It’s important to be proactive when managing your website security. The objective is to minimise the risk of hacking to ensure its available to your online customers. A common mistake is to to just ‘set and forget’ once your website is online and not worry about maintaining it. We urge you not to assume that your site won’t get attacked in the vastness of the Internet because at some point it will at least get probed by people with malicious intentions.

The painful task of having to restore your site after it has been compromised takes time, effort, money and importantly takes your focus away from working on your business success.

Dealing with a compromised website could mean potentially losing your website data completely if you haven’t taken the necessary steps. Our advice is to take the time to ensure that your website is secure as possible to reduce your risk.

At Modica we host a large number of websites from small and medium enterprise businesses using Wordpress, right up to extremely large and complex government websites. These tips are targeted more at smaller website owners but the logic applies to any website on the Internet.

1. Keep your site version current

If you’re using Wordpress to manage your website, you’ll know that periodically there are new versions released. At the time of writing this article Wordpress is up to version 3.3.2. Each version that is released can include important security patches the remove any known bugs and weaknesses that have been discovered from previous versions. If your site is on an old version then it’s in much more danger of being hacked. Upgrading your Wordpress site to the current version is as easy as one click once you’re logged in. My advice to you is login now, and check that you’re on the current version. The same logic applies if your site is built using Joomla, Drupal, Silverstripe or any other content management system.

2. Use Strong Passwords

The stronger your password, the less likely that a hacker can force their way into your admin area and take control of your website. We recommend that your passwords should be at least 12 characters long and contain a mixture of letters, numbers and special characters. For passwords our advice is the longer the better. Words taken from the dictionary are also the easiest for a hacker to beat so it’s best to mix them up.

Where possible try and use a pass-phrase instead of a password because they are stronger and also easier to remember than just a random selection of numbers and letters.

Unsure what a pass-phrase is? An example would be “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” becomes “tqbfjotld”. Check out the Wikipedia article for more information.

To highlight the dangers of easy passwords, Mashable has posted a list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011.

Here are the top 5:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123

Lastly, here is some great advice from Google on passwords including what to avoid.

3. Backup, backup, backup.

At Modica we keep backups of all the sites we host. You can also purchase additional backup capacity which includes daily, weekly, monthly and then 6 monthly backup versions of your site to ensure you have a copy to roll back to in case of problems arising.

For our clients using our shared website hosting platform we encourage all of them to make their own personal backups of their site. It is best to take a backup periodically so that should the worst happen you won’t lose all of your important data and recent website history.

Summary

To recap our top three tips -

1. ensure you’re on the most recent version for your site CMS
2. use strong passwords and
3. protect yourself with periodic backups. Overall these strategies are about minimising the risk of your website on the Internet.

If you’re concerned about your site hosting or security feel free to call and talk to the team at Modica. We’d be happy to answer your questions about hosting your website.

Author: Jono Tucker
Modica Senior Account Manager

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TSB Bank is a text banking client of the Modica Group so it was with a certain apprehension that I downloaded their new in-house iPhone App MyBank for review. We have seen a number of Banking iPhone applications roll out over the last few years and a good number of them have been clunky, ugly and lacking features!

Not so the new App from TSB. The look and feel is elegant and the features you need are there and easy to use.

The initial sign up process was very quick and simple. It did make me a little nervous though because the App uses some new branding and you aren't 100% sure it's their App, and they ask you for your internet logon details (which probably breaks your terms and conditions with the bank). I think a little more positive reinforcement that you are in the right place when handing over your details would keep confidence high.

I do appreciate that they have made the login simple and easy. Most banks cannot resist making it so secure you can't really use the application or come up with a password that works. There are two annoying quirks around login that it would be nice to see addressed - remembering my username and if you accidentally hit the home button on your iPhone it logs you out immediately of your current session.

The look and feel of the App is quite elegant and some of the theme and design features give you some nice personalisation options. Personally these are a nice to have but I wonder if the effort to include them will be put to good use by the TSB’s customers.

The comprehensive features for paying bills and people means you can use your iPhone to do everything you need, which is rare as the bank security team normally wants to cull this. Of special note is the ability to create new payees instantly and customise almost every part of your account details - I like that!

A full list of features (well as far as I can tell) are;

• Full Payee and payments management functionality
• Balance and history for all accounts
• Ability to open new accounts
• Transfers between your accounts
• Secure mail and chat with the bank
• Fully customisable themes + imagery
• Management of your alerts
• Forex rates
• All of your account information with the ability to edit
• Customisable home page features

One really interesting part of this launch is the inclusion of Bump Pay (http://bu.mp/labs). Bump Pay enables two smartphones using Bump apps to transfer card or account payments data by tapping against each other. The transactions require physical contact, rather than the near-field communication wireless technology that drives most tap-and-pay mobile phone payments and is the favored technology of large mobile payments initiatives such as the Google Wallet and the telecom-driven ISIS.

