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How Does Twitter Help My Website?

Clients always ask me two things when it comes to Twitter:

Can I have Twitter on my website? and
How does Twitter actually help my website?

Twitter (along with Facebook) are the two must have social media these days for your website. You can add YouTube or Linkedin or Instagram as well as a number of other social media outlets. These can be very valuable in reaching targeted audiences for a specific purpose. But Twitter and Facebook are the two giants with the biggest potential for social media reach and a good way to help build up traffic to your site.

A Twitter account is fairly straight forward to set up. Maintaining Twitter so that it pays off for you comes in two flavors: manual tweets (which are time consuming) and hooking up your website updates to automatically post to Twitter. I recommend clients do a hybrid of the two.

How does Twitter actually help my website?

The payoff of using Twitter in combination with your website comes in both the directional flow of the information and the way you can measure your objectives. I wrote a blog post about how important it is that you control your information and not let social media control it. Make your social media work for you: its easy to post directly to Facebook or Twitter – but that doesn’t get those people to your web site to read your article or buy your book or product or sign up for your newsletter. So post to Twitter from your website. That way, you have a greater chance of getting that Call To Action button clicked. You can also better track your website’s analytics performance this way.

Even better, Twitter has its own internal metrics that allow you to measure useful objectives like…

Brand awareness
Audience reach
Customer engagement
Brand sentiment
Traffic: Social media to website
Event awareness

How can you do that? A very helpful article by Lauren Dugan from Social Times tells us that these metrics can be seen from the following:

Account growth
Retweets
Favorites
Replies
Mentions
Clicks on URLs (traffic)
Clicks on your Profile
Clicks on #HashTags

Even better, you can access many of these analytics right from within Twitter itself. Take a look…

There are also paid analytics options for twitter but this will get you started!

May 2, 2016 Melanie Social Media Tips, Uncategorized No comments

Freak Attack: What You Need To Know

Remember the Heartbleed vulnerability in SSL/TLS (Security protocols for the Internet)? There is a newly discovered vulnerability called the Freak Attack that was making the rounds in the cryptography talk circles on the night of March 3, 2015. RSA Export sites are highly vulnerable to this bug and that’s quite a number of sites (into the millions) including many government sites, not the least of which was the NSA site, the IRS, the whitehouse.gov and the FBI tip reporting site. Even the site that supports the Facebook “like” button (connect.facebook.net) was vulnerable. If you run a server, you were being told to disable support for any export suites.

Patches are getting rolled out so this should be closed up soon. But what’s interesting (and also appropriate) according to Matt Green, cryptographer and Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University is that this latest vulnerability was really a result of some decisions made in the 80’s to weaken cryptography so that the NSA could “access” information it deemed it needed but that would give a grade of passable security to be used commercially. You can read about how China now wants to do the same . In that regard, it seemed fitting to a number of us that the NSA site was the first affected.

What’s being done

4 things. 1) Apple and Google have released patches so the TLS vulnerability will be addressed. 2) US CERT has issued a vulnerability release with actionables. 3) This headline: Outdated Encryption Keys Leave Phones Vulnerable to Hackers Note: this is the second article in the last few days that I have observed pointedly spelling out “National Security Agency” in every instance its mentioned which obviousness points to the current negative connotations of the acronym “NSA”. It also leads one to ask: who made the request to the news agencies to spell it out, (if it was made), and 4) It looks like its showdown time between the big techs and the Gov on this issue. Because if they (the security folks) lose, there is no way any of us providing security can honestly assure you of a high uptime or protection

How to protect your Windows system, well sort of…

You can test your browser support and if you haven’t already tested your Windows system for FreakAttack, (Specifically your IE browser) Here’s the link where you can do that: https://freakattack.com/clienttest.html My advice? It would also be a good time to say goodbye to IE and switch to Chrome or FireFox. Because MS only has a workaround for some systems as of their security update as of yesterday. Your system has to have a Group Policy Editor for the work around to, uh, work. But, hey, if you have Group Policy Editor, here’s the fix:
1) Tap on the Windows-key and type gpedit.msc and hit enter.
2) Use the left sidebar to navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > SSL Configuration Settings.
3) Double-click on SSL Cipher Suite Order.
4) Switch the policy to “enabled”.
5) Copy the Cipher suite order from Microsoft’s advisory page to the clipboard, and paste it into the SSL Cipher Suites form.
6) Click ok and restart your computer.

Of course, once you do this, Windows won’t connect to systems that have unsupported ciphers (not on the list you have added to Group Policy Editor) You can disable this in future if needed. Take my advice – switch to Chrome

Image source: Bounceweb.com

March 10, 2015 Melanie Security, SOS Blog, Uncategorized No comments

Put Your Head on My Shoulders

Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals…except the weasel. You know, the one with all the well meaning rules that don't work out in real life, uh, Christianity.

Lisa, vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and Eskimos. We started out like Romeo and Juliet, but it ended up in tragedy. Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry? Get ready, skanks! It’s time for the truth train! Books are useless! I only ever read one book, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin…but what good does *that* do me?

