Posts Tagged ‘Secure Web Hosting’
by FireHost Evangelist on August 11th, 2010
We are!
SXSW Interactive is a “must attend” event for developers, designers, web marketers, and anyone else who does business online. Last year, almost 40,000 registered to attend, and 2011 is projected to be even bigger. The schedule reveals numerous opportunities for attendees to interact with the brightest minds in emerging technology. Networking events. Speaking events. Live music. A tradeshow. SXSW covers the whole gamut.
FireHost is vying for a speaker placement, and we need your help getting picked. If you’re planning to attend SXSW and have concerns about the security and integrity of your personal or corporate identity online, cast your vote for our presentation at Panelpicker.sxsw.com.
Our proposed topic answers the questions:
- How is the security landscape changing online?
- Is building a corporate blog on and open source platform like WordPress safe?
- How could some of the devastating hacks like TechCrunch have been avoided?
- How do I find security vulnerabilities in my web application?
- What role does secure web hosting play in keeping my site safe?
- What are the most common developer mistakes that lead to cybercrime in open source?
Read the full synopsis and cast your vote at Panelpicker.sxsw.com.
We’ll see you in Austin.
Tags: Hosting for Open Source Applications, protect open source applications, Secure Web Hosting, SXSW 2011, SXSW Austin Texas
Posted in: FireHost News | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on July 30th, 2010
OSCON 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.
Tags: Open Source Conference, OSCON 2010, OSCON Portland, Secure Web Hosting
Posted in: FireHost News | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on July 29th, 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!
Tags: Hosting Industry Events, HostingCon 2010, HostingCon Austin, Secure Web Hosting
Posted in: FireHost News | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on July 28th, 2010
We’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.
Tags: Chris Drake, FireBlog, FireHost, Secure Web Hosting, Web Hosting News
Posted in: FireHost News | No Comments »
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.
Tags: Identity Protection, My Child's Locket, Secure Web Hosting, Secure Websites
Posted in: FireHost News, Web Hosting | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on June 22nd, 2010
If I wanted to hack your eCommerce business, I’d have your help. It’s a fact that no one runs a business from one location (or one computer) anymore. In today’s world work gets done everywhere – in offices, at home, in a hotel, at the airport, while sipping mocha and siphoning Internet connectivity from a coffee shop.
Security risks increase when your business moves outside of the safety net of your main workplace. Mobile executives carry sensitive data around with them, and often times open it up to vulnerabilities just for the sake of convenience.
It all seems perfectly innocent. Connecting to wireless Internet in your hotel room, or syncing up to free wi-fi in a restaurant just to get a little work done. Convenient? Yes. Necessary? Sometimes. Is working remotely a down trending habit? Absolutely not. And so, we must learn (and educate our workforce) about how to work remotely more safely.
Protecting your mobile workforce is essential to protecting your business. And it can be accomplished (or at least done more successfully) by following a few simple tips to help keep your business safe from hackers, no matter where you go:
Stay Off the Free, Open Wireless
More and more public places are providing free, or shared wireless Internet. These open networks are dangerous. They’re risky for personal communications, but they are absolutely not suitable for conducting business without protection.
When jumping on public shared wireless connections, it’s essential to do so using a secure VPN connection with the latest encryption methods. This will funnel all your online activities (email, surfing, chat, etc) through this secure connection so prying eyes can’t see what you’re doing. Several companies offer this service but we’ve heard good things about Anonymizer.
As an alternative, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and others have mobile broadband services available for a reasonable monthly subscription. Spring for the mobile Internet access card. It’s a small expense for what you get in exchange – the ability to conduct business more securely outside the office.
Bonus Tip – turn off your wireless connection at all times when not in use so you are 100 percent sure about when you are connected to the Internet. If you’ve previously connected to default network names (like Linksys) then anytime that network name reappears at another location, you will be automatically connected to the network opening you up for risks.
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Tags: Hacker Prevention, Mobile Security, Prevent Hackers, Secure Web Hosting, Virtual Security
Posted in: Security | 1 Comment »
by FireHost Evangelist on April 6th, 2010
Imagine waking up tomorrow and having your water cut off. It would be annoying to deal with, but not devastating. Life goes on. But what if you didn’t have electricity? Definitely inconvenient. You can’t turn on a lamp or watch TV, but at least your iPhone works. You could still access the information superhighway, so all is well.
