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Individuals are looking for options to safeguard themselves and their loved ones in the home as well as in the public. There are a wide array of efficient self-defense choices available. A person may study martial arts to protect himself or herself. A person might also carry weapon for example a gun or a self-defense tool for instance a pepper spray. Pepper spray is an effective tool which can be used for self-defense. Those who desire a non-lethal tool often prefer to carry one with them. An individual can buy pepper spray today in many stores, including sporting goods retailers and gun stores. Even more, to allow for concealment of this defense tool in a person’s pocket or purse, the containers of pepper spray is included in small items such as a pepper spray keychain.

Without a doubt, it truly is effective to make use of pepper spray for self-defense purposes. Made from capsaicin, which is a chemical found in pepper plant varieties, the spray creates a painful effect on its target. People sprayed with it suffer burning of their eyes, nose, and throat, constriction of their airways, and short-term obstruction to their vision. Their natural instinct is to rub their eyes, nose, and mouth to get rid of the chemical and the pain. The intended victim could escape and call for help while they suffer. The effects are temporary. But this gives the victims enough time to safeguard themselves.

Pepper spray is actually regularly used by the military and police departments around the world as it is so effective. These agencies know that this tool could be used efficiently to subdue hostile enemies.

INetU Managed Hosting (www.inetu.net) and Trustwave (www.trustwave.com) have partnered to deliver a security program for merchants seeking compliance with the PCI DSS, HIPAA, and other standards in a managed hosting environment. Together, INetU’s industry-leading managed hosting services and Trustwave’s managed security solutions put merchants who engage both companies in an excellent position to validate compliance with the PCI DSS and other regulatory standards. The new security program provides:

INetU’s Managed Hosting Services: INetU takes a uniquely consultative approach to helping clients with compliance needs. While working with the customer, INetU’s security experts design a managed hosting solution that addresses their compliance needs. Experts help choose the right firewalls, network devices, and server hardening practices that put their hosted servers in compliance with best security practices. INetU is validated PCI DSS compliant and is SAS 70 Type II certified. TrustKeeper®: Trustwave’s on-demand compliance management service, TrustKeeper, detects and alerts you of security flaws at your network perimeter and provides guidance to address these exploits. It also provides the necessary tools to support on-going compliance with several industry and regulatory standards, including external vulnerability scanning. Trustwave Managed IPS: Trustwave Intrusion Prevention System positions state-of-the-art technology at your network choke points that examine traffic passing through at the application layer. It then continuously scans your network to identify assets, self-tuning to provide defense against only those attacks that threaten specific systems and vulnerabilities on your network. Tustwave’s IPS intelligently integrates vulnerability identification and intrusion prevention into a single appliance. Trustwave Network Security Monitoring: Trustwave’s NSM service features a staff of highly trained security engineers that monitor systems 24×7 to provide continuous, expert analysis with minimal false positive reports. Automated analytics and correlation technologies constantly observe security events identified in log stream and monitor trends and patterns for indications of unusual or suspicious activity.

“Our partnership with Trustwave helps us deliver a more complete solution to clients who are handling sensitive data,” says Dev Chanchani, president of INetU. “With the combined expertise of INetU and Trustwave, our clients have the right tools to tackle any compliance concerns.”

“Our managed security services are the ideal solution for any organization looking to implement a more robust data security program to protect key information assets and comply with industry and regulatory standards for the protection of data,” says Robert J. McCullen, chairman and CEO of Trustwave. “This partnership should encourage INetU merchants to move beyond compliance by incorporating security best practices into their organization’s daily security practices.”

About INetU Managed Hosting
INetU (pronounced I Net You) is a Managed Hosting Provider located in Allentown, PA, USA (www.inetu.net). Dedicated to building long-term relationships with its clients, INetU supports many popular Web applications and provides high availability hosting for Enterprise Web sites in the Online Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, SaaS, Web Development, Education, Government, Consulting, Non-Profit. INetU has scored above 95% customer satisfaction over the last four consecutive years of testing.

About Trustwave
Trustwave is the leading provider of on-demand and subscription-based information security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to businesses and government entities throughout the world. For organizations faced with today’s challenging data security and compliance environment, Trustwave provides a unique approach with comprehensive solutions that include its flagship TrustKeeper® compliance management software and other proprietary security solutions. Trustwave has helped thousands of organizations-ranging from Fortune 500 businesses and large financial institutions to small and medium-sized retailers-manage compliance and secure their network infrastructure, data communications and critical information assets. Trustwave is headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout North America, South America, Europe, Africa, China and Australia. For more information, visit https://www.trustwave.com/.

