Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Argh! My Website Has Been Infected!

Written by Stacy Bass

We’ve all read the headlines when cyber attacks occur; Company X had millions of their customer credit card transactions compromised, Company Y had millions of people’s personal information accessed, Hacker Z gained access to some government agency, and so on.  It is a widely accepted fact of life that we must all take measures to protect our sensitive information to keep it from those who would use it for nefarious purposes.  You follow all the rules, take the precautions, but one day you receive a call from a customer letting you know that their anti-virus software won’t let them access your website because it has been hacked.  Argh! 

Of course, the first thing you ask is how did this happen and why was my website targeted?  Your website may not collect sensitive information or process credit card transactions, but that does not mean that you are any more immune.  The reality is that no website or company is immune from being infected.  Type “hacking attacks 2014” into your search engine and you’ll see big names like Sony PlayStation, JP Morgan & Chase, EBay, and so on, and that’s just for this year!  You may think that those are big companies, surely they are more profitable targets than your small business, after all it’s not like some hacker is going to hit pay-dirt by hacking your website.  Most often the intent is to create havoc by gaining access to your host account, uploading malware, accessing databases, etc. The truth is that it is unlikely that a single hacker is sitting behind his or her computer with your website locked in the cross hairs.  Instead, today’s ill-intended hackers are creating botnets, a network of computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners' knowledge.  Bots, infected computers sometimes also referred to as zombies, are then used for purposes such as sending spam, distributing viruses and spyware, stealing personal and/or financial information, launching DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, and creating clickfraud to boost web advertising revenue by auto clicking on internet ads.  The unfortunate reality is that it is virtually impossible to 100% protect yourself from becoming a victim.  

So armed with this knowledge, how do you protect yourself as much as possible?  First, make sure that all of your computers are updated with anti-virus software and that your anti-virus software is kept up-to-date, scans all emails and runs in the background at all times.  Second, make sure that your local servers have adequate firewalls in place.  Third, if the anti-virus software alerts you to a potentially harmful email or website, take heed of the warning.  Fourth, make sure that all your passwords are strong.  A strong password should contain a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.  For example, “Password1”, your user name, etc. are NOT considered strong passwords, while something along the lines of “aWp*45-zbK” would be recommended.  Fifth, change your passwords regularly, including the passwords on your website’s host account control panel, content management system and FTP access, and keep you passwords private at all times.  Lastly, there are companies that provide website scanning services for a monthly fee ranging from $29 - $139 per month for those willing to incur a monthly expense for an additional added layer of protection. 

Any host provider would love nothing more than to be able to provide guarantees to their clientele that they will never fall victim to an infected website.  With a reported 1.7 billion plus of web-originated attacks in 2013, it is not unlikely that any of us could experience such an infection.  The best advice is to follow is to adhere to the protections outlined above.  We hope that you never find yourself having to deal with an infected website, however should you find yourself in that unfortunately position, immediately change all passwords then give us a call and we’ll get through it together.




Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.  We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world.  Select Web Solutions is an Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  Our products include Orange County custom website solutions, WebZeo affordable websites in Orange County, MobZeo Orange County mobile websites ProZeo Orange County social media profiles ListZeo Orange County Website Business Listing ServiceSendZeo Orange County newsletter marketing, MailZeo hosted email services in Orange County, SEOLight affordable Orange County SEO, and much more.  

We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry.  Follow us on TwitterFacebookLinkedIn or Google Plus

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Is Social Media a Necessary Evil?

Contributed by Stacy Bass

On any given day, I can rant for hours about my feelings regarding social media.  How the anonymity makes people behave in a manner that they otherwise would not.  How social media provides a playground for the proliferation of rumors and gossip mongering.  Plus, I don’t really care what someone else is having for dinner, unless of course, they are making it for me.  Blah, blah, blah.  I’ve been known to wax poetic about how social media is harming society and eliminating people’s ability for free thought.  I can go on and on and on, and according to my husband, often do.

So, here I sit writing about how I dislike social media on our blog.  When I’m done with my blog post, I’ll post it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and so on.  I’ll hope that people “like” it, "friend" us, "follow" us, and so on.  Go ahead and say it…hypocritical much?  Yes, in fact, it is hypocritical because as much as I can complain about social media’s impact on individuals, I cannot deny that as a small business owner I must embrace social media and tout its importance to our own business and the businesses of our clients. 

The number one goal of any marketing campaign is to reach as much of the intended market as possible with a specific message that is intended to drive a positive response.  Enter social media.  Not only does social media provide the platform to get a message out to a targeted audience, it can easily be shared with others with a single click and, most of all, IT IS FREE.  Free marketing…every small business owner’s dream.  Very simply, the only cost to marketing your business via social media is your time. 

