste it into the "Key (KEY)" window. Copy the intermediate CA and paste it into the "Ca Bundle (CABUNDLE) window.

With all the certificates and the key in place click the "Install Certificate" button. If no errors where made you will get a confirmation that the SSL certificate was installed. Keep in mind that each retailer may name the certificates in a slightly different manner.

If the retailer has a site seal that you can apply to your website that confirms you have SSL, I suggest doing so because it gives your visitors and customer's piece of mind while they shop on your site.

If you run into a problem simply erase and start again, cPanel looks very intimidating but it is fairly user friendly. Give yourself a few hours to accomplish the entire process from shopping for the certificate to the installation. With the SSL installed your customers can now shop on your site with the confidence that their private information is safe.

Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses   Protect Your Privacy With Reputation Management   Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   

Online Safety Tips - Why You Shouldn't Give Out Personal Information

Online safety is a very important factor today.

Social interaction and business online is something we all enjoy because the internet is easy to use, works fast and you can accomplish much in a short time. Cruising online is how we spend hours - in average at least 1 hour and 20 minutes every day on Social Media - and for many it is much longer time.

One of the challenges on the internet is the data of yours that not only you but also everybody else can see and access.

YOUR ONLINE SAFETY WHERE THERE IS PUBLIC ACCESS

Most people are active every day on Social Media like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ and a great number of other places. These all give public access to your personal information, which means that everybody all over the world can see what you post and keep your posts as long as it pleases them and use it any way they want.

In other words: Whatever you say from the first time you post anything online will stay there forever for anyone to see.

Your Online Safety is depending on what you give out of personal information, not only the obvious like yours or your kids name, age, address, social security number, debit or creditcard numbers, email, phone numbers and much more is personal information, but also personal opinions are personal information. Forgetting this can in some situations create a long-term liability for you.

Public employed like teachers and private employed who in a moment of negative feelings let go of online safety and post something bad about their bosses or workplace have either lost their job or gotten into a lot of trouble that can seriously affect their future economy.

THERE ARE NO SECRETS ONLINE

I have a question for you: Do you allow your parents or your kids to read your diary?

I don't think you do. We all have "secrets" we sometimes share in special moments with a partner or a best-friend. However remember if you tell even you best friend online a secret, it is no longer a secret.

Not because your friend is letting you down, but because you don't control other peoples online safety level and therefore don't know what might happen to whatever you send out.

The moment something leaves your control-area like your own secured computer it is literally out of your control.

GIVING ACCESS TO A SMALLER GROUP

This can be emails you send to family, friends or a business client. Even if this is online personal mail it can still without any hacker be seen by many other people than you intended, and mail can be easy to crack for a hacker, especially if you have been redundant with your passwords.

Be also careful with e-mail you receive with no subject or from somebody you don't know. Don't open and if you do don't give out any information.

YOU HAVE A WEBSITE

Being a business you want to be open and give good information on your website, but that should not involve your personal address, phone number, e-mail and more.

Your e-mail might very fast get spammed, which means you have to spend time and money to get rid of all that on a regular basis. It can further be misused - hackers send mail out so it looks as if it comes from you - and this is something I believe you don't want to happen.

Instead of your e-mail have a "contact-us" page from where people can send you an e-mail without you disclosing an e-mail address on your website.

YOU ENTER OTHER WEBSITES

Here it is just as important to be careful especially if you are asked to provide personal information. Like when I entered several websites to find the best price for an insurance on my car and among the sites a well-known car-insurance company. Four months after this I received a bill from them for "my car-insurance" that I never signed up for. It did take me much time and trouble to get rid of this insurance they signed me up for without my knowledge and with only my name and address.

PHOTOS ONLINE BECOME INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT

Especially if your website is a personal site with family albums and lots of pictures you probably want to add names to. This can also be abused so be especially careful naming and aging your kids online.

ECONOMIC POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF REDUNDANCY WITH PERSONAL INFORMATION ONLINE

Stolen identity is the worst situation and if that should ever happen to you then it might take you years, time and money to get rid of the sometimes devastating consequences of it. Furthermore false information might stay in records you don't even know about the rest of your life.

Fraud by withdrawing money from your bank account could be made look like some kind of purchase you did - even if you didn't - and the money has been send to some account on some far away island in another country. With your name, bank account number, social security number and address on the purchase this is a tough situation for you to make disappear.

There are many other dishonest ways your personal information can be misused. Do not underestimate Scam-artist's creativity level. They can and will do things you don't even dream about in your worst nightmare, that is if you let them get the opportunity.

ALL THIS IS NOT SAID TO MAKE YOU STOP USING THE INTERNET

Using the Internet every day is like everything else, play by the rules and you will be alright.

So go on having fun and useful activity online with family, friends and in business, but do it in such a way that you and everybody depending on you can feel safe when cruising online.

Pia Balling

Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses   Protect Your Privacy With Reputation Management   Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   Why Ignoring IDS Could Lead to Substantial Damage for Businesses   

VPN Service Becomes Necessary As Monitoring Becomes Rampant

Earlier this month, the UK announced that they were going to start monitoring their citizens internet, email, and phone communications. The U.S. Congress has another privacy invading bill, CISPA, that enables the monitoring of Americans. The RIAA and several ISP's have made an agreement to monitor the ISP customers. Censorship and monitoring by the governments and corporate entities has become rampant. VPN service popularity has risen massively over the last year, and it's not difficult to see why.

