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Two to three years ago, I began prepping clients to expect increasing security risks and general tech complexity in websites and servers, via an advisory I copy below. While this was part of my firm's determination to extricate ourselves from website tech management
to which search marketing firms are prone by mission creep, it was mostly to apprise them that</div>
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<li>there is a big hidden cost on their balance sheets; </li><li>sooner or later that cost will hit their P&L;</li><li>they should start taking actions now to reduce that inevitable cost. </li></ol>
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The recent web-wide WordPress hacks sadly confirmed my advisories. My first and repeated advisories on this trend provided some comfort that my firm continues its long history of anticipating crucial future changes. My firm now has comprehensive SEO-technical
monitoring systems that identify website/server hacks immediately, thanks mostly to our tech & security partner, Nubbernaut Studios. </div>
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<b>My point is that I believe that convincing businesses of the need for such an investment usually requires multiple messages over time</b>, A few business leaders won't require this "Three-Hit Theory" of marketing messaging and will get it the first time.</div>
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Below is my original advisory from ~3 years ago, followed by an excellent, recent 7-minute video by my firm's CEO Jack Fox and Nubbernaut Studios, explaining the "7 layers" problem and solutions to one of our clients:</div>
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<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Proxima Nova',sans-serif;color:#000000;font-weight:700">The 7 Layers of a Website </span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Proxima Nova',sans-serif;color:#000000;font-weight:400">To understand why dedicated monthly website-tech management is vital, it helps to glimpse the connected layers beneath content managers’ typical interactions with
a website. I’ll use WordPress (WP) as an example, but this synopsis applies variously to all website platforms. </span></p>
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<span style="font-weight:700">The top layer</span><span> is where you add content. </span></p>
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<span>Beneath that is a layer of plugins or other </span><span style="font-weight:700">third-party apps and connections</span><span>. This and the above layer often break when crucial WP upgrades are rolled out a few times per year. </span></p>
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<span>Lower still is </span><span style="font-weight:700">the database</span><span> holding not only visible content in pages and posts, but also user profiles and passwords, client or customer logins, and variously secure connections to layers above and below. </span></p>
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<span>Supporting the above layers and connecting to the server foundation is a </span>
<span style="font-weight:700">tech management layer often called cPanel</span><span>. It is open source and often upgraded automatically, and such upgrades can damage other layers and break automatic back-up systems. This layer often has entrances left over
from past webmasters’ work, via the likes of FTP. It also offers admin panels for most aspects of email management, domain name associations, and other vital functions of your website. </span></p>
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<span>Some web hosts offer access to yet </span><span style="font-weight:700">a deeper layer, often called WHM</span><span> (Web Host Management). My recent spelunking there shows a byzantine array of settings often pre-set and sometimes changed willy-nilly
by cheap hosting plans at the likes of GoDaddy. Options in this setup, like caching and CDN services, can have major impact on security, SEO, site speed, and other functions. </span></p>
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<span>Finally, there’s </span><span style="font-weight:700">the server itself</span><span>, which is set-up by web hosts (or clients’ in-house IT people). I’ve never been inside there, and just peering over the misty edge into that abyss is terrifying. </span></p>
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<span>Another layer that wraps around all of the above is </span><span style="font-weight:700">the human layer</span><span>. People working in and on the site often unwittingly do damage, and, given the compounding complexity of websites, even excellent tech
pros can make mistakes that impair function and SEO performance. </span></p>
</li></ol>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Proxima Nova',sans-serif;color:#000000;font-weight:700">Those layers change over time, and sometimes,
like tectonic plates, they can rupture, causing lots of screaming and running for help.
