Friday, May 25, 2007

Google's Security

Google has started an OnlineSecurity Blog.

Any of you who read my blog, or articles page at my site, know that I was hacked. The culprit was "Malware". Looking for information about this 'nasty' in a search today I came across: Google Online Security Blog at http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/

"To protect Google's users from this threat, we started an anti-malware effort about a year ago. As a result, we can warn you in our search results if we know of a site to be harmful and even prevent exploits from loading with Google Desktop Search." Ok, yes it is absolutely a great idea to warn potential visitors that the may be infected if they go to a website.

One thing that concerns me a "tad" is this:

Even after a site that was infected in the past, but is now clean has a cache of the old "bad" pages that can turn up in searches. How does a web owner clear that. If someone turns up an old page cached which contains a malicious script, who is responsible? Could this happen? We don't have a clear answer on this yet. When we do, we'll post it here... So as I saying the Goole security blog states: "If your site has been hackedTake the site offline in order to keep from putting your site's visitors and your customers at risk. Then remove all of the offending code and fix all underlying security vulnerabilities before putting your site back online."

Ok, (I say that too much don't I) so... Okay :-) I read on and they refer web masters to a link that says

"There are three basic steps to maintaining a clean site from Identifying badware on your site Removing badware from your site Preventing badware in the future "

Source: http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security The attack on us was a little different than a malware/badwrare scenario. We didn't have malware/badware put on our site. We were attacked at someone elses website BY malware that used our computer to upload objectional content to our site.

Even though we didn't have malware/badware on our site, we used many of the same suggested remedies as we would have for malware/badware.

It's been over month since we discovered our site had been compromised, and nearly a full month since we cleaned out the bad files. Our site is still impacted by this episode and suffering the backlash from Google searches showing results for these bad pages even though they were removed at the end of April...

Oh... As for Google's Matt Cutts - he has not, as of the date of this entry, responded to the message I left on his blog. Stay tuned!

Jan

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Google Is A Changing!

Have you noticed the changes with Google search? Well just in case you haven't let me tell you what's news with them recently.

Google's search look has changed. It will now include news, video, images, maps and more. All part of what is called Universal Search. It appears searches will now include top tabs that display information from different sources.

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products, said at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

"We can provide a much more holistic answer," Mayer said. The company has developed a new set of formulas to determine where information appears on the page"

Do a search and have a look. Keep your eye out for more changes.

Jan

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Are You Second Life Curious?

I have been spending a great deal of time in Second Life and writing articles about my experiences. With all I have learned and learn as I go along I decided to start a new site so you could follow along with me. So do come visit:

http://www.secondlifesnippets.com

Jan

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Friday, May 18, 2007

Block Bots By A Hosting Company - A Step Too Far!

On my daily reading today I went into WebProWorld and found a post about a hosting company and can it influence your search engine rank. In that post someone stated that this hosting company had decided to block search engine bots due to usage by particular sites. I was shocked.

In my research on this claim I found it was 'Dreamhost'. It seems that 'Dreamhost' has notified some sites of the need to block search engine crawlers but not other site owners. Also in my research I found a forum with postings from a rep from 'Dreamhost':

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John system stability manager at DreamHost
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is some snippets:

"The only cases where we would block googlebot are when the following conditions are met:

-the site in question is causing the server it is on to be unstable

-the site in question is causing erratic or abnormal behavior on the part of google’s crawler

We do not block googlebot on every busy customer site, only when it is demonstrated that it is causing artificial usage (a 10 page site does not require 5000 hits from googlebot to be indexed =) and when the alternative to blocking googlebot is disabling the entire domain. It is disingenuous to suggest that this refers to google simply indexing sites - I actually have been in direct with google engineers to help sort out the specific cases where by their their crawler was not performing as it should be."

His final comment

"I have already removed the blocks and contacted the customer to apologize - I also have trained the tech responsible and conveyed the proper situations in which such steps would be necessary to our entire company at large".

