Aug 20 2013

FAQoTW: HELP! My WordPress Web Site has been Hacked AGAIN

A distraught wordpress hosting client contacted us this week because recently they’d been told their website was no longer working – instead, visitors to the site saw an image extolling some activist group support by a hacker.

The client (prior contacting us) simply deleted the hacked post, and had spent a further 2 days working on their site, when it once again was exploited, this time sending out 80,000 junk emails offering pharmaceuticals and the entire site had been deleted – 3 years of blog, images and comments all gone.

Whilst unfortunate, the problem was self-inflicted, as they continued to use a WP version which was 31 months (including numerous major and minor releases) behind the current version.

By putting something online, you’re inviting the world to see it.

Sadly not everyone is content just to ‘look’, many will try and abuse your website to send spam, announce how clever they think they are, or steal from you.

The majority of hacked, defaced or abused sites are because the site-owner has allowed uploads by anybody, used a theme/template containing dodgy|exploitable code, or because they simply didn’t apply patches and security updates in a timely manner.

Keeping your website applications up to date is extremely important.

New versions of common scripts are released on a regular basis, and these updates contain bug fixes and security patches.

Failure to apply patches and keep your applications updated means that you will get hacked and your site defaced/abused or deleted.

Regular maintenance is a critical part of your website/online-presence, and must not be ignored.


Astutium have made it as simple as possible to install, manage and upgrade over 200 applications with as little as 3 clicks through our Softaculous Script Installer which comes as standard on all hosting packages, and is available as an option for all virtual, cloud and dedicated servers.

To resolve this particular site(s) problems, they could have started again from scratch with a new WordPress install and then typed/pasted back any content they wished to keep (before allowing the site to be world-visible).

Thankfully, that rather slow and troublesome task was avoided as they employed Astutium to perform a Custom SaaS Upgrade Service and the Astutium Technical Support Team:

  • replaced the site with a holding page
  • restricted access to the wp-admin directories to know ip addresses
  • restored the site from the client supplied backups
  • validated the restore was clean of infections
  • upgraded the site to version 3 of WP
  • ran through the all minor versions and security updates
  • made a final backup and put the site online
  • sent the client our ‘how-to-further-secure-wordpress’ document

Within a day the site was updated, back online and the exploits used to deface it and sent spam solved.

For anyone running an outdated WordPress Installation – this is our Knowledgebase Article explaining how to keep it up-to-date in future:
How to upgrade a program installed with Softaculous?

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/08/faqotw-help-my-wordpress-web-site-has-been-hacked-again/

Aug 11 2013

Swedish Registry (dotSE) takes over running .nu (dotNU) ccTLD


At the end of August 2013 the Swedish Registry IIS.SE will take over the running of the registry services for .nu from WorldNames.

All currently registered .nu domain names will be managed by IIS who already operate the registry for .se

New domain registrations, transfers, renewals and updates for .NU will continue to be available through accredited registrars and their resellers.

The transition between registry operators is complex and takes time, and requires a consistent data-set, so to facilitate the take-over the entire .nu system will be closed between 30th August 2013 and at least the 2nd September 2013, but possibly not reopening until the 20th September 2013.

Timeline:
* August 26th 8am (CEST) all .nu domain transfers must be completed
* August 28th 8am (CEST) .nu domains will no longer allow updates to nameservers or contacts
* August 30th 8pm (CEST) the .nu (dotNU) registry system will be closed down
* September 2nd/3rd possible reopening of ccTLD registry services to allow for domain renewals
* By September 20th everything should be transferred and access to the new registry system will open completely.

Between 26/August and 20/September it won’t be possible to:

  • register new .nu domain names
  • udpate nameservers fon .nu domain names
  • transfer between .nu registrars
  • trade / transfer ownership of .nu domains
  • make any changes to existing .nu registered names.

Astutium are a registrar for .NU domain names and ask all registrants to take note of the following VERY IMPORTANT points…

  • IF YOUR DOMAIN DOES NOT HAVE CORRECT CONTACT DATA ON THE WHOIS YOU MUST UPDATE IT NOW TO KEEP THE DOMAIN
  • IF YOUR DOMAIN EXPIRES BETWEEN 26/AUGUST and 30/SEPTEMBER YOU MUST RENEW NOW TO KEEP THE DOMAIN
  • IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO TRANSFER YOUR DOMAIN TO ASTUTIUM YOU MUST START THE PROCESS BEORE 20/AUGUST
  • IF YOU ARE MOVING HOSTS YOU CANNOT CHANGE NAMESERVERS AFTER 28/AUGUST SO MUST COMPLETE THAT PROCESS URGENTLY

Nothing should change for the owner of already registered .nu domain names.

