The consequences of a hacked site have wide-ranging financial repercussions that extend beyond the cost of cleaning the site. Drop-offs can be anticipated for new sales from prospects spooked by “not secure” url warning labels. The same downward turn can be expected for customer retention once the news of a hack shakes consumer confidence in […]

The first time I encountered brute force attacks I was a hosting specialist who received calls from frustrated site owners that wanted to know who’d gained access to their server. Many of them didn’t understand the importance of a password’s character strength, or how frequent attacks on “root” are as a username, including myself at […]

Two factor authentication (2FA) provides an extra layer of security that passwords alone can’t provide. Requiring an extra step for users to verify their identity reduces the chance a bad actor can gain access to data however. One of the most common methods of 2FA is SMS text messages. The problem is that SMS isn’t […]

While stressful and costly to the victim, hacks can also be an opportunity for onlookers to learn how to prevent getting breached. Hacks create an opportunity to think creatively about company and personal security and a challenge to meet today’s evolving threatscape.  This article will look at how major reputable companies fell to small mistakes. […]

The website security landscape is as complicated as it is treacherous. We often deal with clients who become reinfected over and over again. Once the attackers establish a foothold in an environment and recognize that a website is vulnerable, you can guarantee that they will be back to try to reinfect the website. Our website […]

What is a Backdoor? A backdoor provides a shortcut for authorized or unauthorized users to gain access to an unauthorized location of a website, software, or system. There are many different ways to categorize backdoors, but they are usually not in plain sight and are intentionally difficult to detect. Legitimate vs. Illegitimate Backdoors Developer’s backdoor […]

Starting this past Friday we have seen a number of websites showing a fake ransomware infection. Google search results for “FOR RESTORE SEND 0.1 BITCOIN” were sitting at 6 last week and increased to 291 at the time of writing this. Upon visiting their website webmasters have been met with an alarming message: SITE ENCRYPTED […]

The .htaccess file is notorious for being targeted by attackers. Whether it’s using the file to hide malware, redirect search engines to other sites with blackhat SEO tactics, hide backdoors, inject content, modify php.ini values; the possibilities are endless. Many site owners are unaware of this file, due to it starting with a “.” making […]