In less than a week I’ve grown to love the Android platform and I’ve already got a few ideas for some Android apps to write. But first I wanted to make sure I could post links to my apps using handy-dandy QR-encoded images easily within Wordpress.

So, borrowing somewhat from the WP-Footnotes plugin I set about to create the first rendition of the WP-QREncoder plugin for Wordpress.

This plugin is capable of encoding any string of text (specific use case is a URL) and is still in it’s infancy so I would appreciate any feedback you might have.

Download WP-QREncoder plugin here.

For more information (including usage) see the plugin’s permanent page here.

Oh, and here’s an example of the plugin in action:

Most likely they have your password (which they might have gotten from a virus, trojan, back-door-worm, or something else.

While anti-virus is great (at this point I feel obliged to mention my employer, McAfee) one area constantly overlooked are apps on Facebook which are malicious. I just got through telling my wife not to install apps on FB unless she absolutely had to (which means, something you will use and use constantly). I used to be bad about installing all the poll and quiz applications on Facebook I came across until I went back through my installed apps one day and noticed that many of them weren’t even named the same thing they were named when I installed them.

So if you are worried that someone has hacked your online accounts the best thing to do is to immediately change all of your passwords. Make sure you use a strong password too (that goes for your wife as well as you).

Also, I highly recommend going through your Facebook applications and uninstalling anything you don’t use as they could be used to harvest your information. Not that you should remove them all (I love Mafia Wars) but if you were to read what a developer has access to you’d certainly think long and hard about each application you install

Finally, (for the super-paranoid) if you are using a wireless router you should certainly be using some form of wireless encryption (hopefully not WEP because it is vulnerable to attacks). Otherwise all of your information is being transmitted in the clear and can be easily captured with minimal effort.

It’s possible that this person might be getting your personal information another way (via ESP perhaps? ) but I think the most likely culprit is your computer/network security.

There’s more that you can do to harden your systems against attack, but these are the most often used avenues of attack. If your adversary is a hacker let me know and I’ll continue listing things you can do to make your systems secure.

Good luck!

Next, we’ll look into some security products and practices that can help you secure your systems.

As you can see, its not just the content on your pages that are important, but the authority and link popularity (incoming links from other sites) that make up almost 65% of the overall PageRank score of your site. In fact, the content of your site only accounts for around 15% of your site’s overall score.

This is where social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg etc. come in handy. The more people that retweet and generally reshare your site, the more popular it gets.

For more information on what matters in search engine optimization, take a look at this post on Copyblogger.

Microsoft initially tried to claim that this exploit was trivial but has since issued an out-of-cycle emergency patch for all versions of Internet Explorer.

Looks like now is the perfect time to switch to one of the more superior browsers like Chrome or Firefox.

Here’s a video detailing how this hack works in action in case you are like me and interested in the juicy technical details:

• The shortness and simplicity of passwords means many users select credentials that will make them susceptible to basic forms of cyber attacks known as “brute force attacks.”
• Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on). The most common password is “123456”.
• Recommendations for users and administrators for choosing strong passwords.

Also, here are the top 10 most commonly used passwords they found:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

I’ve said it before, the first step in computer security is having a strong password policy.

For more information (and for future updates), visit the new project page here.

If you are interested in using, contributing to, or reporting bugs for this project, contact us!

Strong passwords which include a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, and are not based on a dictionary word are often not very easy to remember. And if it’s not easy to remember, chances are we’ll either end up writing it down (bad idea!) or we’ll choose a simpler password. Additionally, since we are often faced with a myriad of sites which all require separate accounts (and passwords), using different passwords for each site we use tends to fall by the way side in favor of convenience.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Here’s a technique I’ve found helpful for creating strong, easy-to-remember passwords. It involves coming up with a unique method of transforming a simple word into a strong password using a few simple rules. The beauty of this system is that, unlike a strong password generator, the passwords you come up with using a system like this are easy to remember and can be unique to each site you use them with.

Here are a few other strong-password-generating ideas:

• Microsoft: Create Strong Passwords
• McAfee: I Hate the Password Policy!
• About.com: Creating and Maintaining a Strong Password System

No matter what you choose to use to help you generate strong passwords. It’s always a good idea to check your password’s strength to gauge how hard it would be for an attacker to guess your password.

2009 saw many changes and challenges both to the internet in general and to our company in particular. Thankfully we’ve managed to weather the storm of changes and challenges quite well. Our servers have enjoyed an unprecedented 99% uptime with zero security or system issues.

However, I’ve noticed a few things that can be improved as we head into 2010 including:

• enhanced support for your website, domain, marketing, and email
• a more streamlined approach to billing
• giving you more information about what’s going on including tips on security and marketing

Enhanced support

With regards to your hosting needs, we have launched a bug tracking site at http://bugs.werxltd.com where you can create an account and submit issues related to your website. Overall our aim is to help you get the most out of your site. The bug tracking software we use is Mantis and here is a description of the various pages to help you get acquainted with the system.

Each of your domains will constitute a separate “project” and will be accessible by only you and those you have designated.

Currently, we have included the following issue categories:

• Domain Hosting – for all domain-related issues which includes DNS record administration and general domain name administration including registering, renewing, and transferring domain names.
• Email Hosting – for all email-related issues including account administration (password changes), newsgroup administration, calendar, contacts, etc.
• Graphics Design – for all graphics design needs including proofs, prints, photography, touch-ups, logo design and corporate IDs
• Web Hosting – for all web-related issues including programming or design changes or additions to hosted websites.
• Web Marketing – for all internet marketing campaign administration. Use this category to track your web marketing, request and receive reports on marketing progress, and

Streamlined billing

Additionally, we have revamped our billing system and are now able to accept payments from a wide range of sources including credit cards and eChecks via PayPal. We will be sending out electronic invoices at the beginning of each month in the form of an email to the contact we have listed on the account.

Our all-inclusive hosting fees will remain at $15/month and we will also begin offering enhanced support services for your website (design, programming, and marketing), domain, email, and internet marketing (including social media).

If you have any questions regarding our billing methods or if you would like to change the name on the account, please feel free to let me know using the contact form below.

Know what’s going on

Our blog now includes a section dedicated to keeping you informed about planned upgrades, best security practices you can implement for your website or blog. You can find these updates under the ‘hosting’ category. I recommend adding our hosting feed to your favorite RSS reader (like Google Reader) to receive updates on the latest news and tips.

Thanks and have a safe and prosperous new year!

Many of you are wondering what the big deal is with blogs. Well here is a short video on blogs and why they are important/useful:

What’s so great about blogs?

Aside from being able to access specialized information put out on a regular basis, there is one other reason I enjoy reading blogs and consider them to be an essential element in our modern forms of communication.

Blogs help you connect with people.

You learn a lot about someone’s character, thoughts, and passions if you follow what they say on their blog. The trouble is that since blogs are generally authored by one person on individual website it can become time consuming and cumbersome to visit each blog you’re interested in to check for and read any new posts.

How can I keep up with blogs?

The easiest tool I’ve found to help bring a variety of different blogs together into one place is by utilizing the RSS feed offered by most blogs.

Google Reader is a web-based RSS reader which requires a Google account and a little bit of setup, but once you get it going its pretty much automated and will allow you to check a number of blogs without having to spend time visiting each and every website to get updates.

Here is a short video to help you get started with Google Reader: