Boost your e-commerce security:tips

With the spreading of the internet into every sphere of human life web space became a powerful tool for business. Sometimes it even seems real stores will be interchanged by virtual e-commerce markets. And I’m not kidding, statistic of 2012 researches states $255,600,000,000 were spent on online sales in United States (source). Impressive number, isn’t it? Going further we need to take into consideration the intensity of web trading: the world’s internet sales income reached $961 billion mark in 2011 and increased up to $1.25 trillion by 2013 (source). Sure, everyone may suppose the active growth, but, honestly, before I’ve seen this info, I wouldn’t imagine the tempo is so insane. As you can see scope of e-commerce shouldn’t be underestimated.
Nevertheless, every phenomenon has its dark side. In our case the true face of evil are hackers who strive to feather e-commerce customers’ nest. And the methods of these internet robbers are improving with every passed year. The problems of e-commerce security occur with more annoyance nowadays if remembering the sum of money, which are in the internet business. The importance of serious approach to security measures is obvious, so I decided to present main point that would be useful for that. Either you are one of the brave e-commerce pioneers or simply and ambitious novice, few simple tips would advise how to increase the security

Password
The first and the axiomatic recommendation – put a strong password. I mean the random complex of different letters and numbers. You may be surprising about this obvious advice, but practice shows most people choose passwords like “1234″, “abcd”, “1111″, “qwerty” etc., or sometimes they prefer to include some personal information, which is easy to be identified: for example the birth date. Nuff said.
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Email
Email address is needed everywhere to login to administrate the website. And if a cunning hacker finds a way to access, he actually would have your website in full possession simply by reseting the password. A great solution here is using special non-public email address for registration and further access managing. How can they break you email, if they don’t know it?
By the way, back to the previous point: passwords to the admin panel and to the email should be totally different.
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Factor Authentication
This tip is about the direct proportionality. One factor authentication on back office is default and it’s good. However it’s not good enough, because you have a possibility to run a plugin with 2 step factor authentication. The profit is obvious: the hacking of the system would appear to be twice harder.
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Meta Generator
Software vendors use Meta Generator tag as a calling card of their companies. Well, that can disappoint only haters of free advertising, because this element doesn’t carry any utility. The main issue is this tag represents the name and the version of the product: in fact you give all the info about the shopping cart tool, the website exploits, to hackers by yourself. Please, don’t dig your own grave.
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PCI Tests
Hackers are like highbred bloodhounds, if talking about the obstinacy when they looking for the bugs in your website. These craftsmen can develop a small system error into the black hole that draws out the valuable data from your website, the commercial information in particular. So make hackers cry – test your server with PCI and eliminate all vulnerabilities.

By: thecodewhiz On 8:47 AM

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A new way of cracking your password

Crafting the perfect password isn't easy. Some things, like pet's names, birthdays and ascending number sequences, should definitely be avoided. (The word "password" is strongly discouraged, too.)

But what about good grammar? According to a new study, you should probably steer clear of that as well.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have created an algorithm that they say can crack long passwords that make grammatical sense. The algorithm combines words and phrases from password-cracking databases into grammatically correct sentences — so passwords arranged as phrases, like "thispasswordrules" or "mynameisjudge," are becoming more crackable, they say.
Source: Mashable

By: thecodewhiz On 8:53 PM

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How to optimize your Facebook business Page for Graph Search

With Facebook’s introduction of Graph Search on Tuesday, businesses are naturally curious to find out how they can take advantage of the tool, even though it’s currently only in limited preview for English audiences. Facebook has naturally made it a point to explain what businesses should be doing.
Facebook says Graph Search will make it easier for people to discover your Page and learn more about your business. Whether that will indeed be the case remains to be seen, but if you want to stay ahead of the game then you should take the new feature seriously.

Aside from doing the usual maintenance to ensure your Page is complete and up-to-date, Facebook recommends the following:

The name, category, vanity URL, and information you share in the “About” section all help people find your business and should be shared on Facebook.
    If you have a location or a local place Page, update your address to make sure you can appear as a result when someone is searching for a specific location.
    Focus on attracting the right fans to your Page and on giving your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis.

