shauny.me
Our website service is usually completely bespoke, and completely controlled by ourselves.
We design the website, work out the site structure and the look and feel of it, sometimes we even create corporate identities. We then build the website, coding the theme by hand, and using tried and tested software packages for the CMS. We also set up Google Apps for email, and host the websites ourselves. Every part of the website process is controlled by us, and so everything is done properly and efficiently.
But I said “usually”.
Sometimes we have a client who just needs a redesign of their website, but they have hosting and emails. We try to encourage them to switch it all over to us, but sometimes they are happy with their current setup.
Then things like this happen.
Last night a virus — Troj/JSRedir-AK — infected all the websites under a company’s server (who we are in no way affiliated with, but happen to have worked on several of the sites before). The hosting was done by someone else (in someone’s bedroom, I fear). Needless to say, when the sh*t hit the fan we were the ones getting asked to fix it.
But the fault (out of date software, crappy Windows server, I don’t even think they have backups[!!]) is not down to us. We are going to help in every way we can, but we have even been locked out of FTP access because those passwords were changed.
I guess what I am trying to say is - be careful where you host your website. Our host has a stunning report, constant backups, 99.9% uptime. As far as we are concerned, viruses are things that happen to other people.
xkdc - Retro Virus
An investigative series I’ve been writing about organized cyber crime gangs stealing millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses has generated more than a few responses from business owners who were concerned about how best to protect themselves from this type of fraud.
The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don’t use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.
”There were two interesting Windows-related news stories last week. First, Joe Wilcox’s story on a report from NPD claiming that 91 percent of $1,000-and-higher retail computer sales now go to…
Today that is simply no longer the case. Microsoft has lost all but a sliver of this entire market. People who love computers overwhelmingly prefer to use a Mac today. Microsoft’s core problem is that they have lost the hearts of computer enthusiasts. Regular people don’t think about their choice of computer platform in detail and with passion like nerds do because, duh, they are not nerds. But nerds are leading indicators.”
Google is to launch a new operating system that is set to go head to head against Microsoft’s Windows.
I just started Windows XP (in Parallels) for the first time in a while to do some IE8 testing and try to download the Windows 7 RC for future testing.
It’s astonishingly bad. Everything about it. Windows. IE8. Windows Update. Microsoft Update. Automatic updates. Windows Geniune Advantage™. MSN Messenger. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard. Everything. I can’t believe how many people use Windows every day, and how much collective aggravation, wasted time, and damage to our industry has been caused by Microsoft’s sloppiness.
Using Windows for 10 minutes after using Macs full-time for 5 years really helps put all of this in perspective.
I’ve truly never used Vista. Not even once. But I bet Windows 7 won’t be any better — none of Microsoft’s deep-rooted issues that caused Vista’s problems have changed.