More Hosting Security Articles

In the 47th episode of Team Cymru’s ‘The Who and Why Show’, we’re joined by our Senior Software Engineer Tim Wilde who shares some tips on how to keep your hosted website secure. Tim details the various different types of hosting plus some of the pitfalls and danger areas you need to watch out for regarding preventing different types of attacks.
Video Rating: 5 / 5

www.applicure.com Benefits for hosting companies 1.New revenue generating services. 2.Competitive differentiation by offering a premium security service. 3.Reduced customer service calls and costs related to application hacking. 4.Increased customer satisfaction and retention by enabling continuous business operations. 5.Enhanced company reputation for reliability, security and prevention of potential legal issues. Benefit for your customers: 1.Robust application security with no upfront investment — best TCO in the industry. 2.Protection of customer and corporate data. 3.Reducing website downtime. 4.Meets PCI requirements for web application layer firewall (DSS 6.6). 5.Simple installation, maintenance-free and automatic updates. 6.For Apache and IIS web servers. 7.One stop shop for hosting and security services.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

www.applicure.com Increase Revenues by Offering Security as a Service By offering Web application security to their customers, hosting providers can earn additional revenue while significantly reducing their complaint handling and abuse recovery efforts. With the dotDefender Web application security solution, shared and dedicated hosting providers can protect their customers’ websites from many types of application-based attacks, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, path traversal, and defacement. By installing dotDefender, hosting providers can offer Web application security as a service to their hosted sites, increasing revenues with minimal investment. Reduce Costly Customer Support Calls As targeted application-level attacks proliferate, hosting providers are becoming swamped with complaint calls from customers whose websites have been hacked (eg, SQL injection, compromised servers, corrupted and stolen data). As a result, the hosting companies are forced to invest substantial time and money on handling complaints, fixing hacked sites and restoring data. dotDefender Web Application Security: Win-Win Proposition for Hosting Providers and Their Customers Field-proven at numerous leading hosting companies and ISPs, dotDefender represents a unique win-win proposition for your hosting business and your customers. Hosting providers reduce their abuse handling workload and improve customer satisfaction, while website owners benefit from robust application security …

As always security is one of the most crucial aspects for selecting a web hosting service provider. Online threats and attacks were on its peak in the year 2009. Hence, every individual with and online existence wishes to have the optimum security for their websites and the online data. Few threats are some of the most common threats faced by web hosting companies, hence they are always on a hunt for adoption of various ways of securing their servers and hence their customers.

The Internet has opened doors to a huge market place with customers from across the globe. With this there also has been an increase in individuals who try to exploit data and hack into your systems. Hackers are constantly finding opportunities to exploit the loop holes of other individuals and enterprises. An incorrectly coded website proves to be a buffet for such attackers. Its been observed that the websites involved in eCommerce, are the prime targets for such hackers. They are equipped with highly efficient tools and applications which help them in exploring the loop holes that can be exploited. These hackers can be considered as parasites, where they crawl into the online store and gain their nutrition from the hosts website. Once getting inside and establishing themselves effectively they start doing their intentioned task of stealing money and financial details of your customers. Obviously, in that case you are considered to be the culprit from your customers point of view. Hence we come across various instances where the security was compromised and a crucial information and data been stolen. Hence it is strongly suggested to check the security measures taken by the web host, also, you may choose to get security related add-ons added to your web hosting account. Strong firewall, SSL Certificate etc are some of the security measures that can be adopted.

Another intense type of online attack is the DDoS attack. Usually the attackers have control over botnets. DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. Attackers make use of a computer program that performs certain assigned task. This kind of attack is executed by a botnet, which continuously floods the network with DDoS requests. Since the network gets flooded with loads of requests, the entire traffic slows down and ultimately the entire network collapses. This is one of the oldest types of security exploits that even now been used by attackers. Only if the web hosting provider is experienced and has enough skills, can handle and withstand such attacks. Once the attack is successful, the hackers take control over the server. Once into a particular server, they can explore the vulnerabilities of other servers in the network. They can redirect all the traffic to the other targeted server. Most of the reputed web hosting providers have some other way to tackle such attacks. It is important for users to educate oneself about the various ways to avoid it.

Then there is another type of online threat which pose virtual threat to the web hosts. Hackers make use of malicious codes to attack a web hosting server. These malicious codes are capable of retrieving confidential information from the host server, even the financial details are left uncompromised. Though most of the web hosts have strict security firewalls, they are still prone to these attacks. You can avoid such security flaws by ensuring that your web hosting provider applies appropriate security measures on the servers.