Read more here:
http://www.seopedia.org/internet-marketing-and-seo/dreamhost-asking-clients-to-block-googlebot/

Scary stuff when you think about it.

Jan

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Everything Is Turning Up "2.0"

You can find a great deal of information, and discussions, on Web 2.0.

~Yes ~

However, I've noticed just about everything I read these days is using the phrase "2.0" I have seen Copywriting 2.0, Voice 2.0, Mobile 2.0, eLearning 2.0, and in fact the other night I was watching "Family Jewels" and Gene Simmons (of KISS fame) stated, after removing his bandages from his face lift, "Gene Simmons - 2.0".

It seems EVERYTHING is going 2.0!!

So what exactly is Web 2.0 and what does it mean to you? Read more here: http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html#20

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Monday, May 14, 2007

Google Analytics - My How You Have Changed!

Google Analytics has changed their appearance and features. If you haven't been in there for awhile you have to check it out. The new dashboard offers way more immediate information than previously offered. You can see visits, pages views, average time on site, etc., way more detailed than before. Traffic reports are better. You get 'direct traffic', 'referring traffic', 'search engines' and a report for each as well as the top keywords/key phrases. Besides the details it now provides.

I also love the fact that you can email reports. So when my clients want details I can email them details. Saves time!



If you don't know what Google Analytics is now is the time to sign-up. Watching your website stats is one of the best ways to know what you need to do with your website to increase traffic and increase sales.

Read more about the update here: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Jan

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Friday, May 11, 2007

Hack Attack (Not Bill) - Continued...

It appears that malware has been downloading to unsuspecting websites with Windows update (yikes!) Read the article here:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9019118

Note: This is no doubt what happened to my site

"The threat of malicious websites hosting exploits has reached a point where Google's engineers have decided to respond with a security analysis of the pages they index. "

For websites that contain malware through no active fault of the webmaster, or sites that do not properly sanitize user contributed content, the ultimate Internet penalty could be imposed on them - a Google advisory that the site found in a search is unsafe. That could effectively destroy traffic to a site that has been hacked or designed poorly." Nick Carr calls Google's security aims a plan to police the Web.

Read more on this and my question to Matt Cutts:

http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html#Not

Jan

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The May Ezine is Now Available - Read What is Going on!!

I am happy to announce that the Virtualoso Newsletter for May 2007 is now available. In this issue I cover:

1. SEO - Content
2. Reporting Paid Links
3. Are you in the supplemental index?
4. Fun Site (A very special treat!)
5. Announcing - 'Shopping Cart Survival'

You can sign-up for for the ezine on the side of the blog or at http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/ on the right menu.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am also very happy to announce my new site 'Shopping Cart Survival'

You Asked – And We Are Delivering A Series of Audio/Video Programs That Will Walk You Through The Complete Cyber World of The Shopping Cart System.

A shopping cart system is mission critical to a successful online business whether you are delivering a service or a product. Find out how to increase your business contacts and income!

Check it out here: http://www.shoppingcartsurvival.com/

Jan

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Bill the Cat Hack It Wasn't - Follow-up

Just wanted to pass along some information that has helped me through this ugly period.

Both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Toolbox have been extremely helpful with listing of keywords (seeing the bad ones disappear) and page visits. Without this kind of information I would be very much in the dark. I would also not be able to see when things are starting to change - right themselves. So if you don't Analytics or Webmaster Toolbox I highly recomend you do.

Also, as I mentioned in my article, a very nice WebProWorld moderator passed along an htaccess file which I modified to cover specific keywords and phrases that were being used. We are now in the process of alphabetizing the list to easily add need words or phrases, so it if you would like a copy just drop me a note.

Live Help Crafty Syntax has allowed me to watch who comes online and what pages they visit so I can feel secure.

I sure don't wish this on anyone, but I sure have learned a lot. If you every find yourself in this spot I will be happy to pass on what I have learned.

Jan

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