PHP Programming

Spam has become a worldwide epidemic, and prevention is the current focus. A day will come when a cure is sought more aggressively than a bandage, but for now companies are making tons of money selling us filters and spam prevention kits. Our approach at the PHP Kemist is to byte back with encrypted or obfuscated email addresses that spamBots cannot scrape or harvest from your web pages. (more…)

As a business owner, risks are a given. Operational risks. Management risks. Privacy risks. All of these risks are intensified when you leave the office, says Victoria Fodale, Program Manager/Analyst, for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based research firm In-Stat. “The small business owner is mobile a lot of the time. They probably carry a PDA or a smart phone or a notebook that contains business-critical information,” she explains. “But being mobile can become a liability if this information is lost or stolen.” You can minimize your risks, however, by following a few simple tips, detailed below. (more…)

Broadband services and the ability to work remotely may have huge benefits when it comes to productivity. But without proper protection they leave you and your network exposed to a variety of incursions. Denial of Service attacks, for example, can deprive you of access to a resource such as your network, e-mail or your website and can destroy files and programming on your computer systems. A Trojan Horse on the other hand is a piece of programming that sneaks onto your system and lurks until it’s triggered by a date or event, at which time it activates and destroys files or creates a back door for intruders to enter. Attacks such as these can cost you a considerable amount of time and money. However they can be avoided by installing a firewall across your systems. (more…)

BURLINGTON, Vt. - When Sebastien Boucher stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border, agents who inspected his laptop said they found files containing child pornography.

But when they tried to examine the images after his arrest, authorities were stymied by a password-protected encryption program.

Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to give up the password, but doing so could violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by revealing the contents of the files.

Experts say the case could have broad computer privacy implications for people who cross borders with computers, PDAs and other devices that are subject to inspection. (more…)

SQL Injection is a technique used by hackers to attack websites that accept GET or POST data. This is typically submitted to the server from web forms, but can be submitted directly to the web server using other methods besides a browser. The results of successful SQL Injection (and Code Injection) include accessing/modifying the MySQL Database, accessing/modifying the file system, viewing and stealing scripts, passwords, and other private information, and some others. Whatever the case may be, you do not want an attacker to successfully submit an SQL Injection against your website and there are steps you can take to prevent this security vulnerability from being exploited. (more…)

Creating secure passwords to prevent brute force attacks is in contrast to secure passwords that users can remember and enter correctly. Users tend to forget mixed upper case and lower case letters, especially if mixed with numbers and even more with non-alphanumerics. Captchas enhance the security of PHP web forms by blocking brute force attacks that enlist the power of automation. Where you draw the line between user friendly passwords and truly secure passwords is a personal and business choice. (more…)

Part of security software vendor CA’s Web site was hacked earlier this week and was redirecting visitors to a malicious Web site hosted in China. (more…)