The domains will also keep functioning the entire time, and registrants should contact their registrar if they have any questions or problems.

The authorisation letter for the transition can be accessed at http://nunames.nu/Press/worldnames-se-en.pdf

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/08/swedish-registry-dotse-takes-over-running-nu-dotnu-cctld/

Aug 05 2013

NameSpace Collisions de-railing new gTLDS

August 5 2013 ICANN published the results of a study examining the consequences of ‘name space collisions’ between applied-for and non-delegated Top Level Domains.

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-3-05aug13-en.htm

Details and the public comment information can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/name-collision-05aug13-en.htm

The study divided strings into three categories based on risk:

  • Low risk
  • Uncalculated risk
  • High risk

Two TLDs come out as high-risk, and may have their application cancelled completely – one of which is not a surprise:

.HOME which is widely used on end-user equipment

The study included mitigation options for each category to minimise collision potentials…

Low risk

: Continue with contracting and delegation, devise mitigation strategies that would not interfere with launch timeline

Uncalculated risk

: Carry out further studies about risk; these studies may take approximately 3-6 months to complete

High risk

: Delay contracting and delegation and commence with mitigation efforts that will eventually land these two strings in the “low risk” category

ICANN continually stresses that security is of the utmost importance in the new gTLD introduction process. Keep in mind that the above mitigation strategies are in the proposal phase only; public comment and feedback is
encouraged.

ICANN has posted these recommendations for public comment, and the initial reaction from the New TLD Applicant community has been swift and strong — the term “backlash” springs to mind. With two new gTLDs facing elimination, and a further 20% of all applications confronting an uncertain future after years of work and millions of dollars invested, the next few weeks promise to be colorful indeed.

More information can be seen at
http://www.worldipreview.com/news/icann-delays-20-percent-of-gtlds
http://blog.icann.org/2013/08/a-better-new-gtld-program/

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/08/namespace-collisions-de-railing-new-gtlds/

Jul 08 2013

FAQotW: Why can’t I always login to the Hosting Control Panel

At Astutium we’re proud of the high-level of customer satisfaction customer express of the support team with tickets averaging satisfaction of 4.44/5.

Most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are answered in our Extensive Knowledgebase or shown as examples in our Online Video Tutorials, but occasionally, we get something new to look into which takes detailed investigation by our highly-trained team.

One such question recently we’ve named our FAQotW [Frequently Asked Question of the Week]

“Why can’t I always login to the Hosting Control Panel ?”

Details and Resolution …

Every new version of a browser introduces additional security features (good) and bloatware (bad) designed to make them look faster/newer/more-web2.0 etc
Lots of these “extensions” are specific to the browser and are not part of any HTML or defined standard – just “good ideas” thrown in at the last minute.

Unfortunately this often means that some browser versions are no longer suitable for general use on the inetrnet !

The latest versions (9 and 10) of Internet Explorer (under Windows 7 and 8) introduces a number of quirks which make it great for losing several hours on youtube, but in it’s default setup absolutely useless for login to hosted systems, access to online services and use with many cloud applications

If you’re having login problems to your hosting control panel for example rejecting username/password when you’re 100% sure that you typed them correctly and that you’ve not triggered a firewall block for too many incorrect attempts, issues with standard shopping-cart features (usually involving javascript) or even problems managing email in webmail, then there is a solution.

Microsoft knew about their “problem” with the browser before it was released and added a “Compatibility Mode” for when IE’s specific quirks “break” a web site, which you must enable for use on web services which use standard web-application methods rather than IE-only features.

So just turn on compatibility mode (click on the Compatibility Mode icon in Internet Explorer a “broken page” icon located on the address bar) and try again – problem solved – you’re now access the web the way it was intended 🙂

See MS Article on Compatibility Mode for more details.

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/07/faqotw-why-cant-i-always-login-to-the-hosting-control-panel/

Jul 04 2013

Hosted MineCraft Server 1.6 Now Available at Astutium

As recently announced at https://mojang.com/ 1.6 is here!

