Tuesday, 21 July 2015
Non-Mobile Ready Traffic Falls 12%
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The facts are in and it's not looking good for you if your website isn't mobile ready. As we warned back in April (Mobile Exceeds Desktop. Is Your Site Ready) and May (Google Announces Change in Search Rankings for Mobile), you are putting yourself at risk if your website isn't responsive. A new Report from Adobe explains that while Google's algorithm change on April 17th (mobilegeddon) didn't have an instantaneous effect, now that the dust has settled, it's clear that non-mobile-ready websites have dropped some 12% on average in organic search listings.

A responsive web design "responds" to the width of the screen on any device so the visitor has an optimal experience during the visit. If done properly, the site will work on any device and does not have to be adjusted when a mobile device vendor comes out with some new phone or tablet with a different screen width.

If you need a responsive site so your mobile visitors will appreciate their experience (along with Google), then give us a call at 877.397.7605 or contact 111 Web Studio for an estimate on what it will take to bring your site up to date.

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Posted on 07/21/2015 9:46 AM by Customer Service
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Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Important: Discontinued Support for TLS 1.0. Upgrade Browsers Today!
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Websites using HTTPS or secure pages on their websites will no longer work with certain outdated browsers. What does this mean for you?


1. If you use the internet you should make sure the browser you are using is updated. This means Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari.. etc.

2. If your website uses secure pages or https pages you should also communicate this to your audience to let them know.


Most of you will have nothing to do as a result of this change because newer web browsers are all in compliance and have been for a while. If you are using an older browser or operating system, read on...

You may remember our announcement in May about discontinuing TLS v1.0 support in June of 2016. We tried to discontinue support back in May, but too many browsers had not yet been updated and couldn't adjust to the change. Since then, Visa has thought more about this and decided to move their drop-dead date back a year.

In a necessary response to this change, we will be disabling TLS v1.0 at the end of the workday on Thursday 7/16/2015 due to requirements for PCI compliance. Per Trustwave's normal procedures, we had submitted a request for an exception but it was denied. Luckily, since the last time we tried doing this the main offender, Apple, has released updates to the older versions of the Safari browser.

If you have trouble connecting to any of our https:// sites, you will need to verify that all updates available have been installed for your operating system and browser. While most browsers will update automatically, you may remember that because IE versions 8, 9 and 10 have the appropriate functionality disabled by default, you must enable it manually by following the instructions in this video.

As always, if you have any questions about this or other website related issues or if you need a secure web hosting environment, please give 111 Web Studio a call at 877.397.7605 or contact us for more information.

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Posted on 07/15/2015 9:13 AM by Customer Service
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Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Do Hackers Ever Sleep?
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Whether you realize it or not, Internet security is one of the most significant issues of our day.

Twenty years ago, the Internet wasn't part of our lives and Internet security wasn't even a serious issue for nerds. But today, Internet technologies touch everything we do and I don't know anyone who hasn't been effected by a hack of one sort or another. When people ask me whether we ever have cyber attacks, my honest answer is always, "We're almost certainly having one right now." Hackers are constantly and relentlessly banging away in the hope of finding an exploit so they can steal credit cards, scam some money, make away with secrets, take down a website, send spam or otherwise cause harm.

With all the cyber attacks being reported in the news, it seems as if hackers really never do sleep. If you look at Norsecorp's live map of cyber attacks the world over any time of the day or night, the amount of activity at any given moment is truly astonishing. Yes folks, it's past time to start looking at your digital security differently. Think about what data you store digitally, where it is and how it is secured.

Recent Internet security victims in the news have included such notables as Target, Sony, Madonna, the IRS, the US Government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and many others.

OPM

Although you don't hear much about it on the news, this one likely represents the most serious threat the US has ever experienced because among the stolen content is a 100+ page personal history of over 25 million present, former and prospective government employees including top secret employees and contractors. Those documents describe every detail of personal lives, work history, background checks, friends, family and associates in foreign countries, health and financial history, usernames, passwords, fingerprints and much, much more. The opportunity for ramifications from that breach alone will be reverberating for decades.

Hacking Team

Even hackers themselves and Internet security firms are getting compromised. A hack last week of the Italian firm Hacking Team who sells hacking tools was breached, putting all those tools in the hands of criminals the world over. While discovery of the extent of this hack is ongoing at this writing, those tools included at least three serious zero day (no patch available) exploits, so if that firm had them, you know other hackers have other ones.

Facebook

Within the last week, over a million people were fooled into downloading the Android game Cowboy Adventure from Facebook that stole all their usernames and passwords.

What to do?

I share all this to raise awareness so you will perhaps be less prone to becoming a victim yourself. Internet security starts with you. Think a moment before clicking on an email attachment from an unknown source or visiting a suspicious link or a website that has sketchy roots. Think twice before buying that nifty refrigerator, home security system, remotely accessible thermostat or other gadget that talks to you via the Internet. Do you really need that thing?  If it is talking to you, it can talk to everyone else in the world, too. And DO THOSE UPDATES! The two zero-day exploits mentioned above on Microsoft Windows and Flash were finally patched, but if you don't do the update, you're still vulnerable.

We are living in times when technology and Internet security are really hard for suppliers to secure. Code is complex and can have holes in it the programmers never thought about. Hackers fool people every day with social engineering tricks. The day may come when this all gets better, but right now the pace of change is too rapid for you to have confidence that someone else will see to your security. See to it yourself and you will be much safer. This applies to a broader landscape than just the Internet, but in the online world, it's critical.

111 Web Studio wishes you well as you travel today's information superhighway. Watch out for those potholes and give us a call if you need any help with an awesome website, getting found on search engines or some advice on how to stay safe on the Internet. Call 877.397.7605 or contact us for more information.

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Posted on 07/14/2015 9:42 AM by Customer Service
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Friday, 10 July 2015
Sending a Payment Overseas? Whoa Now... Think Twice!
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Well this is the week for Internet security problems, it seems. Here's a real-life situation that just happened to a 111 Web Studio customer in the normal course of doing business. It starts with one of those things that happens in many businesses every day. Let's say you're the VP of Finance and the President of the company sends you an email directing you to send $23,000 to an overseas account. He gives you the bank routing information and other details you need. Your job is to handle transactions like this efficiently and you're good at it. 

Is there any reason to doubt this request? It came from the President's email address and it's worded just like he would say it. Would you send the payment? Do you have procedures in place to double check and verify requests like this? If not, perhaps you should. In this particular case, the money was sent, but the request did not come from the President. Fortunately, the VP had second thoughts in time to stop the payment, but that is not always the case.

In 2014, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received 2417 reports of loss totalling over $226 million.

In some cases, the criminal will simply do enough homework to find out who the President is and who the person is who is responsible for sending payments. Then he will spoof the email address in his message so it looks like it's coming from the President, but the actual address is the criminal's. In other cases, the criminal will actually hack the President's email box and send the message directly from it. That way he can delete replies from the finance person before the President spots them in his in-box. In other cases, the criminal may hack into a company phone system to verify a transfer with the bank by voice. 

The threat is real. The risk is significant. So be on your toes and question everything before you act. Put procedures in place and follow them. Internet security isn't just about hacking any longer. There are sophisticated and creative criminals out there. 

However... If you need an an awesome website, to be found on search engines or just want to chat about how to stay safe on the Internet give us a call at 877.397.7605 or contact us for more information.

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Posted on 07/10/2015 10:27 AM by Customer Service
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