September 25, 2014 Movies, Travel, Uncategorized No comments

A Flight to Remember

No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it. The lesson is, never try. Oh, so they have Internet on computers now.

That sounded like a prayer. A prayer in a public school. God has no place within these walls, just like facts don’t have a place within an organized religion. Son, a woman is like a beer. They smell good, they look good, you’d step over your own mother just to get one! But you can’t stop at one. You wanna drink another woman! The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.

September 25, 2014 Food & Health, Uncategorized No comments

The Beast with a Billion Backs

Good news, everyone! There's a report on TV with some very bad news! Actually, that's still true. We'll need to have a look inside you with this camera.

There’s one way and only one way to determine if an animal is intelligent. Dissect its brain! It’s a T. It goes “tuh”. Anyone who laughs is a communist! Morbo will now introduce tonight’s candidates… Morbo’s good friend, Richard Nixon.

September 25, 2014 Education, Movies, Uncategorized No comments

Good morning, oh in case i don't see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight. excuse me, i'd like to ask you a few questions. we're going for a ride on the information super highway.
Here she comes to wreck the day. here she comes to wreck the day. alrighty then kinda hot in these rhinos. we're going for a ride on the information super highway.

Cold Warriors

The Ugly Side of the Moon

The Leaked Secret to Apollo Discovered

Books are useless! I only ever read one book, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin…but what good does *that* do me? I’m a Spalding Gray in a Rick Dees world. You don’t win friends with salad. The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.

September 25, 2014 Education, Food & Health, Uncategorized No comments

dit-dit-dit/dah-dah-dah…

August has come and gone and its back to school for many. Malware seems to be in the rise. What can you do if you find malware on your Facebook account? How can you decrypt your files being held for ransom by malware? In this newsletter you can learn how to handle both successfully. What’s the best malware protection out there? We’ll take a look at the ratings And my home tech tip is a car hackability chart!

SOS Security Support

Decrypt Those Ransomed Files for Free with DecyptoLocker

We’ve talked about CryptoLocker before (Ransomware) – that malware that likes to hold your files for ransom until you pay up. There are several variants out there but one in particular, CryptoLocker, has now got a fix: DecryptoLocker provided by FireEye and FoxIT.

When you provide the site with your email address (which will not be given out or sold) and an encrypted file, they will email you a master decryption key to be used along with their recovery program.

They advise that you don’t give them any files of a sensitive or personal nature. And each infected system will need its own master decryption key.

What’s the Best Malware Protection For My Computer?

In a recent test done by the independant Anti-virus research group, AV-TEST
Malwarebytes came out on top as the best malware protection with a score of 100% in total system repair! They beat out even paid security programs like Bit Defender, F-Secure and Kaspersky. While Malwarebytes doesn’t include anti-virus support and protection, it says a lot for a FREE security program.

How did the FREE anti-virus programs fare? AVAST! and AVG came out on top ahead of MSSE. But read the report for yourself

SOS Featured Social Media Security Support

Strange “likes” and Posts Showing Up On Your Account? You May Have Malware

When you have a malware infection from Facebook it can show up as strange “likes” to many pages or comments or postings you didn’t make or a sudden surge in following a lot of people on Facebook. One particular malware that’s been recently re-spotted on Facebook this August is the “Color Changer” app. According to Information Week:

Cheetah Mobile found that this iteration of the scam stems from an apparent vulnerability in Facebook’s app page. This vulnerability lets hackers implant viruses and malicious code into Facebook-based applications, which direct users to phishing sites, it said.

The latest version of the scam works in two ways. First, it asks users who click the link to view a color changer tutorial video. If users view the video, it steals their Facebook access tokens, which gives the hackers temporary access to the user’s Facebook friends, Cheetah Mobile said.

What should you do if you suspect malware on your Facebook account? Go to the “Apps” tab and remove it. Then the following steps apply to any and all other malware scenarios on Facebook.

Change your password
Scan your computer. Use a couple of anti virus programs (internal and external)* and a Malware scan
If you are using Chrome, use a browser-specific scan.
Make sure you are using the latest browser version. If not, Upgrade!
Remove suspicious browser-add ons
Review your recent account activity and delete anything you did not post.

Facebook provides the links to some scanners and you can review the steps there. *While I normally recommend MSSE (Microsoft Security Essentials), I’m recommending a switch to a combination of Avast! or AVG and Malwarebytes for now (as far as FREE Anti-virus goes) PAID Anti-virus such as Bit-Defender, F-Secure, and Kaspersky will give you stronger anti-virus protection . If you continue to use MSSE, please use it in combination with Malwarebytes.