The highly-anticipated new version (1.6.1) of MineCraft … now comes with added horseyness 🙂
Get your MC1.6 minecraft server Minecraft Server Hosting with 16% off during July with coupon “MC16SERVER”

Minecraft 1.6

* Vanilla Minecraft from just £2.50/month+VAT
* CraftBukkit Minecraft from just £7.50/month+vat
* Minecraft Servers with Custom JAR Support from just £15.00/month+VAT

There is a new launcher to use:
Windows: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/Minecraft.exe
Mac/OSX: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/Minecraft.dmg
Linux/Other: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/Minecraft.jar

Server files have already been installed into our Multicraft Control Panel ready for you to select.

Note: if you have your own Texture Packs they have to be converted into Resource Packs, which support changing of sounds, languages and other assets.
You can use this tool to convert them instantly: TextureEnder.jar

Minecon2013 has also been announced – maybe we’ll see you there 🙂

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/07/hosted-minecraft-server-1-6-now-available-at-astutium/

Jul 01 2013

Astutium Networking at HostingCon 2013

Astutium talking to LSI/3ware

LSI techs and Rob Golding talking battery backups, hardware and software that accelerate storage for our servers, sans and other datacentre devices

June 2013, Astutium staff braved the high temperatures in Austin, Texas, USA to join the 2013 HostingCon industry conference and networking events.

The title of the conference this year was “Raise Your Game – Network, Learn, Grow” and it certainly provided the perfect platform and ample opportunities to facilitate just that.

HostingCon gives attendees superb opportunities to come face-to-face with the people behind the leading technologies and encourages everyone to forge new partnerships and to strengthen existing relationships with clients, suppliers and peers.

The annual HostingCon event also gives delegates many opportunities for formal meetings during the day and ample, well-organised social events in the evenings, to give the very best chance to exchange ideas and to learn from each other in a more relaxed environment.

Astutium staff have attended every HostingCon since it started in 2003 !

Astutium talking to WHMCS

Demonstrating some of the Astutium WHMCS add-on modules to CPanel/WHMCS staff

The days are packed with sessions on topics within Sales and Marketing, Technology, along with issues, trends and management. There is also a wealth of diverse and knowledgeable speakers. There are many occasions that allowed questions to leading decision makers and influencers at all levels of internet issues.

The hot topics included Cloud hosting, problems and innovaions, DDOS mitigation, law enforcement issues, changes within the Domain name sector and assistance with brand marketing.

Astutium talking to Enom about Domains

Astutium Domain Administrators discussing the upcoming new GTLDs with Partners Enom

Astutium took the opportunity to discuss at length direct the issues we are currently seeing with software authors, hardware suppliers and marketing organisations.

We also gave voice to the many regulation issues that may be affecting the domain and hosting industry over the months to come – ICANN policy changes, Domain Registrant validation/verification changes, and increased Governmental interference in Internet Governance in both the EU and the US.

All in all it was a very beneficial week to Astutium and to their customers for the future and we will be continuing the dialogue with suppliers and implementing many of the industry improvements we discussed over the coming months.

If you would like any further details of the topics discussed please contact Astutium

Astutium discuss HostingCon 2014 and WHT Forum with iNET

Chatting about Next Years HostingCon and the WHT Forum issues with iNet staff

About HostingCon
HostingCon is an annual event created specifically to serve the domain registration, web hosting, dedicated/virtual server and cloud community, and has been running for 10 years. HC2013 brought the best leaders, best thinking, best practices and best technology solutions and services together in an unbiased platform.

If you’re involved in the Hosting, Domain and Server / VPS / Cloud Industry, why not attend the HostingCon 2014 event in Miami Beach – details will be at http://www.hostingcon.com/ From August 2013.

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/07/astutium-networking-hostingcon-2013/

Jun 27 2013

What are BitCoins and Why Should I Care ?

Astutium Ltd were the first ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar to accept the Digital Cryto-Currency “BitCoins” (accepted since Dec 2012 – simply select Bitcoin/BitPay as the payment gateway at the end of the checkout process).

We’re proud to take bitcoins in exchange for domains, hosting, virtual/dedicated servers, minecraft gaming servers and colocation – the internet is all about changing the paradigm and the bitcoin project is a global gamechanger in monetary transactions.

