As the Internet has grown, three main protocols have reigned supreme in sending data online: IP (Internet Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol), and TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). Understanding these protocols is key to both designing computer networks and keeping data secure. Foremost among these three protocols is IP, as both UDP and TCP use IP as a base layer for sending their information.
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ASP.NET, PHP, and most web platforms offer a variety of techniques for data encryption, ranging from simple hashing to fully reversible encryption algorithms. Developers will need to choose the algorithm that offers the most security possible, while sacrificing the least amount of capability.
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SSH is an age-old technology used by network administrators to remotely log into servers. With a few clever tricks, it can also be used to bypass most firewalls, and open up ports on the local network. All that is required on the target machine is an SSH client.
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Despite many of the recent high-profile security breaches – from Target’s credit cards, to Edwards Snowden’s extravaganza, to further leaks of the NSA’s spying capabilities, major changes still have not taken place in most individuals’ digital habits.
While the average person implicitly understands the difference between sending a postcard and an envelope, most eyes gloss over at the thought of encrypting their email or web traffic. Just like a letter without an envelope can be read by everyone in between, an email or web page that is not encrypted can, and will, be read by everyone who gets their hands on it. In addition, each person who handles that email doesn’t just read it, but copies it several times into various archives. The email archives and logs are often stored for years or decades.
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I remember it as yesterday – the excitement when IBM’s OS/2 Warp 4 first arrived. Released in 1996 – it was several generations ahead of Windows. It included Speech Recognition, Java support, and was more stable, fun, and friendly than Windows 95. A few years later and the entire operating system was basically dead, Microsoft Windows had defeated OS/2 and IBM gave up on the personal computer business. Why did the technically superior operating system lose?
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With its extreme flexibility and proven prowess as a publishing platform, WordPress has become an invaluable tool in the arsenal of most web developers. However, advanced customization is often cumbersome and can be difficult to achieve.
Having spent several hours the past two days fighting against WordPress’ limited support for splitting blogs by category, I’m sharing a few of the insights gained during the arduous process.
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