Posts Tagged ‘Website’

Another Reason for Not Hosting Email and Website Services

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Last week, the town of  Hillsboro Beach in Florida had its Website hacked (North Miami’s Website was also hacked).  When the site was viewed, the Iranian flag, a photo of the country along with other defacements were present.

According to FoxNews.com, the administrators for the Website were unable to remove the images.  Additionally the town is unable to disable the server, if they do all email with town government will cease.

Many new companies we are called into to perform network audits and assessments on are in the same situation.  They often don’t realize the implications of hosting their own Website and email.  It’s the “all your eggs are in one basket” syndrome.

While some businesses think why should they pay for hosting and email when they can get it for free, forgetting the fact that there is no free lunch.  This becomes a major issue when vulnerability is discovered and cost to remedy are typically not cheap, cancelling out any savings the business thought they had and causing loss of services.

Fortunately solutions to this are simple; all it takes is pre-planning and the willingness to invest a small amount in IT.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.

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How Are You Handling Website Updates?

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

Quite a few years ago we designed a website for a local company who is now looking to have some website updates.

As is typically the case, most companies want to have websites updates to keep up with the latest advances in web technologies.  Usually we work with the business owner, CEO or GM of the local office.

What was different about this request was that the owner delegated the responsibility to what seems to be a very young man.  I say seems to be because I only had his voice to go by.  By his questions it appeared he had no idea of how businesses work.

Knowing that websites provide such an important role in business today, and the current economic situation of our country, it is perplexing why such an important issue would be appointed to someone with little business or marketing background.

So the question is; who is coordinating your website updates and changes, or for that matter entirely new website.

This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company providing technology services to companies in the Capital District and Upstate New York.

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Is Your Website Vulnerable?

Monday, September 27th, 2010

This past week two hackers were convicted of defacing Comcast’s website in May of 2008.

Their methods were fairly simple, as they used social engineering to get a Comcast employee to give them user and password information to Comcast’s DNS account.  Once the hackers logged into Network Solutions (the company hosting the DNS entries), they just pointed the DNS record to their own website.

Whether someone actually gains access to a website or redirects visitors to a different site, the result to the business is the same; lost revenue.

What procedures does your company have in place which could prevent this type of security breach from happening?  Who has access to your DNS account information?  Are you using a strong password?  Have you made any employee changes which require a new password?

Answering these questions now could prevent a major incident in the future.

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Customer Service (or Lack Thereof)

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

In May we had decided to try a new software program and contracted with a well know, and well established company as we thought it would be quicker to deploy than take time from client projects to update the system we were currently using.

Within a week of making the decision and attempting to work with the company, it became apparent that this would not be a good fit as it took quite a while to get questions answered.  And we were just at the beginning of the implementation phase.  So I contacted the company to let them know we would not be proceeding.

I had put their system out of my mind until yesterday.  That is when we received a call from the company regarding us terminating the relationship.  This morning I returned the call and spoke with one of their representatives.  She asked why we decided not to continue with the software.  I said this is a perfect example of why we stopped; we canceled in May and it is now almost August and we are just receiving a call asking us why.

I then stated if we were in a situation where a client no longer wished to do business with us we would be on the phone with them in the afternoon, or tomorrow at the latest.

Exceptional customer service needs to be a core believe from the top down and permeate throughout the organization.  Everyone who comes into contact with clients or customers needs to be empowered to do whatever is necessary to make sure that clients and customers are completely satisfied.

This latest interaction with such a large company provides our computer networking and repair; and website development companies, with a good example of what not to emulate.  We can always learn.

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