Later this year, Astutuium Affiliates will have the option to withdraw their commissions not only as credits to their account and by paypal, but also by BitCoins 🙂

Regularly we get asked “What are these bitcoins” so …

What is Bitcoin ?

Bitcoin is a digital e-currency which can be used in place of traditional money/payment processes.

Where do Bitcoins come from ?

Each of the 21 million possible Bitcoins are given as a reward to “miners” (people dedicating processing time to solving complex mathematical puzzles) in exchange for proof of their work.

Why should I care about Bitcoin ?

As a “proof of concept” bitcoin is shaking up the financial world. One day (probably a long way off) all money will be purely digital, bitcoin is helping move that one step closer

If you wish to learn more about Bitcoin, watch this short video

Then travel over to the BitCoin wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

The primary advantages of Bitcoins are:

  • Speed and price
    You can transfer money anywhere in the world within minutes with negligible fees.
  • Suitable for micro-payments
    You can pay as little as 0.00003405 BTC (around 1/10th of a Penny)
  • No central authority
    Bitcoin is not dependent on any company or government to maintain its value
  • You can start accepting Bitcoins almost instantly
    Without setting up merchant accounts, buying credit card processing hardware, etc (just download the free bitcoin client)
  • Bitcoins cannot be counterfeited
    So no more shining UV lights at Pound Notes
  • Transactions cannot be reversed
    Once confirmed there is no risk of chargebacks
  • No transaction blocking or account freezing
    We have seen governments freeze bank accounts of dissidents and payment processors refuse to process certain types of transactions (like wikileaks)
  • A known amount of inflation
    Whilst more complex to exchange fiat currency with BitCoins, their value is determined by supply & demand, not a government printing more of them (free from quantative easing)

A common “myth” is that Bitcoins are anonymous – whilst they are less easily traced than some types of e-money, all bitcoin transactions are public (in the blockchain).

Two things to be aware of when starting to use bitcoins

  1. The blockchain (list of all bitcoin transactions) is quite large and will take a few days to synchronise to your machine when you first install the client – you can stop it and it will automatically carry on next time it loads
  3. You MUST take regular backups of your digital wallet and keep them on a USB stick – you do not want to lose access to your bitcoins in the event of disk corruption

Need any internet services and have some bitcoins in your wallet ? Head over to Astutium – We Take Coins where you can order domains, hosting, servers and more, and pay by your choice of cash, cheque, bacs, credit-card, debit-card, amex, paypal and bitcoins.

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/06/what-are-bitcoins-and-why-should-i-care/

May 23 2013

ICANN De-Accredits Dotted Ventures (IANA#833)

ICANN the managing authority for all gTLDs has removed the accreditation from
Dotted Ventures Inc. (Dotted Ventures) [ www.dottedventures.com ] (accredited since 7 December 2009).

The termination is due to Dotted Ventures’s failure to timely cure the policy breaches by 14 May 2013 as set forth in ICANN’s various notice of breach pursuant to Section 3.9 of the RAA

They have now been removed from the Published List of Accredited Registrars

As of 23 April 2013, the following breaches remained:

1. Failure to pay past due accreditation fees pursuant to Section 3.9 of the RAA.

To protect domain name registrants, ICANN has commenced the domain name transition process and selected ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar Astutium Ltd to manage any remaining gtld domain names formerly managed by Dotted Ventures Inc (part of Remark Media, Inc.)

All registrants affected by the reg-transition process of domains being moved to Astutium Ltd as registrar, will shortly receive 2 emails from astutium.com
#1 with details on how to access our online domain name registration and management platform
#2 a standard whois-dispute-resolution-policy email reminder registrants to update their contact details

We are once again, sorry to see another registrar fold leaving their registrants’ in limbo, but pleased to be able to assist in helping those affected retain use of their domain names.

If your domain was originally with Dotted Ventures Inc (www.dottedventures.com) you can check the current registrar on a WHOIS at InterNIC WHOIS which will indicate which registrar you need to contact

Example:
   Domain Name: ASTUTIUM.COM
   Registrar: ASTUTIUM LIMITED
   Whois Server: whois.astutium.net
   Referral URL: https://www.astutium.com
   Name Server: NS1.ASTUTIUM.COM
   Name Server: NS2.ASTUTIUM.COM

ICANN Official Announcement

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/05/icann-de-accredits-dotted-ventures-iana833/

May 02 2013

ICANN De-Accredits Power Brand Center

ICANN the managing authority for all gTLDs has removed the accreditation from
Power Brand Center Corp. t/a Power Brand Center LLC [ www.powerbrandcenter.com ] (accredited since 27 April 2011).

