Keep Your Web Secure From Hackers

Each passing day brings with it news of a brand new leak of personal information over the Internet. Be it credit card information belonging to millions of users or their email IDs and passwords, personal nude pictures of celebrities or even top secret classified government data — the world of hackers has democratized the Internet and its lack of security at every possible level.
You might now be wondering what this has to do with your innocuous little blog or website that does not carry users’ credit card information or nude pictures of Scarlett Johnson.
Well, hackers can turn your nondescript website into a malicious spy bot in a matter of minutes, sending sensitive user data to hackers without your even realizing it. Worse, they can hack into your website databases and destroy or manipulate important information, injecting your content with malicious links and even hijack the hosting server to be used in bot net D Dos attacks.
But enough of this scare fest. It’s not all doom and gloom out there on the Web. There are things that you can do to secure your website from hackers and becoming a target for on-line vandals. Here’s a roundup of the easiest steps you can take:

Keep All Software Updated

Whether your website was built from scratch by your development team or you chose to create a DIY site on a third party turnkey platform, as a site owner it’s your job to ensure that every piece of software you run is up to date.
CMS providers like Word-press, Joomla and their ilk work round the clock trying to plug any holes in their systems and release regular patches and updates that make their software less vulnerable to attacks. Ensure that you run these updates and have the latest version supporting your site at any given point in time.
If your site uses third party plug-ins, keep track of their updates and ensure that these are updated on time as well. Often, many sites include plug-ins that fall into disuse over time. Clean out your website of any unused, old and non-updated plug-ins — they are sitting ducks for hackers to be used as a gateway to enter your site and wreak havoc on it.

Build Layers of Security Around Your Site
Just as you lock your doors before leaving your house and install anti-virus software on your desktop computer before browsing the web, you should also have a security system to serve as your website’s first line of defense against hacking attacks. A Web Application Firewall is that first line of defense. These solutions are designed to inspect incoming traffic, provide and weed out malicious requests –-  offering protection from SPAM, brute force attacks, SQL Injections, Cross Site Scripting and other OW ASP Top 10 threats.
Until just a few years ago, Web Application Firewalls were only available as hardware appliances, but today a few Security-as-a-service (SECaaS) providers are revolutionizing the industry by using cloud technology to cut down prices of security solutions previously found only in enterprise level setups.
Consequently, all website owners can now “rent” a cloud-based Web Application Firewall, without committing to pricey security appliances or even owning a dedicated hosting server. Better yet, these plug-and-play services don’t require you to hire security experts or attempt to learn every aspect of web security. (Most of us just don’t have the time to become cybersecurity experts too.)
With hundreds of thousands of websites hacked every year, it’s becoming clear that hosting providers are not sufficiently equipped to handle all website security threats because frankly website security is not within their primary agenda. Now cloud-based Web Application Firewalls are filling that void.
Use Strong Passwords, Change Regularly
This one’s another no-brainier. Brute force attacks that try guessing user-name password combinations have multiplied at alarming rates over the last couple of years with thousands of attacks being detected on a daily basis across the web.
Using strong passwords is an effective way to limit if not completely eliminate brute force and dictionary attacks. Strong passwords are not just a requirement for your email or financial transactions on-line, they are also imperative for your website server, adman and database passwords.
Make sure your password is a combination of alphanumeric characters, symbols, upper and lower case characters and is at least 12 characters long to prevent brute force attacks.
Do not use the same password for all your different website logins. Change your passwords regularly to keep them doubly secure. Store users’ passwords in encrypted form. This ensures that even if there is a security breach, attackers do not get their hands on actual user passwords.

Make Ad-min Directories Tough to Spot
An ingenious way hackers gain access to your site’s data is by going straight to the source and hacking into your ad-min directories.
Hackers can use scripts that scan all the directories on your web server for giveaway names like ‘admin’ or ‘login’ etc. and focus their energies on entering these folders to compromise your website’s security. Most popular CMS’s allow you to rename your adman folders to any name of your choice. Pick innocuous sounding names for your adman folders that are known only to your web-masters to greatly reduce the possibility of a potential breach.
This is such a basic and easily avoidable hacking scenario, that it’s astonishing how millions of websites still ignore it.
Conclusion
Most of us go through life with the philosophy ‘It won’t happen to me’. However, that philosophy has been proven not t be true in the world of on-line
security. A successful attack on your site not only leads to compromising of users’ data and your own information, it can also lead to a blacklisting of your site by Google and other search providers as your infected site risks spreading malicious content throughout the web.
Erring on the side of caution works best in this area. Implement at least these basic steps right away, to avoid being a soft target for malicious hackers.

