Archive for July, 2010

OSCON 2010 – From Portland to You

by FireHost Evangelist on July 30th, 2010

FireHost OSCON BoothOSCON 2010 was a very interesting and inspiring mix of independent developers and large companies.

We encountered very cool technology and some impressive talent from around the world. We’re glad to have participated at the Silver Sponsor level because it gave us a chance to interact with most all of the attendees and participants on some level. Here are the highlights from the show:

  • We met with several companies who are pioneering processes to ingest, analyze, and regurgitate quality information from TB’s of raw data stored remotely. Learning about these truly impressive database analytics projects helped us realize that significant change is on the horizon for advertising and medical industries.
  • Jon Johns at O’Reilly invested a generous amount of time interacting with us. He helped shed light on the sense of purpose and spirit that embodies the open-source community. He’s a very passionate individual and really helped us embrace the foundational idea of open source – doing something as an individual or team that can change the world in degrees.
  • We met a 12-year old webmaster.  How cool is that?
  • Our booth looked GREAT. Our marketing team did a bang up job on the graphics and messaging.
  • Our schwag (custom printed toilet paper and casino-quality playing cards) produced a reaction, and what more could you ask from inanimate objects?

Overall, it was a fun and rewarding show. The FireHost crew stayed insanely busy, but at the end of the day, we’d do OSCON again.

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HostingCon 2010: The Download

by FireHost Evangelist on July 29th, 2010

HostingCon 2010

Last week, several members of the FireHost team made the long, arduous trip from Dallas to Austin for HostingCon 2010. Here’s the insiders perspective on the “who” and “what” from the event this year.

Meeting up with industry friends and partners was certainly the overall highlight of HostingCon 2010. Interfacing with our peers, competitors, and service providers was a great reminder of how many truly awesome people and companies exist in the hosting industry.

For Fun

The Planet‘s booth provided a very entertaining “assemble a Dell server as fast as you can” challenge. The whole spectacle got quite a bit of attention, and our very own Chris Hinkley was the fourth fastest assembler on the final day of the event. (Unfortunately, only 1st-3rd place received a prize, so the accomplishment will only live on in his mind.)

The Trustwave booth’s theme for 2010 was “Knock Out High Prices”. Cool concept, and they actually had a boxing ring setup where attendees could hop in the ring and punch a guy with a “high prices” t-shirt. It drew a lot of attention, but very few people were brave enough to hop in to take a swing. So on the last day, Trustwave brought in some semi-pro wrestlers to help drive the message home.

On a More Serious Note

Security topics dominated many of the sessions and discussions. As well, “the cloud” in general was a hot topic. It seems industry-wide, multiple definitions of “cloud” exist, and compared to last year, even more interpretations have come to light. That’s somewhat counter intuitive since you’d expect a more concise explanation would emerge over time.

Collectively, our team walked away confident that FireHost is leading the secure web hosting pack, and we have a “golden opportunity” to help real businesses solve compliance challenges and achieve a higher level of security in general. We’re excited to be pioneering an affordable, scalable secure hosting solution for companies of all sizes.

All-in-all, HostingCon 2010 was a fantastic event. The relationships, the knowledge, the partnerships, the industry insight, and even the time spent “car pooling” was a valuable opportunity for team building.

See you in San Diego!

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Commemorating Our 100th Blog Post

by FireHost Evangelist on July 28th, 2010

100 Blog PostsWe’re not completely certain this is a “big deal”, but anything that is “100″ just seems grand. Since the FireHost team is made up of high-energy, spirited, entrepreneurial types driven by the foundational business principles of marketing, we’re using this “event” as an opportunity to showcase news, brag, grand-stand, and the whole bit. What can we say? We’re shameless proponents of our brand.

The process of determining how to commemorate this grand occasion was… entertaining (at least to us). So for your amusement, here are some of the ideas that didn’t make the cut:

  • We could reveal our secret Secure Server sauce.
  • We could raffle deprecated hardware for charity.
  • We could post pictures from the company picnic.
  • We could post pictures from AFTER the company picnic.
  • We could give our semi-professional review of Inception.
  • We could post high school yearbook pictures of our CEO.
  • We could discuss the weather in Texas and Arizona. (It’s hot. End of discussion.)
  • We could TP our competition with #NMD toilet paper, and post the photos.

We considered all of these (bad) ideas (and more), but in the end we determined the best use of this space might be creating a concise recap of all the other mediums by which our loyal blog readers can stay updated about FireHost’s initiatives, news, services, strides, and successes in the Secure Web Hosting marketplace.

On the Web

In the News

In Social Media

For Support

We invite you to explore each outlet and hope you can use and appreciate each one for it’s intended purpose. Please feel free to reach out to us via any medium any time the urge strikes.

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My Child’s Locket Chooses Secure Web Hosting

by FireHost Evangelist on July 27th, 2010

Back in February, My Child’s Locket chose our Secure Servers as the home for their web-based personal information store. We (and they) are happy to report that their service is growing and doing well, and that our hosting services are living up to their needs and expectations.

In a recent interview, founders Jay Osterholt and Jeff Moore talked with WCPO-TV in Cincinnati about My Child’s Locket’s capabilities and the role Secure Web Hosting plays in protecting their clients’ identities.

We’re so proud to be protecting this and other businesses who need shelter from malicious hacker activity. Thanks for the trust.

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Decoding PCI DSS Requirement 3: Protect Stored Cardholder Data at Rest

by FireHost Evangelist on July 16th, 2010

Credit card data is just as vulnerable to hackers when it’s resting, as when it’s in use. Provisions in Requirement 3 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) direct web application developers and IT departments to ensure personal account numbers (PANs) are protected, even after the purchase is made.

The mandates for protecting cardholder data at rest seem rather straight forward, but taking them at face value could be a mistake. Many factors about your company’s or your client’s business determine how this requirement is followed.

3.1 – Store Only Necessary Cardholder Data; Store Cardholder for the Minimum Time Possible

Section 3.1 says to store only necessary cardholder data and to store it for the minimum time possible. Data storage requirements may vary depending upon the nature of your company’s or client’s business. For example, businesses that provide single use products, or a service offering that is only likely to be used one time should probably not store cardholder data at all, or at most for a very short period.

On the other hand, subscription- or recurring billing-based businesses are on the rise. Invoicing and charging customers “automatically” every month has become a common reality for millions of software as a service (SaaS) companies today. When you have repeat customers, the idea of having your customers resubmit payment details on a regular basis is not just inconvenient, it’s inconceivable. Therefore, businesses that cater to repeat customers have some special considerations to address, and because of the retention schedule, these companies go beyond the provisions of the standard to protect cardholder data when possible.

In either scenario, your company must develop and enforce a PAN disposal policy containing:
- A definition of what data is being stored;
- A definition of the time period for which this data is stored;
- A procedure for disposing of data after that time period has expired.

(more…)

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