The first two points are pretty straightforward: the more information, and the more accurate information you put on Facebook, the more likely your Page will show up in a search. The third one shows that Facebook will be taking growth into account when surfacing Pages, not just current popularity.

Facebook gives a few examples of queries it expects its members to use with Graph Search: “sushi restaurants that my friends have been to in Los Angeles,” “hotels near the Eiffel Tower,” or “TV shows my friends like.” The second one is your typical Google search, but the first and third are clearly meant for Facebook, and that’s an important thing to remember here.

There’s SEO and then there’s Facebook SEO. If Graph Search takes off, the latter will become a big business.
Source: WSD blog

By: thecodewhiz On 1:10 AM

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Top cloud services for your online backup

Having a copy of your data stored offsite can make all the difference in a disaster, and your data becomes accessible from anywhere, too, without the hassle of maintaining local storage hardware.

The ability to back up your data and store it in the cloud, then also automatically sync it across multiple devices, has radically changed the way we use computers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices for both personal and business use.
If you don't have a cloud storage service in place, you need one—or maybe more than one.
Many of the best cloud storage solutions do something specific, like backup and make accessible your music library, or help you not only save copies of files, but also collaborate on them. The services you choose should each do the job that needs to be done.
There isn't one magic bullet service in my mind, but that's not a bad thing, as it allows for compartmentalization among your data, which in turn may let you take advantage of the free space allotments that most service providers offer. Separate your music from your photos from your office files, and each set might weigh in under the free account limit with three different services.
Sometimes, however, it's worth paying for a service. Perks often include increased access to file version history, more security, or more features for collaboration and working with teams.
Not every service on this list doubles as a file-syncing service, but many do. File-syncing has become an integral part of online backup. For tips on how to use a file-syncing service and deeper explanation of how some people use them, see Get Organized: File Syncing Services to the Rescue.
While I've included a short chart here (click to open a larger version), it only skims the surface, focusing mainly on price. Different services can offer vastly different features and perks, and many of them are not directly comparable. If you want the utmost in comparisons, take a look at the insane chart of cloud backup services on Wikipedia.

Source PCmag

By: thecodewhiz On 4:13 AM

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Ubuntu for mobile

Canonical has announced that The open-source Ubuntu operating system is coming to a smartphone near you.

The company is targeting two key audiences with the release - the enterprise market and basic, entry-level smartphones.

"We expect Ubuntu to be popular in the enterprise market, enabling customers to provision a single secure device for all PC, thin client and phone functions," Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical, said in a statement. "Ubuntu is already the most widely used Linux enterprise desktop, with customers in a wide range of sectors focused on security, cost and manageability."

Silber also envisioned the OS for basic smartphone tasks like phone, SMS, Web, and email, "where Ubuntu outperforms thanks to its native core apps and stylish presentation."

"Our mission is to make something extraordinary; something that has never existed before - one platform for all kinds of computing; your phone, tablet, desktop, and TV, and of course, the cloud, and your personal supercomputer," Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu founder, said in a video message (below).

Shuttleworth said Canonical has "made sure that we can use Android kernels and Android drivers, so if your hardware works with Android, it will also work with Ubuntu."

The video showed off a UI that accesses apps and other services via swipes from the left and right of the screen. It's the "first phone that uses every edge of the screen, [and] each edge has specific purposes," Shuttleworth said.

Touch the left side of the screen and favorite apps will appear in a row, top to bottom. Swipe from the right side of the screen for easy access to most used apps. Swipe from the top for a search box.

Shuttleworth said Canonical considers HTML5 to be a "first-class development environment." But he acknowledged that HTML5 has its limitations, "so we've built a native app develoment environment for the phone," he said.

"It uses QML to give you a really slick, easy development experience for touch apps that can have their engine written in C or C++ and also use Javascript for some of the UI glue that isn't performance critical," he continued.

The QML tool kit and sample application are available for download today, he said.

Shuttleworth said that top gaming companies are moving to support Ubuntu, so "you can count on having all the best games in the palm of your hand."

Canonical will be at next week's Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas and will show the Ubuntu phone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

The move comes almost a year after Canonical unveiled Ubuntu for Android, which would launch a full desktop OS experience whenever you connected your phone to a computer screen and keyboard.

Source pcmag.

By: thecodewhiz On 10:20 AM

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