Now Face-book Messenger Has a Web Version

Face-book users have gotten used to chatting with connections on the mobile Messenger app. Now, Face-book has launched a new Messenger version for Web browsers. This means users can now chat on the Web without being on the Face-book page.
For now, this new Face-book Messenger Web version will not be replacing messaging on Face-book. This means you will still be able to send and receive messages on your Face-book page directly. Rather than replacing the Face-book chat, Messenger is a standalone app separate from the rest of the site. It’s a little confusing if you’re not a mobile Messenger user but could have some benefits.
The Web version is supposed to make messaging easier and less distracting, away from the news feed, notifications, and overall business of Face-book. Instead users can focus on their conversations and pay more attention to the messages they send.
The recent unveiling of Business on Messenger may show Face-book plans to do more with this Web version than just idle chatting. With Business on Messenger, companies will be able to connect with their customers, answering questions, confirming orders, and tracking shipping. A separate Face-book
Messenger Web version could help businesses take full advantage of what Messenger has to offer.
You will still need a Face-book account to use Messenger, of course. But once you’re logged in, Face-book chats and messages will appear full screen. This is a step up from the tiny box used on the Face-book site.
The Face-book Messenger Web version looks like it will offer many of the same features as the mobile version: message notifications, photo and video sharing, and even payments. Users will also be able to call each other with either video or just voice.
All in all, the Web version of Messenger is not particularly innovative, though it can probably be expected that Face-book will expand on the service. Right now, the Web version is only offered in English. However, undoubtedly other languages will become available in the near future.

Top 11 Steps for Promoting Your Live Event with Social Media

For many companies hosting an event means tweeting out the day and time, maybe throwing up a Face-book
post to tell people when the event is happening, and then it’s back to the chaos and stress of planning the event.
While some social promotion is better than nothing, it’s important that you take all of the opportunities social media has to offer in terms of promotion. You may be overwhelmed with details of hosting the event, but that doesn't mean that promoting events with social media is something that can be put on the back burner.
It takes time and energy and you need a plan when it comes to social promotion, but once you map out your social strategy you’ll find that the event will be much more successful.
The more people talking about your event, the better chance you have that people will attend, get your brand name out there to their social communities, and the more likely it is that all your hard work will pay off in the end.
Promoting Events with Social Media
Below are a few advanced tactics for promoting events with social media and subsequently earn your brand more visibility:
What to Do Before the Event
Create a web-page specifically for the event. This gives you a great space to feature videos and images, write blog posts, and keep people updated on the event (discussed in the next section). Not only will this give you a great page to share on your social accounts and hope others share, but it’s an opportunity to earn natural links if anyone chooses to mention your event on their website.
Create a hash-tag for the event. In 2015 this is a must-do, and more and more companies are starting to catch on to the trend. Having a hash-tag specifically for the event will help create brand recognition and unify all of the videos, pictures, and posts that people make about the event. It gives everyone one place to visit, on every social network, if they want to look at anything event-related.
Consider creating a promotional video. Before the event starts, consider creating a video to get people more engaged and excited about what is going to happen. If you've held this event before in the past, use music and video shots from last year to create a collage of what to expect. Once you create one video and have that published on your web-page and social accounts for a while, you can create another video just before the event to tell people what they need to do before the event, when they arrive, etc. This keeps the momentum going and keeps you earning the benefits of video.
What to Do During the Event
Have a contest or a giveaway for social participation. Creating some sort of contest or giveaway that asks attendees to do something on social media is a great way to jump-start higher brand visibility on social. This could be taking photos, asking questions on social media, “liking” your social media page, inviting others to like your page, etc.
Encourage visitors to take pictures and videos. This piggybacks on the last point. If you have a contest or some sort of giveaway, have the rules have something to do with posting photos and videos. It’s something easy that everyone can do quickly, so it’s a great option to earn more promotion.
Take your own video footage of the event for after. During the event you should also be taking photos and video so that you have the option of creating something after the event. This will give you something to use after the event to keep the momentum going and have something to post after the event.
Talk with attendees and try to connect on social. During the event, you should always be networking. Getting an email address is usually your best option, but if there is an opportunity to connect on social media that’s a great connection to make and help your promotion in the future.
What to Do After the Event
Follow-up with leads (not necessarily through social). After any event, it’s important to send an email or make a phone call to follow up with your leads. Connecting on Linked-In is also a great way to get in his/her social circles while still remaining professional.
Update the event web-page with content and graphics. After an event, you should update the web-page you created with new videos and images from the event. Hopefully you will have some attendees also getting involved!
Write a blog post about the event and then promote. It’s always a good idea to write a Blog post in addition to updating your web-page so that you have another outlet for people to share on their social accounts. Promote this using all of the tactics listed above and you have yet another opportunity for natural link building and visibility.
Don’t forget about your next event. Just as a side note, it’s a good idea to pay close attention to who responds and comments about your event after it’s over. Keep these people in mind and be sure to send them a personalized social message to let them know you’d love to see them at your next event.
The Takeaway
In the end, social media and event marketing should go hand-in-hand. If you stop at simply making mention of your event on social media, you’re missing out on opportunities not only for more social sharing, but also natural links and other forms of visibility for your company.
Remember, event marketing does more than just help promote an event — it helps promote your business as a while. For more ideas and information, I highly recommend visiting this article from Social Media Today.
Do you have any tips or tricks for promoting events with social media?

