Update, Update, Update

We all have our little foibles - mine is to change underwear every day. This is part of my daily routine and I feel uncomfortable if I miss a day because of extraordinary circumstances. I don't suppose I'm alone in that. So why is it that I don't keep a closer eye on something else which is probably far more important to my own wellbeing and that of friends, families and total strangers??

"Yuck", I hear you say - "Is your hygiene routine so poor that you're allowing an epidemic to spread through the .??..."

Well, you know, I have another hygiene routine which I will have to improve on. Did you know that there are businesses being built on my lack of vigilance. .... Online businesses, that is.

How so?

Several years ago, I designed my first web page. At that time, web guest books were all the rage. I added one to my web site - and, sure enough, people started leaving lovely comments about my terrific-looking site. Over time, I forgot to check the guest book to see if it was being abused. The last time I looked, sure enough it was full of links to stuff that I wouldn't mention to .... Hugh Heffner or MataHari.

Surfing round the internet, I come across loads of web sites which have old versions of blogs, guestbooks, content management systems; I'll bet the owners of these sites wouldn't begin to imagine that there could be security holes in their sites or that someone could have found a way to add links to web sites which then re-direct to gambling or porn sites. I came across a post on a forum which claims that " Google Incapable of Eradicating OR now supporting Black-Hat ?" and continues

This guy is making a mockery of Google with his illegal redirects using server NEVTAKT.INFO. All of the sites below are using this server to redirect (usually to Poker Site MANSION.COM). This spammer formerly used SEOEXP.INFO as his redirect server.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are potentially millions of old web sites with insecure scripts; there are countless other sites taking advantage of folks' irresponsible attitude to their sites. Web hosts, search engines and domain registrars try to keep abreast of this problem - but even they have limited resources to tackle problems like this. This is partly because sites taking advantage of us are run by people who may have developed scripts to search out and infect old web sites. There is enough money in the business they are generating to be able to pay people to find new sites to infect or to find new ways to infect sites they already know about.

So, why do we need a new hygiene routine? Well, if we were to remove, delete or update every single instance of out of date, insecure scripts on the internet, that would clean up some of the problems we are seeing today. Then, as a weekly routine, keeping an eye on any scripts installed on a web site (and keeping a keen eye on web logs to see what sites are bringing traffic and what error messages are showing) we will do our bit to stop people stealing our web space, our bandwidth, our reputations - and we'll maybe keep our underwear clean!

Margaret

ps - You're invited to join my Squidoo Group