|
Security leaks can be a big problem
for any site using a message board. Hackers can actually
use your message board to go in and change things on
your site. This has happened to me at least four times.
Once an iframe was added to every single page of one
of my very large sites. Thankfully, I had it completely
backed up, so all I had to do was send the pages back
up to the server. Twice, the front page of one of my
sites was hijacked. The entire content of the front
page was replaced by some note from a hacker stating
he had been there.
The last time one of my sites had to be taken down to
prevent the server from crashing. After calling my web
host they were able to tell me my message board was
the cause of the problem. I used, and still do on some
sites, the phpbb message board. It is one of the most
popular boards on the internet, and it's free. The web
host tech told me that the problem was that a virus
of sorts had been placed onto the server, through the
message board, in the message board folder, and was
calling out to other servers causing a major load on
my web host's server. To fix the problem the web host
tech found the file and deleted it. After that, all
I had to do was update to the latest version of phpbb
and so far so good.
If you use a popular message board like phpbb you need
to make sure you've always got the latest version. The
more popular a message board is, the more hackers are
likely to strike. Perhaps the familiarity is the problem
or maybe the hackers know they can get a lot of bites
going after a widely used board. As of this writing,
the most current version of phpbb is 2.0.15. As the
phpbb guys are always security conscious they have added
to this version a re-authentication to access the administration
panel.
Forums are a very important part of a website, but they
can be the downfall if your board script is not updated
on a regular basis.
webmaster of Web
Host Reviews
Author: webmaster of Web
Host Reviews
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_2354_16.html
.Back
to ecommerce
|