Social Media is Impacting A Best Web Design

Social media has been everywhere these days. And it is affecting almost every walk of life.
It is often noticed that social media has its impact on the off-line
world as well. So, it is quite obvious that the world of the Internet would be impacted the most by social media platforms.
For businesses to be successful these days, creating a social media strategy is a must. And for almost everything they do, they need to follow a process that integrates social media in it. Web design is no different when it comes to this. It has experienced a sea of change since the advent of social media on the Internet.
Social Media Impacting Web Design
Social media has been able to exert its impact on Web design to a great extent.
Almost all the companies these days have their presence on social media. And what can be a better platform to let people know about this than the home page of the business website? This is why almost all the websites have the icons of different social media websites. And a click on any of those would lead the website visitor to the company’s social media page. This is becoming imperative for any website these days.
Attractive Design for Social Media Pages and Profiles
The advent of social media has made the Internet more of a live and interactive marketplace than ever before. It’s no more the same drab thing. In addition to creating an attractive website, it is also extremely important to have a prominent social presence. And for that, you need to design how you want to present yourself in front of your potential customers through the social media platforms.
For example, if you want your business to be present on Face-book through a page, it is important to design the Face-book fan page of your business properly. The same holds true for Twitter and other platforms as well. The profiles that you have on these social media websites need to be designed in such a way that they can grab the attention of the viewers with immediate effect.
Perfect Design Necessary for Ads on Social Media
With social media becoming more and more popular with every passing day, increasing numbers of people are joining these websites. For example, Face-book alone has its number of active users in 2015 at a whopping 1.41 billion. This is driving the companies to use these platforms to reach out to their target audiences. So, they are preparing ads for the social media websites. And the focus is more on design.
The ads are being specially designed for different platforms. The objective is to increase their effectiveness and garner more clicks. The designs of the ads will also play an important role in ensuring that the company is able to gather leads, which should be converted to earn revenues. Moreover, the designers are also required to create different other stuff, such as banner ads, mimes, and so on.
Interactive Designs
Social media has helped to create a penchant among people for content that is more interactive and interesting. This is where Web design is expected to play an increasingly important role. Web designers need to shape the websites as well as the social media pages of the companies in such a way that they attract more interaction from the potential as well as the existing customers. This will help them understand what their customers are looking for and where they are going wrong.
Using Images for Social Media Communication
Social media has been able to change the way businesses are run. They are the perfect field to interact with the customers, know what they want from you, and help you decide how you should plan your offerings.
The designs should be planned in such a way that they drive the interaction of hundreds of customers on a regular basis. A picture speaks a thousand words and hence, they are among the best components for communication. So, most of the social media platforms need images. This is where a Web designer becomes relevant. Attractive images need to be created. Moreover, the images should also be resized to meet the requirement of different social media platforms.
Increasing Importance of Web Design on Social Media
Is the importance of Web designing going to diminish with the passage of time?
This is a question that’s haunting the on-line world after the advent of social media. But that is not expected at all. In fact, the importance of Web designing is likely to increase further soon. This is because the companies will need attractive Web design to keep the audience captivated on their social profiles.