TSB....this is huge. You have it live, launched and ready to go. Come talk to us and all the other mobile solution providers and lets get it to market!

As a parting comment..... I have been a TSB customer for about 25 years and they are amazing. They are sometimes accused of being a little stuffy but this App, whilst being almost too comprehensive is seriously top quality.

Stuart Wilson

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You know what it's like: you're on a team trip to Bay of Babes for some, err, training and the guys and gals gather in your room, spy the mini-bar fridge and drink it dry before moving on to the next room. It's a great joke and all are boasting about hangovers in the morning when you all go down to reception to pay.

"So, are you all going to contribute the $1,200 for the mini-bar bills," asks a weary manager, "Or did you think you are so nice that we'll toss it in free?"

Nah, pleading ignorance and claiming it's the first time away from mum and you didn't know they charged for this stuff. "You charge for it? You can't be serious? The bottles didn't have price tags."

Pleading ignorance, even if you are a little, um, ignorant, doesn't cut it anymore. Hotel managers were over the joke even before your mum tried it 40 years ago.

Fast forward a few decades and it's the same joke with a new twist. Phone companies may charge the equivalent of a hotel mini-bar for bits of roaming data, but it's not 1995 anymore. Pleading ignorance to international roaming rates is as dumb as drinking the mini-bar dry and not expecting to pay. "You charge more for roaming internationally? Really? I had no idea."

Media outlets report the faux outrage every time someone tries it on and cops a thousand dollar plus databill. Nope, leave both caps alone when your roaming foreign climes: the little whisky ones and the smart phone data ones. Or, at least read your network provider's data caps and roaming charges before you hit the hotel rooms. The joke has worn off phone companies too.

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IPv6 enablement has become part of our standard hosted service offering, and we have been blogging about it and presenting to clients to help educate them and show how easy it can be.

Whether you are completely new to the subject or have your own allocation of addresses from APNIC, We are more than happy to talk you through our experiences or answer your questions so you can get your external facing websites ready!

If you are interested in finding out more about how to enable IPv6 for your organization, or are keen to take part in this year’s IPv6 day email us at IPv6@modicagroup.com

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As a web hosting company, the issues surrounding lack of IPv4 addresses and the introduction of IPv6 are not new to us. What many other types of business are not aware of however, is how best to approach the subject in relation to their organization, what they need to do and when, or often, where to start.

Firstly we advocate the approach that we took here at Modica with our own infrastructure – start with the basics. It’s all about small wins and manageable deployments. If you keep it managed and controlled it will not eventuate into a huge project full of cost / risk and dreaded scope creep.

That’s the purpose of this blog post.It’s about helping you develop your own project plan and showing you that this is actually straightforward and simple.

We are interested in looking at how you can segment and organize the rollout.

Getting your web-hosting provider to add dual stack reachability does not need to be hard or costly.
Whilst this can be a very technical subject, most of that knowledge is with the hosting provider’s infrastructure team, and if they have experience of enabling IPv6 they can make this a really easy process for you. 
This is a small project, easily controlled and gives you some instant public wins.

Breaking off these chunks will allow you to see the wood clearly and not worry about the trees.

The most challenging task for most organizations will be updating the internal network. This will require some good planning and an organized rollout, sound testing, a dedicated project manager and internal expertise, however, there are still ways to keep this as easy as possible. isolated rollouts and internal user groups for example.

Keep in mind that if you have knocked off the easy bits first you can focus on this larger task without distractions.

Final point: don’t let anyone fool you that this is another Y2K. You have plenty of time to get this sorted and do it right first time.

So, if it is so easy, how do you go about getting your public website enabled?

Well, first thing you do is ask your current hosting provider if they are IPv6 capable. If the answer is no, don’t panic and switch providers just yet. Ask them what their plans are and when they intend to make this a service they offer.
If the answer is still no, or the time frames don’t suit you then look around by all means.

Hopefully however, the answer was along the lines of “yes, of course” in which case they should then provide you with a breakdown of the work needed for your site and the costs involved. Again, there is no magic involved here, so anyone unable to clearly articulate this should get a red flag, not the privilege of your business.

Who is actually doing this I hear you ask?
Well, last year on June 8th World IPv6 day took place. This was organized and sponsored by the Internet Society and supported by five major companies. Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks.
For this day only, these major websites (and many others) enabled IPv6 for 24 hours.
Whilst this may seem a little unnecessary, it was a great opportunity to organizations to set them selves a goal – get the public facing websites accessible and see what issues it would expose. – A real world test if you like.
We made our own website available, as well as a number of client sites (they bravely volunteered!) This gave us some real world experience of what life will be like in the future, allowed us to identify any issues (with IPv4 availability also you won’t see these) and put in place fixes quickly.

