Staying ahead of the scammers

It may seem a little alarmist yet history proves daily the website that rests is the one that gets put to rest.

Aside from being buried in the ever growing internet ‘noise’ the ever growing scammer/hacker trends require pro-active steps to keep your web presence safe.Aside from back-door Content Management System (CMS) access and bolted-door security one of the frequently exploited methods is hijacking your email account to use your credentials to send spam mail.That’s why the goalposts are ever changing for website developers that include being able to run a contact form from your site are continually having to keep up with the times. Or are they?For us at Com Technology a name and brand is everything, coupled with reliability. Being blacklisted by spam filters absorbs monumental amounts of time, trying to extract a client’s previously cherished email address from the doldrums of tarnished and immoral activity.What are the options? There are a few, depending on who your email provider is, primarily.If you use Google mail, having an account dedicated for website mail gives you the option (via your developer) to use the OAuth2.0 method of securely porting mail (from your website visitor, via your Google account and ultimately to you). In many ways it is a convoluted and complicated process. However it works, and is the best protection against being hijacked by a spammer looking for email credentials to exploit by their multi-million email address list.Other alternatives we use include Mandrill (by the owners of Mailchimp), or, if you host via a secure enough hosting service, using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to route your mail.There is one golden rule of 2015 – always always always use secure email credentials and that’s more than a fancy hard-to-remember password. It means using a secured connection between your computer and your email host and knowing that your email host also has a secure platform.If you use POP mail, using the incoming mail port 995 and sending (SMTP outgoing) of 465 or 587 are initial steps to ensuring your own protection. Get in touch with us if you would like to know more or assistance with getting ahead of the scammers.