Now envision how you would feel if you woke up one morning and your website wasn’t working at all. It doesn’t load or the homepage has been replaced with an offensive message — or even a warning from Google that this site is no longer secure. That’s right, you’ve been hacked and your website has been kicked off Google.
Think this can’t happen to you? It’s actually not uncommon. It happens to small businesses every day when their website gets attacked one too many times for Google’s liking. Mberry, a small business based in Tempe, Arizona, is one of those businesses. This innovative company that sells the very cool, very fun “mberry” tablets that make everything you eat taste oh so sweet for 30 minutes. Mberry had a rather sour experience when their site was banned from Google.
Mberry’s saga started about a year ago when their site was hacked – not once, not twice, but three times in two months. They rely on their site as a main portal for their revenues. Having their site down multiple times going through the process of getting it cleaned up and back online was costly, annoying and damaging to their brand. But it wasn’t until they got the boot from big daddy Google, that things really got much worse.
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Tags: Kicked Off Google, mBerry, Secure Web Hosting, Website Hacking, Website Protection
Posted in: Security, Web Hosting | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on March 19th, 2010
All new E-commerce businesses should address one vital question first and foremost: Will you collect and store payment card information on your Web site or offload credit card processing to a PCI Compliant merchant like Paypal? The answer to this question is paramount and should be well thought out when you are planning and developing your E-commerce Web application.
When feasible, outsourcing the storage and handling of credit cards to a trusted, capable, and PCI compliant payment processing provider is the most secure and most budget-friendly course of action. Even when you outsource payment processing (the riskiest piece of running an E-commerce business), you still must ensure your hosting environment can deliver speed and scalability that meets user expectation and includes security measures that protect your shoppers from a damaging hacker encounter.
Here are the tools and services that you should be looking for:
Web Hosting Security Basics – the minimum requirements you need to transact business securely online
Redundant firewall protection — Firewalls help stop cyber attacks before they can penetrate the network perimeter. Having firewalls tuned and working in tandem helps ensure protection for your E-commerce environment.
Web application protection – In addition to traditional firewalls, you’ll need a Web application firewall (we call them WAFs). This technology helps protect E-commerce organizations from application-level attacks like SQL injections and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. Application-level attacks is where the hacker is attacking the website itself; your contact forms, login boxes, etc. Traditional firewalls are helpless to these kinds of attacks and WAFs are required.
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Tags: eCommerce, PCI Compliant Hosting, Secure eCommerce Development, Secure Web Hosting
Posted in: Security | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on February 25th, 2010
My Child’s Locket’s number one goal is to make children’s important, personal information readily available to parents in the event of an emergency.
The wheels of the business plan were put in motion when Jay Osterholt witnessed his sister and nephew in crisis while on vacation. Away from home, Mr. Osterholt’s sister was ill prepared to answer all the Doctor’s questions accurately and thoroughly. Convinced there was a better way to handle these situations, Mr. Osterholt wanted to help ensure this didn’t have to happen again to his family or others.
Less than two years later, the web-based service is live and empowering parents to access and share critical information about their little ones 24/7/365. My Child’s Locket can accommodate multi-child households and has the capacity to store numerous, important details about each individual.
As a web based service, My Child’s Locket is susceptible to bad things like identity theft schemes, SQL injections, XSS (cross site scripting) and DDoS attacks, and more. Aware of the risks, Mr. Osterholt made finding the right secure, hosting partner a big priority. After a thorough search, he chose us.
Click Here to read MyChild’s Locket’s press release about launching their service on FireHost secure servers.
Tags: Identity Protection, My Child's Locket, Secure Web Hosting, Secure Websites
Posted in: Security | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on February 15th, 2010
When powered by virtualization, our secure website hosting techniques do more than just help keep the “bad guys” out of your website and web-based applications. In fact, we affectionately regard virtualization as the “socially responsible” hosting technology.
Our virtualized servers provide secure, scalable hosting solutions to small and medium sized businesses around the globe. Thru the use of new, green hosting technologies, we’re helping reduce e-waste: energy consumption, CO2 emissions, hardware waste, and more.
Click Here to learn more about how FireHost leverages virtualization to save a few IT dollars while helping save the planet.
Tags: Global Sustainability, Green Hosting, Green IT, Secure Web Hosting
Posted in: Technology | 1 Comment »