(We only encountered one trivial issue that was fixed quickly incidentally.)

This year on June 6th the same large sites are taking part in IPv6 day again (as well as many others). This time however, they won’t be switching it off!

Many of our IPv6 enabled clients are NZ Govt departments, and we shared the stories of our enablement process and challenges at the Practical IPv6 for Govt seminar on 23rd Feb in Wgtn.

If you are interested in learning more about our IPV6 enabled hosting and how you can do it for your organization you can email your questions to IPv6@modicagroup.com or directly to me at bernadette.moody@modicagroup.com

If you are keen to do some research of your own, here are some great resources to look at.

http://www.ipv6.org.nz/
http://internetnz.net.nz/
http://www.ipv6.govt.nz/

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According to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the meaning of life is 42. That may be so, and impossible to argue intelligently either for or against, but why is the maximum length of an SMS 160? Who says so?

If you're one of the many Modicagroup users who contacts your customers directly using our email-to-text service, you might occasionally have wondered why the 160-character limit is imposed. It's not something we set, but its origin is interesting.

In 1985, a German communications researcher, Friedhelm Hillebrand, was trying to find out how much available space, or bandwidth, there was in the GSM cell phone standard to piggy back a text message along with voice. He hit his typewriter keys at home and banged out random messages and responses. Then he read a few postcards and found that around 160 characters should have been enough for people to communicate meaningfully using text messaging. He only had electronic space for 128 characters so he tweaked the specification and found he could squeeze in another 32, and 160 became the magic number.

He's written about that and the development of the GSM cellular technology and you can buy the book, but his love of numbers has caused him to add several to the price, so, only if you really, really need to know, should you buy it.

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via mobileinquirer.com

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If you are building your own application and need SMS / TXT connectivity, come and talk to us about our Global Connect Service. We can provide you with a SOAP or HTTP gateway that can allow you to communicate with your clients or staff via SMS or MMS* If you sign up for a 12 month contract we will reward you with a free setup of the gateway and your 1st month free. **
Contact us on sales@modicagroup.com to get more info or signup.

Conditions:
*carrier dependant
** discount is dependant on a 12 month contract being signed. Early termination will result in
the whole amount becoming payable.
** applies to new gateway setups only
** excludes all other costs, including short codes and messages
** service is subject to carrier approval.

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If you have time on your hands over the Xmas break, why not try our free mobile site builder Tik.ee.

It includes hosting, QR codes and SMS keywords all in one place.

You can Contact us on sales@modicagroup.com to get more info, visit www.tik.ee to check it out and setup your first site or simply text tikee to 289 (NZ) or 19900040 (Aus) to see it in action.

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As it is nearly Xmas, we are offering a deal on our shared hosting plans. Move your site to
one of these plans and get up to 2 months hosting free!

Contact us on sales@modicagroup.com or 0800 77 66 22 to move or get more info!
Plans not big enough for you? Talk to us about our range of VM’s.

Conditions:

• This offer is valid until the 15th December.
• New hosting plans only.
• No term plan = free setup only
• 12 month term = free setup + 1 month hosting free.
• Contract term is for 12 months. Early termination will result in the contract amount becoming payable.
• 24 month term = free setup and 2 months hosting free.
• Contract term is for 24 months. Early termination will result in the contract amount becoming payable.
• Excludes domains and any software costs

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They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is a free service that takes your website mobile.

Modica Group is pleased to present Tik.ee, a new service that allows you to create a mobile version of your website, complete with QR codes, SMS discoverability and Social Media integration.

For small and medium-sized businesses, adapting a website for mobile can be a complicated and expensive process. But it doesn't have to be. Tikee, now in beta, generates a mobile version that will look great on virtually every mobile phone.

There are many options out there for creating a mobile site says Modica chief executive Stuart Wilson, but only Tikee also provides a full range of other mobile services. Need a QR code on advertising? Tikee has it covered. Want a short code customers can text to get information about your business? Look no further.

“With a 11-year history of providing digital marketing and internet services, Modica knows mobile,” Wilson says. “And now we've purpose-built New Zealand’s first free, cloud based service to allow you to make your own website mobile, and much more. It's going to be awesome.”

Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps integration is easy on Tikee's WYSIWYG editor. And, if you need more SMS keywords and other functionality, a premium upgrade is available.

Press contact: Stuart Wilson, Modica CEO, +64 21 415 052, http://tik.ee

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via anisesmithmarketing.wordpress.com

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Is your content hosted in New Zealand? 

"Excluding local caching, overseas hosted content will typically give poorer customer experience due to higher latency. The trade-off between lower hosting costs overseas and poorer customer experience isn’t leading to logical decision-making by New Zealand content owners as there is no differentiation at the retail level between domestic and international traffic."