If free marketing is not enough to convince you of the importance of developing a social media strategy, effective social media use also significantly increases search engine ranking.  As we all know, it is very important for your business to rank high on search engines.  Anything that can increase this ranking is very important, and again, it’s free.  Posts, likes, tweets, retweets, +1’s, pins, etc. create what Google refers to as “quality signals”.  “Quality signals” are a key component of the algorithm used by Google to drive ranking. 

To summarize…
  • Social media is free marketing.
  • Social media is targeted to your specific audience.
  • People can easily share your message with others via social media.
  • Consistent use of social media will boost your ranking in search engines.

So, is social media a necessary evil?  As much as it pains me to say, yes, it is undeniable that social media is a necessary evil for any company's marketing plan.




Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.  We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world.  Select Web Solutions is an Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  Our products include Orange County custom website solutions, WebZeo affordable websites in Orange County, MobZeo Orange County mobile websites ProZeo Orange County social media profiles ListZeo Orange County Website Business Listing ServiceSendZeo Orange County newsletter marketing, MailZeo hosted email services in Orange County, SEOLight affordable Orange County SEO, and much more.  

We will be posting musings on this blog related to the web industry.  Follow us on TwitterFacebookLinkedIn or Google Plus



Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Do You Work For Your Website or Does Your Website Work For You?

Do you work for your website or does your website work for you?

Will you try a quick mental exercise with me?  I want you to think for a moment about your own habits.  If you want to find someone or something, you most likely use a search engine (possibly on your phone), and you probably don’t have the time or the inclination to scroll through pages and pages of results.  Am I correct?  I recently needed some new luggage for an upcoming trip, so I pulled up Amazon, Target and Kohls, typed in the type of luggage I wanted, compared what each had to offer, scanned though product reviews to make sure I wasn’t buying something that would fall apart before I made it back home, made my purchase from the one with the best offer and it was delivered to my house two days later, on a Sunday no less.  It was all done within 30 minutes at 11:00 on a Friday night while I was wearing my PJs and sitting in the comfort of my own home.  This is the reality of our world today.  I won’t need luggage again for a while, but I may need a plumber, a dentist or a haircut.  I may want to buy some t-shirts with our company logo, a kitchen table or have my master bath redone.  Regardless of what I want or need, the given is that I will start the process online long before I venture out of the house or pick up the phone, and if I can complete the whole transaction online, well that’s even better.  Now, think about your company’s website…how does it measure up to your own consumer habits?

Back in the day (like 5 minutes ago) it was enough to just have a website.  A company’s website was much like an electronic business card.  All that was needed was a little bit about your company, the products and/or services you offer, and information about how to contact you.  You could either build it yourself or pay someone to build it for you, then just pay for the domain name and hosting and you’re all done.  Easy enough, right?   Well…those days are gone!  Now-a-days, you should not have to work to pay for the costs of your website; instead your website should be an extension of your company, working for you.  It should not simply convey information about your company; it should also perform as a sales and marketing employee, a customer service representative and more. 

So, what does all of this mean for your business?  It means that you need more than just a website.  You need a web strategy that includes:
  • A website that is more than just an electronic business card
  • A mobile version of your website designed for people using their cell phones
  • A cost effective means of getting your website to rank high on search engines
  • A way for people to tell others about your products and/or services
  • A means of sharing information with your customers and gaining the interest of potential customers
Select Web Solutions is always eager to help our customers find the best web strategy for each of our clients.  We would welcome the opportunity to build or update your existing web strategy to meet the needs of today’s technology driven world.  Select Web Solutions is an Orange County website development company in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA.  Our products include Orange County custom website solutions, WebZeo affordable websites in Orange County, MobZeo Orange County mobile websites ProZeo Orange County social media profiles ListZeo Orange County Website Business Listing ServiceSendZeo Orange County newsletter marketing, MailZeo hosted email services in Orange County, SEOLight affordable Orange County SEO, and much more.  

I will be posting on this blog with musings on the web industry; follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus

Written by Stacy Bass

Select Web Solutions, LLC, an Orange County, CA website developer in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Select Web Solutions is a provider of web services in Orange County; including  custom website design in Orange County, MobZeo affordable affordable website development in Orange County, MobZeo mobile websites in Orange Countywebsite hostingonline marketing in Orange Countysearch engine optimization in Orange Countysocial media services in Orange County, newsletter services, email services, logo design and web consulting in Orange County, California.