What do you look for in a web host? A low price? Reliability and good support I hope. If you’re anything like today’s ambitious webmaster, you’re on the hunt for the best features. There’s a lot of programs and management tools available to make your site standout but I bet there are some features you pay no mind at all. Often overlooked but one should never forget about critical security features as they will help to keep your web hosting environment protected from an array of threats. Security features are abundant but here some you simply can’t do without:

SFTP

Short for Secure File Transfer Protocol, SFTP is more efficient and secure variation of FTP. In its purest form, FTP only has the ability to transfer files, leaving them vulnerable to a range of security breaches such as eavesdropping, tampering and even interception of the entire file. A web hosting company offering SFTP provides you with the ability to secure your files in transit with SSH (Secure Shell Host), a protocol that protects data with government recommended 128-bit encryption.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer or SSL, should be incorporated on any website that sells products or services. SSL is a standard encryption protocol designed to keep internet communications secure. If a web hosting company doesn’t support a shared or private SSL certificate, you need to turn in the opposite direction and find yourself another provider.

Data Backups

Data backup and restoration is not only something that should be practiced with the files on your hard drive, but those on the web host’s server as well. All it takes is one technical difficulty or natural disaster for the web hosting company to lose a server and all of your website data. The good thing is that most providers perform redundant backups to ensure that your data can be restored in the event of a failure. To be on the safe side, I recommend looking into a web host that offers a utility that allows you to backup your own data.

Network Security

Aside from protecting your files and website transactions, you also need to keep an eye out for security features that protect the web hosting company’s network. Do a little research to learn how the web host is protecting their infrastructure, keeping in mind that intrusion detection systems, firewalls, DDoS protection, virus and spam filtering are common features. Servers are prime targets of hackers and malicious code writers so if the hardware is breached or goes down, your website will suffer right along with it.

These are just a few of numerous security features a web hosting company should offer to ensure the safety of your website data. Hackers are constantly trying to crack into web servers while malware writers are releasing new infectious strains everyday. A web host that doesn’t take this into mind is essentially leaving you wide open for exploitation.

More Hosting Security Articles

Most people are familiar with email viruses and the need for protecting a personal computer against infection. But what are you doing to ensure the safety and security of your website? Most often, business owners leave this side of things up to their web designers and web hosting company. But how do you know that what they are doing is enough to protect your website and business? Let’s look at a few basic things regarding web hosting security that you need to know about.

What Cyber Criminals Are Doing

Hackers and cyber criminals really don’t have a conscience; they aren’t worried that they may be destroying your business or livelihood. Sometimes it is just a game to them to see if they can access and destroy the information held on your website. Other times, they may be after your customer data or business information so they can commit fraud and make online purchases with your customers’ credit cards. They do this by planting malicious code into your website. This code can then run undetected while they harvest the information they want. This is usually referred to as spyware, malware, trojan horses and key loggers. If your website is not protected against these programs, you could find yourself becoming a virtual victim to these hackers.

What Part Does Your Web Hosting Provider Play?

Many business owners will tell you that while they have some basic knowledge about combating spyware and malware, they do not have the time to keep up to date with all the latest information. This is understandable. You have a business to run which involves keeping customers happy. However, you can never afford to just ignore the problem. One of your best options is to make sure that your web hosting providers are the experts. Check with them regarding what protection methods they have on the servers to ensure your website’s security. Make sure that the programs they are using are verified in the computer industry and that they are run on a basis where they receive regular daily updates.

Protecting Your Website Content

The most common way that information is uploaded onto a website is through FTP, also known as File Transfer Protocol. While this is the most widely used method of uploading information, it is not particularly secure. Hackers can intercept the transfer, and add, delete or change information. They then send it on its way to your website without you even being aware of it. They could put malicious code into the content which could capture your business or company details, depending on the nature of your site. Even the content of your website is valuable. No doubt you took many hours to write it so you will want to protect it. A more secure way of transferring information is known as SFTP. It is a similar protocol to FTP except that it has added security features so the transfer cannot be accessed by hackers as easily.

Protecting Your Customers’ Information

If you have an ecommerce site, it is absolutely essential that you make use of SSL to protect your customer information. SSL is known as Secure Sockets Layer. What this does is encode and hide information such as customers’ credit card numbers, customers’ billing addresses and other pertinent information.  If you do not have this in place on your website, you are leaving your customers vulnerable to identity theft and credit card fraud.  Hackers are pretty efficient when it comes to getting their hands on that information if it is not encoded. They could be making purchases online and using your customers’ credit cards long before they become aware of it. If you run an e-commerce site, make sure that your hosting provider has SSL. In addition, they should be able to provide you with an SSL certificate which you can place on your website to show customers you have a secure website for them to transact on.

How Diligent Is Your Hosting Provider About Website Security?

Any good web hosting provider will know how essential it is to have good security. Hackers are constantly coming up with creative new ways to access your website information and send out viruses. No hosting provider can afford to be anything but proactive in their approach to combating cyber criminals. If when speaking to your hosting provider, you get the impression that they are not terribly concerned about keeping up-to-date security measures then it is time to look around for another hosting provider. They should be the experts and able to provide you with the latest protection available.