 8 Security Ideas for Basic Catholic Web Site Development
Introduction
At first, Catholic web site development and Catholic blogging may appear
safe, especially if it only involves building information as a service to
others. But as Catholic web site owners learn to eventually excel in search engine
optimization and in web site development, these web sites get exposed to
security threats as well. This article lists down 8 basic security ideas for a
safer and more secure web development of Catholic sites and blogs.
Create strong passwords
To really create strong passwords, it is best to use a combination of
14-16 alphanumeric letters and numbers, and non-alphanumeric symbols. For
the alphanumeric characters, you can alternate between uppercase and lowercase
letters. A strong password is a password that is difficult to memorize in the
short-term, but eventually will be familiar to you in the long-term when you
login to the site more often. Many authorities on password security always
advise never to use any part of your personal information in the password.
If there is an opportunity to include many non-alphanumeric symbols (such as # @ ! &),
it should be used also in combination with uppercase/lowercase letters and with
numbers. Some advanced web sites accept European characters in their password
system. If you discover a web site that does, then you can use also European
characters like â, é, í, ñ, ô, and their uppercase counterparts.
Note down the passwords well. As you go on and create these strong passwords,
you might suddenly find yourselves in a situation were your Catholic web site
network security might still be compromised. When this happens, change your important
passwords in your Catholic network at once. To prevent this from happening,
the best thing to do is to set a schedule for changing your strong passwords regularly.
If you are wary of saving your passwords with an online password organizer, you
can note it down in a card the size of a business card (in a sequential order only
you know). Then you can store it within a security pouch (often used for passports,
documents, and credit cards when travelling) that is hung on the neck or under the
shoulder inside your shirt. Or you can simply place it in your wallet.
Conservative use of third-party applications
In basic Catholic web site development, you can use third-party applications
to enhance the usability of your web site. But it is important to be selective
with these applications and to conservatively use them in your web site. You can
also note down which web pages of your site contain these third-party applications
and regularly monitor them if they are working. Whenever you notice something
unusual or amiss in a third-party application, then you can just remove
them from your web page, to keep your basic Catholic web site development
intact and well in order. One wise rule you can follow in using third-party
applications is to obtain them from well-reputed web sites. But you must also
be reminded and never forget the possibility of a third-party application's
security being breached. If a third-party application which needs a user id
and password combination to access (such as blog softwares that are uploaded
to the server of your web host), can still have its security breached,
how much more riskier are third-party applications which allow easy access!
Online security
For the online security of your basic Catholic web site development, you
should set up the firewall of your Windows XP or Vista operating system (or
the firewall of the operating system that you are using).
This is the first line of defense. The second line of defense is an
antivirus software program. Two free antivirus filters available online
for easy download are avast! 4 Home Edition and ZoneAlarm 6. For
personal use and for non-commercial web sites such as a Catholic
web site, these two antivirus web sites have free antivirus programs
that are very good because they continually update the antivirus files
regularly against new virus threats online. (Note: avast! has now version
6 ready for download; this is a faster and more efficient version as it
loads quickly when you open your computer).
Fixing a hijacked blog post
Part of basic Catholic web site development is to network with a blog
site that updates your readers with anything new in the web site. If you
monitor well your Catholic blog site with Google's Webmaster Tools, then
you can check your blog site for "warnings" of blog posts getting "hijacked"
and being redirected to another site. For recent blog posts, all
you need to do is to delete the hijacked post, and re-post it again with
a different blog url. As for old blog posts that have been hijacked,
the best thing to do is just to delete the hijacked blog post. You can
always replace this old hijacked blog post with newer, more recent,
and updated information that would better serve your readers. As a
final action for a hijacked blog post, the password of your Catholic blog
must be changed immediately with a stronger password. (This usually
happens only when you have a blog software uploaded to the server of
your web host).
Download to your computer only what is necessary and important
For your computer system to operate fast and to perform well, you must take
it easy on your downloads. A minimum of downloads also protects your computer
system from malicious code and malware that may enter your computer system
during the download process. If you want your computer system to last longer,
and also for your basic Catholic web site development to last and grow for the
long-term, then you need to be wary of just downloading anything you find
interesting online. Windows Vista operating system has a built-in dialog box
that opens up and warns of possible security threats when you are thinking of
downloading from a site you have visited. To check on the online security of
a web site before downloading, you can check the site's domain with
SiteAdvisor.com. The community
members of SiteAdvisor.com gives quite a detailed security report of a web
site.
Avoid using public computers
Avoid using public computers as much as you can, and only use them
for an emergency task in your computer work and web site development. If
ever you really have to use a public PC system to make an emergency task
(such as changing a password immediately if security has been breached),
then clean all your electronic tracks. Don't just click the red x on
the top right corner of your public computer's browser, but completely log
out from the web site where you have entered a username and password.
There is also a great need to heighten your vigilance and to be always
on alert to anyone behind you or anyone who might have the opportunity
to glance at your screen or keyboard in a public PC system.
Don't open email attachments as a general rule
If ever you get an email attachment related to your web site development,
as a general rule, do not open them - even if it is from someone you know.
Always keep email attachments under suspicion, because even the person
that you know who sent it may not be aware of any virus or malicious code
that may have entered during the process of adding the attachment online.
If you can already use the information in the text of the email without
needing to open the attachment, then that would be safer and less risky.
If there is a need to really open an attachment, you can either have
an email program that scans viruses for attachment or open the
attachment in a public PC system (only for important messages)
which are often fully equipped against virus threats.
Restrict access to your computer system
This is a very basic security move for anyone in web site development
and blogging. If you have a PC at home using Windows XP or Vista,
then the first basic security move that you have to do is to create
an administrator user account and a limited user account. For the
administration of your basic Catholic web site development, the
admin user account entitles you to do anything with your
computer system. If ever a member of the family wants to use
your PC, then just let them use the limited user account. This
account prevents the member of the family to just install programs or to
change system settings without your adminitrator privileges.
Conclusion
These 8 basic security ideas are just for computer system, email and
web-browsing security. With these 8 cost-cutting and money-saving tools and software
you can already basically secure your web site development and online tasks.
If you want more details and more information on online security, you can check
out PC Magazine at www.pcmag.com. To also keep updated of any new security
alerts, you can subscribe by email to www.pcmag.com's free online newsletter on Web
security.
Related resource
PC Magazine Philippines, January-February 2006 edition, "Maximum Security:
94 Essential Tips for Staying Safe"
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