By Matthew Hiltner on April 21, 2009
With account hacking and identity theft threats growing week by week, it is important for users and providers to do what they can to ensure their data is safe, secure, and as hack-proof as possible.
The simple username and password combination is no longer sufficient because of the security problems created by phishing e-mails that work in combination with forged websites. Some websites get so complex now that to retain all the login information, the usernames, passwords, magic numbers, PINs, the names of pets, high school mascot, and favorite color one almost has to write all of this down otherwise we would never remember it all.
However, some websites have dumbed the process down while making logging in as secure as possible with the technology available today. What used to be available only to partners or employees of organizations that were willing to dole the money out for these advanced technologies has recently been offered to the public for little or no cost.
Some time ago PayPal started allowing their clients to add one more layer of security to their account… a randomly generated number that changes every 30 seconds.Their site (www.paypal.com/securitykey,) which allows you to signup for this feature, also goes into detail about how this works. I’ll give you an abridged version.
Continue reading “PayPal Random Number Security Key”
Filed under Security | Tagged identity theft, PayPal, phishing
By Matthew Hiltner on April 3, 2009
The Network Maintenance scheduled for Thursday evening, April 2nd, has been
postponed until Saturday April 4th. This change was done to minimize any
weekday inconveniences and thoroughly address some issues the data center
has encountered with the recently upgraded network.
- Starting: Saturday April 4th 2009 @ approximately 11:00 PM CST.
- Ending: Sunday April 5th 2009 @ approximately 4:00 AM CST.
Customer downtime is expected to be no more than 15 Minutes.
Description:
- Fixing the faulty hardware that caused an outage early morning of April
1st. From 2:50 am until 4:00 am there were some connectivity issues with
about 40% of our servers. The backplane of the chassis on one of the new
routers began sending errors but never shut down, and thus, the backup never
turned on. To address this issue the technicians are replacing the faulty
hardware and reconfiguring the backups to turn on as soon as system receives
a critical mass of errors.
- Technicians will be removing legacy devices and performing minor work on
the backbone of data centers network. NO customer downtime is expected from
this part of the maintenance, but it was decided to put both of these
together to minimize the inconvenience to all of our clients.
Please note: Every effort is made to accurately represent the maintenance
window and time frame. However, due to factors outside our control we may
need to either start maintenance late or complete the maintenance window
late. Thus, the time frames specified above should be considered approximate
and subject to change.
This maintenance is effectively tweaking our upgraded network and will
create solid redundancies that will eliminate issues like the one
experienced by some of our customers recently.
Thank you for your patience,
Olivejar Network Operations
Filed under Network Updates
By Matthew Hiltner on April 1, 2009
This e-mail is to notify you that Olivejar Network Operations will be performing work on our hosting network in the downtown Chicago data center.
Time Frame:
- Starting: Thursday April 2th 2009 @ approximately 10:30 PM CST.
- Ending: Friday April 3rd 2009 @ approximately 2:30 AM CST.
Please note: Every effort is made to accurately represent the maintenance window and time frame. However, due to factors outside our control we may need to either start maintenance late or complete the maintenance window late. Thus, the time frames specified above should be considered approximate and subject to change.
Description:
- This is a notification of MINOR network maintenance being performed this Thursday night. Legacy devices will be removed and minor work on the backbone of the network will be conducted. NO customer downtime is expected whatsoever, but we wanted to let you know about this event in case something extremely unexpected happens and there is downtime. In case that does happen it will only last for less than five minutes.
Thanks for your continued business with us. The data center never stops looking for ways to update, upgrade, and simply make our network better for you, our customers. Again, NO customer downtime is expected, this is just a notice to let you know what we are working on in case anything does happen.
Thank you for your understanding,
Olivejar Network Operations
Filed under Network Updates
By Matthew Hiltner on March 31, 2009
In recent years there has been a maddening trend where software providers will charge customers for any update that exists outside of the version they purchased. For example, I buy version 1 of said program. Over the next 12 months I may get updates that would result in version 1.1, version 1.2, version 1.5. But as soon as version 2.0 is released, it is rarely released for free.
Continue reading “Software Company Doing It Right”
Filed under Software | Tagged Adobe, Adolix, Microsoft, Vista