Read more here: http://internetnz.net.nz/news/media-releases/2011/InternetNZ-publishes-discussion-paper-data-caps

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Apple recently announced their new messaging service iMessage with their latest iOS5 release. It promises unlimited messages using 3G or Wifi to any other iPod or iPhone. On the surface this sounds fantastic and could only be a good thing for consumers as they no longer have to pay their carrier 20c to send a text in NZ. 

It’s long been touted that carriers are profiting from the high cost of SMS relative to the data usage that each message requires of the network. Although, now that each carrier in NZ is sending around 20 Million TXT messages a day, there is a requirement for some serious network capacity and investment.

The carriers are likely to be a little nervous given there are at least 200,000 iPhones in NZ, plus as many iPods. Apple have cleverly included the ability to send photos and videos too, which use more data but can equally save you more money compared to paying for an MMS on your mobile carrier plan. Carriers could look to lower their messaging rates even further to entice people to use SMS, but when compared to iMessage’s promise of free unlimited messages it’s a little hard to compare.

As an iPhone owner myself this does sound great. The iPhone is definitely the mobile phone of choice for many of my friends and peers. A few rogue exceptions use Android or Blackberry (shudder) for corporate IT/email reasons. If you want to text these non-Apple devices you’ll still need to use a good old SMS. 

Let’s take a moment to look at the real price of an SMS in NZ

2Degrees will sell you 2,500 messages for $10 and their standard charge is 9c per message. On the surface you’re only spending 4/10ths of a cent per message if your usage makes it to 2,500 messages per month.

Vodafone offer 2,500 txts for $12 and also 5,000 txts to other Vodafone mobiles for a measly $10. Personally, I think that if you’re sending 5,000 txts a month, you need to get outside more and talk to people face to face.

Telecom offers a $6 plan for 150 messages and have $12 for 2,500 similar to Vodafone. Sending an SMS overseas usually won’t come under a consumer txt plan and prepay users will have to pay about 30c per message. This is where iMessage starts to look attractive.

When a marketer wants to send a message to their customer from a NZ shortcode they get charged for every push. The cost is around 16-18c per message depending on the carrier and volume. There are cheaper overseas options at around 4c per message but these relay on dodgy international carrier connections and offer unreliable delivery. We frown upon these types of services and we’ve heard of horror stories where the connection is cut off entirely without warning because the messages are not being sent on an official NZ shortcode. At Modica we push hundreds of thousands of messages directly to the carriers on their official shortcodes yet strangely a prepay consumer can get a cheaper rate. It’s little wonder that marketers can turn to social media or email channels when they compare the cost of an SMS message.

It’s also worth pointing out a major public misconception about mobile marketing in NZ. When a consumer sends a message to your shortcode, the cost is never included in any of the TXT plans and bundles. If the ad says the message costs 20c then that’s exactly what it will cost. 

For mobile marketers does this affect their campaigns? 

I think it’s highly unlikely that iMessage will have an impact on SMS competitions and similar campaigns that use shortcodes, mainly because the cost per message is fixed and not included in a TXT plan. A consumer is typically charged 20c for texting to enter competitions or for services like requesting their Fly Buys account balance. They can be charged 50c for sending a comment to Campbell Live on TV3 and typically it’s free to TXT when sending a message to a Government department. 

In my opinion the only potential threat is that the perceived cost of messaging becomes so low that a customer may eventually look at 20c as a barrier and decide that it’s not worth sending the SMS. It’s widely accepted in the current market that having a 20c price point on your campaign is not a barrier to entry for SMS competitions or when texting your local radio station to engage with the DJ for example. It is still up to the marketer to ensure that their campaign is compelling enough to entice their audience to act.

Are there other downsides of Apple’s iMessage? 

Given that the system only works on Apple devices it is possible that the other phone manufacturers or OS makers like Google (Android) and Microsoft  could release their own versions which could lead to a segmented messaging ecosystem. It’s possible, but unlikely that they would integrate their systems together via an open standard. In an ideal world all I want is a single messaging system to talk to my network. Cue opportunity for Facebook messaging, email, Gmail Chat etc.

If one thing is clear, it’s that the messaging space is evolving with the market and the global growth of the smartphone. The fact that phone manufacturers like Apple have jumped on this channel reveals the size and potential of the opportunity. Personally, I’m looking forward to iMessage and think that it will be a great app for connecting with my circle of Apple friends. I am concerned that carriers that are losing revenue may look to increase prices elsewhere to offset the costs of running a mobile network. With the success of voice and video applications like Skype and Viber more services will run on data and erode the mobile carriers’ traditional revenue. 

If you want to talk about mobile marketing with a company that has years of experience and a solid delivery platform then get in touch with us via our website or call us on 0800 77 66 22 and ask to speak with Jono.

Author - Jono Tucker

Modica Senior Account Manager based in Wellington, New Zealand

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