</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Proxima Nova',sans-serif;color:#000000;font-weight:400">One among many consequences is declining site speed, and Google is constantly making speed more of a ranking factor, never mind the vital role of speed in
conversion rate optimization (CRO).</span></span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(134, 17, 6); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: normal;"><b>Video:</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: normal;"><b> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: normal;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quwp7J8PqAo&feature=youtu.be" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quwp7J8PqAo&feature=youtu.be">Jack
and Kevin September Hack and Site Security Packages for THS</a>. </b></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color:rgb(102,102,102); background-color:rgb(255,255,255); font-weight:700; line-height:normal">Rob Laporte</span></p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss-bounces@lists.hidden-tech.net> on behalf of Daniel Nachbar via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, December 20, 2020 3:39 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> HT-discuss <hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Daniel Nachbar <daniel.nachbar@gmail.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Hidden-tech] Maybe some one can help - at least locally</font>
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<div>I'm not a network security expert but I have discussed this topic with some.</div>
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<div>Their consensus view is that there is essentially no way to effectively scrub the compromised networks/machines. These are very sophisticated attackers who had far too much access for far too long. Rebuilding from scratch is likely the only effective response.
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<div>However such drastic remediation is almost impossible to sell to upper management when there is no immediate evidence of compromise. Worse yet, making the pitch to rebuild requires one to explain to upper management how one totally screwed up in the first
place.</div>
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<div>So most victims will likely instead do some half-measure "security scans", which will of course find nothing (because these are extremely sophisticated attackers), and then just move on. Months or years from now previously unidentified dormant worms will
activate and the whole compromise cycle will begin anew.<br>
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<div>There is going to be a very, very long tail on this thing.<br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="x_gmail_attr">On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 12:39 PM Rich@tnr via Hidden-discuss <<a href="mailto:hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net">hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net</a>> wrote:<br>
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<p>Should like a job for a super-techie -- any takers ??<br>
<br>
<span style="color:rgb(44,44,44); font-family:FreightText,Georgia,serif; font-size:18px; font-style:normal; font-variant-ligatures:normal; font-variant-caps:normal; font-weight:300; letter-spacing:normal; text-align:start; text-indent:0px; text-transform:none; white-space:normal; word-spacing:0px; background-color:rgb(245,245,245); text-decoration-style:initial; text-decoration-color:initial; display:inline; float:none">It’s
going to take months to kick elite hackers widely believed to be Russian out of the U.S. government networks they have been quietly rifling through since as far back as March in Washington’s worst cyberespionage failure on record.
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<p>... <span style="color:rgb(44,44,44); font-family:FreightText,Georgia,serif; font-size:18px; font-style:normal; font-variant-ligatures:normal; font-variant-caps:normal; font-weight:300; letter-spacing:normal; text-align:start; text-indent:0px; text-transform:none; white-space:normal; word-spacing:0px; background-color:rgb(245,245,245); text-decoration-style:initial; text-decoration-color:initial; display:inline; float:none">
“We have a serious problem. We don’t know what networks they are in, how deep they are, what access they have, what tools they left,” said Bruce Schneier, a prominent security expert and Harvard fellow. ...<br>
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<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hacking-russia-bafff5557a8941aa1a5ef239d36c4e28?fbclid=IwAR1MvOIpHUL8GrS2IE-g_hd6BY336St-00rQ-C4FRsngagVEDg9zmh6trhM" target="_blank">https://apnews.com/article/hacking-russia-bafff5557a8941aa1a5ef239d36c4e28?fbclid=IwAR1MvOIpHUL8GrS2IE-g_hd6BY336St-00rQ-C4FRsngagVEDg9zmh6trhM</a><br>
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<pre cols="72">--
Rich Roth
CEO TnR Global
Bio and personal blog: <a href="http://rizbang.com" target="_blank">http://rizbang.com</a>
Building the really big sites: <a href="http://www.tnrglobal.com" target="_blank">http://www.tnrglobal.com</a>
Small/Soho business in the PV: <a href="http://www.hidden-tech.net" target="_blank">http://www.hidden-tech.net</a>
Places to meet for business: <a href="http://www.meetmewhere.com" target="_blank">http://www.meetmewhere.com</a>
And for Arts and relaxation:
<a href="http://TarotMuertos.com" target="_blank">http://TarotMuertos.com</a> - Artistic Tarot Deck
<a href="http://www.welovemuseums.com" target="_blank">http://www.welovemuseums.com</a>
<a href="http://www.artonmytv.com/" target="_blank">http://www.artonmytv.com/</a>
Helping move the world: <a href="http://www.earththrives.com" target="_blank">http://www.earththrives.com</a></pre>
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