Could Your Blog Cause You Big Problems?

Could Your Blog Cause You Big Problems?

Blogging has become so common that it seems as if everyone is at it. It is not hard to see why – it is a cheap, easy way to connect with people, and anyone can do it. Blogs are read by millions across the world. In Britain, more than half of people who use the internet spend some of their time reading blogs. Everyone, from teenagers killing time in their bedrooms, to multi-national corporations, has got in on the blogging act.


There is nothing wrong with that, of course. Blogging is engaging and informative for readers. However, it is not always safe. Inevitably, the growing popularity of blogging has meant that it has attracted the attention of people up to no good, as well as those just looking for a good read.

Blog Risks
You probably put a lot of time and energy into your blog – so imagine if a hacker got in, and locked you out? Once in, there are several things they might want to do. If it is a business blog, they might be keen to embarrass you by posting inappropriate material. They might look to steal personal information from you and others who access the blog. They might mercilessly spam your readers, or just use your blog to link to their own site to get themselves more hits. The more popular your blog, the more likely you are to be targeted. If you do not know how to protect yourself, it is time to find out.

Staying Safe
There are a few things you should do to keep your blog safe from hackers. Remember that if anyone else has access to the blog, they immediately become a security risk, as they might take risks that you would not. Make sure they work to keep your blog safe too. Choose a unique, strong password for your blog and any email accounts associated with it, and change them regularly. Make sure you have good virus protection, and do your research when choosing a hosting service – not all have the same commitment to virus protection that you might. Finally, do not allow spam comments; as well as looking bad, the links in them can be viruses. Do all that, and whilst you cannot be sure your blog is safe, you can rest assured that it will be much safer than it would have been if you’d done nothing.

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Security Predictions for 2012

"The Top 5 Auth Predictions for 2012" Confident Technologies of San Diego predicted these five things were going to happen in 2012 with respect to securit and authentication . You can read their entire post here:   http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=12107 It's roughly halfway through the year and we thought it was a good time to review these predictions about authentication security and see if they have (or will) come true or not. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter @liveensure.   Prediction #1:  BYOD (bring your own device) will spell big trouble for businesses in terms of data loss in 2012.   Is it risky to use your mobile device for security?  Smart solutions are clever enough to turn any BYOD risk into a positive, cost-saving security weapon for trust. By embracing the pervasiveness of mobile devices and leveraging their unique characteristics for secure, private user authentication, an innovative solution such as LiveEnsure® affords businesses, web sites and applications the ability to strengthen user security and immunize against data loss in the face of this growing trend.   Prediction #2:  There will be a large data breach which will finally cause organizations across many industries to realize they cannot rely solely on passwords to protect user accounts.   Absolutely. Relying upon the user to manage their authentication security has been the failure of many products, providers and solutions in the past. The most egregious example of this is when sites and networks employ just a simple username and password for user access security.  A solution like LiveEnsure® which exploits natural factors (device, session, context) vs. man-made or recalled factors provides the strongest, simplest,  elegant and cost-effective way for businesses to “fix” the existing user login gap across websites, applications and services. Sites and apps merely mashup the service with their existing login process, while users simply leverage their smart device in a private and seamless way to enforce and protect their identity online. Unlike traditional solutions, there are no passwords, SMS messages, cookies, certificates, secret images, JavaScript, tokens or dongles with LiveEnsure®.   Prediction #3 Targeted variations of Zeus-in-the-Mobile style attacks will grow.   The hackers are always busy. Key-loggers, screen-scrapers, trojans, viruses and traditional social engineering hacks rely upon the user personally transmitting their private credentials either on-screen or via the keyboard. Existing multi-factor authentication solutions rely upon user skill to protect private information when taking it from the secure channel (i.e. out-of-band, their own recollection) and placing it back into the vulnerable “channels” of the browser, keyboard or existing communication paths where hackers are waiting to capture it. LiveEnsure® revolutionizes that flow by taking authentication information from the insecure channel and verifying it in an external secure channel through a mechanism called triangulation. Hackers are unable to see, capture and replay security login information when LiveEnsure® is used to protect authentication process.   Prediction #4: Smart devices will enable smart authentication via image-based authentication, biometrics and more.   There is nothing unique about mobile devices that makes their biometric or image-based authentication techniques any more effective, secure, impervious, immutable or private than they were before on the desktop or other proprietary devices. They just make them more pervasive. Is that a good thing? LiveEnsure® leverages the unique and powerful capabilities of smart mobile devices without adopting the inherent privacy risks often associated with them. LiveEnsure® is able to provide hack-proof authentication for users, sites and apps via line-of-sight authentication. LiveEnsure® proves the user is who they are, where they are and when they are - without any of the privacy risks associated with NFC (near field communication), cookies, certificates, out-of-band messages, special on-screen encoded values and browser-based Javascript fingerprint harvesting and transmission. LiveEnsure® is a blue-water innovation in a sea of red-water challenges with respect to user and device authentication.   Prediction #5: Retailers and mobile payment providers will lead the adoption of new mobile authentication techniques in 2012.   Authentication is for everyone. LiveEnsure® recognizes that user trust and defense-in-depth security measures are no longer reserved for major corporations, top-tier websites and expensive applications and networks. Usable security is a right and a requirement for all who participate online, whether via mobile commerce and gaming, social networks or private user-to-user chats, messaging and information exchange. Strength, simple deployment, lower cost and elegant usability are the key factors for ensuring market and customer adoption of any authentication solution. LiveEnsure® provides those benefits tailored to the safe, high-volume, low-barrier user experience so critical to the satisfaction with and success of online businesses, services and applications.   If you don't believe us, simply grab your iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows Mobile device and try it now at http://experience.liveensure.com. In addition, we invite you to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates and news from LiveEnsure®.