PHP Programming

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The letter below has been circulating the Internet and has not been verified by us. However, who the heck would not support our troops! Sounds like a bunch of hypocritical communists at Starbucks. Regardless of the political affiliations and tendencies one might have, it is a core requirement as a US Citizen to maintain and support the safety and sanity of our country. Starbucks must hate our great country to ignore our valuable citizens who fight for our freedom regardless of their own political affiliations or tendencies. Perhaps Starbucks has grown complacent from the vast revenues generated by those same offended citizens of the United States who they would ignore and offend. What are the odds that those offended citizens would act in response to Starbucks’ egregious behavior? Read the rest of this entry »

The following list is taken from W3 and posted here for easy reference. These are to be used for various situations when you want to override the default status sent by the server. Situations include when your content is deleted, but you do not want the search engine to see a broken link or missing page. If your content moves to a new location, you can inform browsers and engines to permanently look to the new location, not the old one. Keep the original page and return a header with the example below. Make sure your headers are sent BEFORE any content is sent, else you will likely get an error, or the header may be ignored. Explanations of each Status Code is included below. Please refer to W3 for latest updates and additions.

Example: header(’HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently’); Read the rest of this entry »