azcazandco

Hope you sink Fasthosts… Is your data safe peeps?

October 19th, 2007

So, I got an email from a client today shitting themselves because Fasthosts have had a serious security breach, low and behold I just got one too…

We are writing to inform you that we have recently discovered evidence of a network intrusion involving a Fasthosts server. We have reason to believe that the intruder has gained access to our internal systems, and that this may have in turn given them access to your username and some service passwords.

We have since closed the vulnerability through which access was gained, and have taken steps to ensure that this cannot happen again.

We therefore recommend, as a precaution, that you now change the control panel login password on your account.

I have tried to avoid Fasthosts for hosting for about 4 years as they were really bad for hammering bandwidth costs on you etc, I used to run a dedicated server from them and to be honest I was never that happy with the way they dealt with me let alone the extra charges. Some might say it was my own fault for not picking a larger package but there you go, we live and learn but did I really?

Maybe I have been negligent in my activities but somehow they slipped back into my life in the form of UKreg and domain registration, today I too am having to deal with the fact that my details have been compromised on the servers of who claim to be the number 1 hosting company in the UK and what can I do? I am going to have to dig into the coffers and move my domains to someone else to deal with because apparently my data is not safe (I doubt it is truely safe anywhere) and now someone potentially has potentially had access to sensitive info.

I feel sorry for those of you out there that have Fasthost reseller accounts, make sure you bill Fasthosts for any time you spend cleaning up their mistake. They claim in their email to me that they have cleaned up and that it will never happen again… it shouldn’t have happened in the first place!

So how safe is your data? I hope this little wake up call for me can in some way help you avoid getting into a similar situation which brings me to another point… Beta trial accounts.

How many of you out there have been sucked into the Web 2.0 phenomena? How many of you have a beta account for 1 new wizz bang web application? How many of you have 2? I’m going to put my money on you all having more than 2 and that you only ever use a handful of passwords for them or heaven forbid even just one, and I would pose the question how many of those do you actually use?

Scary to think of your identity being sprinkled across the web in many shapes and forms for some nefarious character to tamper with or even worse steal, I know I am going to set aside some time and cull my inactive accounts and take a close look at what I use on a day to day basis and what I really need to be using.

Boom is over… time to get sensible… I kinda stopped reading Tech Crunch a while ago as buzzwords piss me off and thr wr too many app names ending in “r”.

Oh well, rant over, I hope Fasthosts really do lose a good market share and that some smaller better web hosting companies get a look in and I hope you guys get a fright from my fright and take an introspective look at what you do with your data and who holds onto it.

Take care and don’t sign up to anything I wouldn’t

Milk & Two = No more office arguements

December 11th, 2006

This is just a quick post but on making a new acquaintance today I figured I would share a stroke of genius that you all will benefit from. Say goodbye to office fighting on the “who makes the coffee” front and sign yourselves up for an account at Milk & Two.

Welcome to MILK&TWO, a site designed to take the hassle out of making tea for your workmates and buddies.

The idea is that you sign-up (creating a group as you go) and invite people around you. When someone wants a drink they put in a request and drinks are made once the number of requests hits a “critical mass”. Someone is chosen at random to make the requested drinks.

Go on… sign up for Milk & Two, you know you want to…

Snap is a snap and adds value too!

December 10th, 2006

I have been busy as hell recently, just started a new contract and it has knocked me for six after working at home for 5 months. I loved those 5 months but cash is cash and money is money and all four of those come in handy in my book so a contract it is just now.

So WTF is this post about? Well, since I have been busy and firewalled beyond belief I haven’t had a chance to check out the new arrivals at 9rules so tonight I took the chance to have a browse about.

So WTF is this post about I hear you ask again… in case you never decided to even mouse over any of the links above you will have seen a rather nice preview of the external site you are about to visit. I have to give a hat tip to Ryan Arrowsmith as whilst I was browsing his site I was pleased to be presented with screen grabs of external sites. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Now I don’t know if there is dodgy shenanigans going on in the background with data caching etc but to be honest, I don’t care, within seconds I had signed up, added a small line of code to my site and hey presto, added value for my users.

So now you know, this article is about giving props to the new members of 9rules as well as praising the lovely service called Snap which is a snap to use and adds value too.

Lemme know if you find this useful, I am finding it useful already.