Home Tech SOS

Access the ‘Hackability’ of Your Car

Questions have been raised since 2 hackers successfully hijacked the steering and brakes of both a Ford Escape and a Toyota Prius. Want to assess the ‘hackability’ of your car? Try the *chart below from Wired.com:

*DISCLAIMER: This chart is not considered conclusive or comprehensive. According to the article:

All the cars’ ratings were based on three factors: The first was the size of their wireless “attack surface”—features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular network connections, keyless entry systems, and even radio-readable tire pressure monitoring systems. Any of those radio connections could potentially be used by a hacker to find a security vulnerability and gain an initial foothold onto a car’s network. Second, they examined the vehicles’ network architecture, how much access those possible footholds offered to more critical systems steering and brakes. And third, Miller and Valasek assessed what they call the cars’ “cyberphysical” features: capabilities like automated braking, parking and lane assist that could transform a few spoofed digital commands into an actual out-of-control car.

August 31, 2014 Melanie August 2014, SOS Blog, SOS Newsletter, Uncategorized No comments

The Birth of Lies

You want a guarantee, buy a toaster

Yes! I am a citizen! Now which way to the welfare office? I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I work, I work. Bart, with $10,000 we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like…love!

August 25, 2014 Education, Uncategorized No comments

dit-dit-dit/dah-dah-dah/dit-dit-dit…

July has just whizzed right on by. Seems like its been packed with a lot of things to do like work, maintaining security on your sites, summer vacations and Client events. So let’s try to catch the last of July before it runs out on us.

Passwords. They have to be strong and long to be effective. And that’s a PAIN! You know it. So before we do a lot of other things, let’s get this password thing down so its a lot easier as well as safer for you. I’m going to give you a couple of sites that will help you create a password without having to think one up. And then, a PASSWORD MANAGER, so you don’t have to remember them. How cool is that?! Plus, I have a home tech tip that will help you maximize your bandwidth

SOS Security Tips

You didn’t just use “iloveyou” or “monkey” for your password, did you?

In a recent talk by privacy/security expert, Lorrie Faith Craner, it was cited that the 2 most popular passwords are “iloveyou” or “monkey” and when asked to add punctuation to their password to make it harder to hack, 40% of people chose an exclamation point! (And we just told the hackers, right? Shhhhhh!) 😉 Lorrie is the director of the Carnegie Mellon Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation Board of Directors. (Love the EFF!)

Also cited in the talk were the following problems with getting users ( busy folk like you my readers) to choose strong passwords (at least 16 characters) :

Even when people are told to choose long passwords or password phrases, they often chose something easy to hack like “passwordpassword” or “baseballbaseball”.
Random-word password phrases while long, are not easy for users to remember or use.
Pronounceable gibberish passwords like “vadasabi” worked very well and users could remember them.

All good points. However, the debate – passphrases vs strong passwords (which is better?) – continues. And I, myself, favor long, strong and ugly passwords. Clint Eastwood passwords; good, bad, and ugly. There’s no social media hack aspect to them whereas with passphrases there is the possibility of a social hack – especially if you use familiar words any hacker can pick up by doing a search on you and scanning your social media posts. Also, there’s a maxim that’s worked well for me for a number of years: If its easy for you to remember, its easy (or will be) for the hacker to hack.

Why all the concern about passwords in the first place? Because hackers have password cracking software. That software is now easier and cheaper to get because its being sold as SaaS (software as a service) And hackers have the computing power now in a single pc to very easily hack your short, easy to remember passwords in a shorter amount of time. (There are also easy ways now to hack into the computing power of other devices without the user knowing it to multiply the power and speed the hacker has available – but that’s another newsletter. ) That’s why I tell you to make a password at least 16 characters long or longer. I would add to that: 16 random characters long including punctuation.

That said, the most annoying aspect is making passwords up. Second annoying thing is remembering them. So I am providing you two password generators to make the whole thing easier to create. One is a passphrase generator and the other is a strong password generator. Both are excellent and easy to use. Second, so that you don’t have to remember them, I am recommending a password manager so that it will remember your individual passwords for each of your online accounts and all you have to do (once its set up) is remember ONE PASSWORD for everything you have online. You even get notification if there is a security breach. How great is that?!

The XK Passphrase Generator (image source)

The Strong Password Generator

Go ahead. Try them out. Have a little fun. Then start converting your current passwords to these new, stronger passwords. Bookmark these links in your browser.

A Password Manager To Rule Them All

Then go to LastPass and get yourself set up so that you only have to remember ONE PASSWORD for all of your online accounts. (It’s like “One ring to rule them all!” sort of thing) LastPass is based on a freemium model so you can choose either the free or the premium account. Another password manager is KeePass. It’s an open source option but I find that it is not as user-friendly. It is highly-recommended though.

A note of caution on password managers: they, too, have their problems. If you have been keeping up with this newsletter, you know I try to keep you informed of the most current and dangerous hacks. But hacks at every level of our infrastructure go on all the time. So password managers are no exception. The security advantage is that they will keep you in an instant notification loop. They do have a password generator of their own, but I recommend the two above first.

Home Tech SOS

The BEST Wi-Fi SetUp Tip EVER!

Where should you point your Wi-Fi Router antenna ? UP! Right? Nope. Here’s a great tip for setting up your wi-fi router antennas for the most optimal coverage from LifeHacker.com along with WHY it works better!

July 29, 2014 Melanie July 2014, SOS Blog, SOS Newsletter, Uncategorized No comments