Take Time To Understand Free Tools Before You Use Them

Free tools and technologies can deliver real value, Yet they also can present risks!

URL shortening services, for example, are fantastic, especially for those of us who love to share our knowledge and findings inside social networks. Yet they can very easily, and often do, hide a nefarious attack.

Another Free Tool to Use with Caution

Be sure to check the security of shortened URLs before clicking them. One service you may consider is urlxray.com.

Don't Get Burned by Twitter Updated-Privacy Policy

Twitter Carries a Torch for Privacy


In mid-May, Twitter published an updated privacy policy, which every Twitter user should read - and other social media sites would be smart to emulate. The policy includes a clearer explanation of the situations in which Twitter will share user information with others.


Most notably, the policy provides better clarifications about how your personal information is used than most other social media sites. The updates include a new section on how Twitter tailors content. It makes clear that Twitter can use users' contact information to help third-party services, client applications and others find Twitter accounts.


While that particular practice is not new, it is much more clearly stated today. The policy also indicates how users can opt-out of several data-sharing practices, which is incredibly important to privacy-minded individuals.


You may find Twitter very helpful to use for sharing information, learning of breaking news and doing research. It's a good option; just make sure you set your privacy settings appropriately.

Can Consumers’ Infected Systems Harm you?

Buyer at your website can infect your system…

Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of computers? If you have an e-commerce server, your system could be in infected by malware from a consumer’s machine. Hackers can plant what’s called a bot on a machine that activates when the computer begins an SSL connection. Once the bot is in process, it is able to hijack the session or conduct a “man in the middle” attack, which would mean the hacker could execute remote code on the server.

The results can vary, from instigating denial-of-service attacks to stealing passwords. The solution is simple, however when you want to protect sensitive data such as employee records or bank account information, build a tiered architecture. That way, even if a hacker has access to a Web server, safeguards prevent it from communicating with the next machine in the hierarchy. You can solve most of those problems with perimeter controls.