The termination is due to Power Brand’s failure to timely cure the policy breaches by 28 Feb 2013 as set forth in ICANN’s various notice of breach pursuant to Section 5.3.4 of the RAA

They have now been removed from the Published List of Accredited Registrars

As of 28 February 2013, the following breaches remained:

1. Failure to pay past due accreditation fees pursuant to Section 3.9 of the RAA.

To protect domain name registrants, ICANN has commenced the domain name transition process and selected ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar Astutium Ltd to manage any remaining gtld domain names formerly managed by Power Brand Center (Panama Corp.)

All registrants affected by the reg-transition process of domains being moved to Astutium Ltd as registrar, will shortly receive 2 emails from astutium.com
#1 with details on how to access our online domain name registration and management platform
#2 a standard whois-dispute-resolution-policy email reminder registrants to update their contact details

We are sorry to see another registrar let their registrants’ down, but pleased to be able to assist in helping those affected retain their domain names.

If your domain was originally with Power Brand Center (www.powerbrandcenter.com) you can check the current registrar on a WHOIS at InterNIC WHOIS which will indicate which registrar you need to contact

Example:
   Domain Name: ASTUTIUM.COM
   Registrar: ASTUTIUM LIMITED
   Whois Server: whois.astutium.net
   Referral URL: https://www.astutium.com
   Name Server: NS1.ASTUTIUM.COM
   Name Server: NS2.ASTUTIUM.COM

ICANN Official Announcement

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/05/icann-de-accredits-power-brand-center/

Apr 18 2013

ICANN De-Accredits CI Hosts

ICANN the managing authority for all gTLDs has removed the accreditation from
CI Hosts [ www.cihost.com / net / org ] (accredited since 4 February 2012).

The termination is due to CI Host’s failure to timely cure the policy breaches by 1 March 2013 as set forth in ICANN’s notice of breach of RAA dated 11 January 2013.
They have now been removed from the Published List of Accredited Registrars

As of 1 March 2013, the following breaches remained:

* The contact details provided to ICANN by CI Host (telephone numbers, fax number and address) are no longer valid, in violation of  RAA Section 5.11 Notices, Designations, and Specifications;

* C I Host’s failure to provide an interactive webpage, in violation of RAA Section 3.3 Public Access to Data on Registered Names ( www.cihost.com does not resolve); and

* C I Host’s failure to timely pay accreditation fees for several months, in violation of RAA Section 3.9 Accreditation Fees..

CI I Host Website
The cihost.com website was down for a while, but now appears to be back up, although they are still claiming to be an ICANN Registrar

Prior to loss of accreditation, they transferred their own domain(s) to GoDaddy at the same time as abandoning clients domains !

However the C I Host offices now seem to be occupied by a new tennant.
Corespace moving HQ;

To protect domain name registrants, ICANN has commenced the domain name transition process and selected ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar Astutium Ltd to manage any remaining gtld domain names formerly managed by CI Host Inc.

All registrants affected by the reg-transition process of domains being moved to Astutium Ltd as registrar, will shortly receive 2 emails from astutium.com
#1 with details on how to access our online domain name registration and management platform
#2 a standard whois-dispute-resolution-policy email reminder registrants to update their contact details

We are sorry to see another registrar let their registrants’ down, but pleased to be able to assist in helping those affected retain their domain names.

If your domain was originally with CI Host (www.cihost.com) you can check the current registrar on a WHOIS at InterNIC WHOIS which will indicate which registrar you need to contact

Example:
   Domain Name: ASTUTIUM.COM
   Registrar: ASTUTIUM LIMITED
   Whois Server: whois.astutium.net
   Referral URL: https://www.astutium.com
   Name Server: NS1.ASTUTIUM.COM
   Name Server: NS2.ASTUTIUM.COM

ICANN Official Announcement

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.astutium.com/2013/04/icann-de-accredits-ci-hosts/

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