An Escalation Of Events

A VPN Service can prevent situations like this:

I used to keep my personal home Wifi open for all the kids, and others in my neighborhood...I mean, the kids that play around my house really don't want to go all the way home just to get a song that they were trying to let their friends check out. This created a friendly atmosphere of cooperation in my neighborhood. But, with the program being implemented, I can no longer allow this. If one of the kids, or another person, uses my internet connection, and downloads copyrighted, or illegal, material I have to accept the blame...it is my account. For the moment, I have choked the stream to reduce the chance any kind of activity like this, and informed those that have asked of my dilemma.

Outside Of The Government Nosiness

A VPN service can help in situations like this:

Your company has decided to invest in the infrastructure of a country in the mid-east. While the trip will be relatively safe as far as physically speaking goes, you will need to access sensitive data back home, and possibly internet websites that could be filtered by the local regime. There is also the possibility of competitors attempting to gain corporate bidding information... A VPN service will not only keep you safe from corporate hackers, but you will be able to get any information from the internet in complete security and privacy.

Potential Problems In The Future

A VPN service can save you from possible employee issues:

Your ISP is Comcast, who has been monitoring all your internet communications, (with zero incidents and no VPN service, congratulations,) but suddenly after you have been with them 3 years, one of their employees has absconded with the records of more than 2,000 customers...meaning, the person has log-ins for all the bank accounts, credit card, and any other financial and account information that person may have ever used on the internet. These records would likely contain social security numbers, birth dates, maiden names, and an infinite amount of other information.

Privacy Isn't A Guarantee - Not Anymore

It's not just the hackers anymore. It seems that the government has far farther reaching aspirations than even the most notorious of the internet pirates and thieves. But it seems that way in almost everything they get in to.

Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses   Protect Your Privacy With Reputation Management   Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security   Why Ignoring IDS Could Lead to Substantial Damage for Businesses   

How To Keep Users and Data Safe On The Web

The internet continues to become a very high risk place due to the advanced hacking and criminal activities being perpetrated on users of the internet whether they are individuals or they are businesses. For the businesses internet security tips have become necessary in order to protect their clients and users and most importantly the data that falls into their possession. Businesses are the prime targets for cyber criminals for the sole reason that the businesses must be handling sensitive information regarding payments and that the business when hijacked can be used to scam its clients. The protection of users and that of data on the web is a function of comprehensive use of security measures and software both on the computers, network as well as servers. It is also a factor of the use of common sense where this means that some cyber attacks can be forestalled through the everyday activities that are made on the internet.

Since nobody is in a position to know when and how data is going to be lost and this is data which has been solicited from users and clients and other form of data which is also sensitive to the business, then being on the safe side is paramount. To protect the data that a business holds or even personal data, a few steps must be taken and most important the use of security applications have to be implemented to secure data. At the present time, data security even takes a twist arising from the fact that the many people and businesses are going for the data on the cloud services. Here are some simple steps which can be used to protect sensitive and confidential data as well as the users some of whom present this data.

The first step has to be identifying the sensitive data which must be protected at all available cost. This goes further into knowing what kind of information that it is for example it could be credit card information. Subsequent to this, the other step is that of identifying the computers and the servers which are committed to dealing with this information. Files should be secured with a strong password which should be changed frequently to make them remain safe.

It is easier and more important to save the data that is isolated from all other forms of data both important and other data that is just routine information. Fewer copies of data are easy to protect and this is true if they are separated from the rest of the data or from the whole network involved.

Important data should be encrypted using the available applications or the security suites availed by the internet security companies and develop and vend software. This is part and parcel of data usages and transmission.

The use of the SSL (secure sockets layer) connection is one such important method of ensuring data integrity and security when receiving and when transmitting the data especially credit card information and financial information. This is a secure and an encrypted connection which will help in the protection of sensitive data.

A security policy which must be within the highest possible level must be formulated for the business so that this becomes the informing document and the culture that should be instilled within the business or company. This becomes important in the preset day when many people and employees could be using the social networking sites as well as the smart phones and the tablets which pose a serious threat to the security of data and networks. The policy will also inform which applications to be downloaded and they must be from reliable sources only to prevent installation of suspicious programs.

The use of the best available firewall application is necessary to avoid infiltration of the network. It will allow the running of different programs in a secure manner. It is also important that a wireless network becomes secured to avoid unauthorized entry into the system.

The use of antivirus and all other software like the antispyware and the antimalware should never be taken lightly. The software must be up to date and when possible security patches should be added to ensure that security is absolutely tight. This way the computers and systems are tight from security breaches.

Web filtering is one last way through which you can get to work towards monitoring traffic both incoming and that leaving business. Threats are becoming complex in the manner in which internet use has expanded and criminals are now found everywhere in addition to traditional places where they were found.

Keeping users and business data secure is about getting the most appropriate security services and the use of a comprehensive security policy for the business. Kaspersky internet security software is the most effective software which can be used to secure the business networks and devices allowing that it is able to protect both its clients and the data especially through the encrypted datavaults that permit the business to securelystore and transfer sensitive files.

Reality Overtakes Fiction: We Are Already at War, Albeit Electronic, But War All the Same   An Explanation of CISPA for Small Businesses   Protect Your Privacy With Reputation Management   Top 5 Reasons to Check Website Security