Adhost Blog
24/7/365 Support
1-888-323-4678
support@adhost.com
PCI Compliance and Ecommerce Sites
Posted in Security,Web developmentOnline and other merchants are now required to comply with Visa / Mastercard Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards [PCI-DSS]. You can learn more about that online at the Visa and Mastercard sites or a host of other sites as well. Just type ‘PCI DSS compliance’ into Google.
Wikipedia has a useful overview: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Industry_Data_Security_Standard
and we have a brief description on our site as well: PCI Compliancy.
For online businesses that need to 1) adjust final order amounts after the original transaction or 2) perform subsequent charges or credits against the original card, storage of the card locally is no longer a realistic option without substantial outlays for hardware, software and programming [servers, firewalls, anti-virus programs and encryption coding].
This can be mitigated by employing a Credit Card Gateway that supports what is frequently called a ‘Tokenization’ solution that stores the credit card for you on their PCI compliant servers and allows you to perform later transactions against the stored card by way of a ‘token’ provided at the time of the original transaction.
We have researched several options for our ecommerce clients. Contact your sales representative for more information at 206-404-9000 or 1-888-234-6781.
permalink | digg this | technoratiSeptember PSAMA Luncheon: Twitterphoria
Posted in Seattle Internet EventsSave Wednesday, September 9 for the September Puget Sound American Marketing Association (PSAMA) Luncheon. The topic is Twitterphoria: Adding Twitter Power to Your Marketing Mix Today. Join Jennifer Gehrt, Co-Founder of Communiqué PR, to learn about current trends in social media.
Here’s part of the description: You’ll discover how you can integrate Twitter with your marketing plans to achieve your most pressing business objectives and you’ll walk away with ready-to-execute tactics to promote your company’s product/service on Twitter and other key social media platforms. Learn more and register at the PSAMA site.
And remember that you can follow Adhost on Twitter and twitter.com/adhost.
permalink | digg this | technoratiAdhost East Data Center Update from Adhost CEO
Posted in Company NewsDear Adhost Clients:
I am writing to you to update you on the status of the power infrastructure supporting the Adhost East Data Center located in Fisher Plaza East. Adhost is committed to providing a fault-tolerant, highly available environment to support our data center operations. We are working closely with Fisher Plaza, other tenants and vendor engineers and electricians to get our data center operations back onto that footing as fast as possible. This letter is meant to provide a synopsis of both the actions taken to date as well as a synopsis of short and long-term steps that Adhost and Fisher Plaza are taking to achieve our commitment.
As many of you know, on July 2nd, 2009 there was a significant event in the main electrical switchgear room located in the parking garage. While we are still awaiting final forensic analysis of this event, at this point we know that two 5000 amp bus ducts were severely damaged and that enough heat was generated to activate the pre-action sprinkler system in this room. Of course, the introduction of water into a live electrical switchgear room had predictable results – namely that all of the gear in that room became inoperable. Unfortunately this room was where the automatic election is made between utility and generator power. The loss of this room resulted in a loss of power to the Adhost East Data Center for approximately 27 hours.
The Adhost West Data Center was unaffected during this event and remains in its standard operating configuration of utility power backed by N+1 generator plant.
For approximately one month following the event, our East Data Center was powered by generators as its primary source. We announced several maintenance windows to upgrade the reliability of that generator power including moving from the single-riser/single generator configuration that we initially brought the building back up on to an N+1 generator plant that allowed for continuous operation and accommodated a regular maintenance schedule for the individual generators.
On August 1st and 2nd, we announced and successfully completed another maintenance window to switch-over to a temporary configuration that features utility power as the primary electrical source backed by the N+1 generator plant for emergency backup.
Meanwhile, we are working to develop a long-term permanent solution that will take this event into consideration and which will allow Adhost to operate continuously through a similar loss. This solution entails the following components:
- Diversifying the Adhost East critical equipment loads across the two switchgear rooms that service (or will service) Fisher Plaza East.
- Working with Fisher Plaza to ensure that catastrophic loss of one room will not inhibit our ability to operate.
- Working with the various regulatory agencies to put into place non-water-based fire suppression systems in all critical electrical areas.
These solutions take time to engineer and they also take time to source and install the appropriate equipment. Right now we are working to have the permanent solution in place by the end of October. As we get progress down this path, we will have better timelines which we will make available to our customers.
One other lesson that we have learned and which we are addressing is to implement a better emergency communications plan (ECP). Our previous ECP was shown as inadequate during this event and we already have implemented parts of this plan. Highlights of the plan include:
- An off-site (completely outside of the Adhost network and facility) maintenance mailing list server which is automatically synchronized with our main maintenance mailing list. We will also be introducing three primary lists over the coming months:
- East Data Center Operations
- West Data Center Operations
- Shared Hosting Operations
Once in place, we will announce to all lists events that impact the entire infrastructure such as power, cooling, network, DNS, and email. We will also announce major events that primarily impact one of these subgroups to all three lists with follow-up details being posted to the affected lists.
- Adhost is committed to using Twitter as a quick, off-site communications tool to announce not only information on major events, but also other Adhost news. You can follow our tweets at http://www.twitter.com/adhost
- An off-site Web server which will act in several capacities:
- Allow customers to get status messages on our major services.
- Provide a chat-style interface for customers with status questions and support needs.
- An off-site phone number that will give status updates to callers.
- Moving our phone systems to a more fault-tolerant system that will allow us to communicate via phone with customers during significant events.
Once again, we apologize for the extent of this event. We want to assure you that we are integrating the lessons that we learned from this event into our on-going operations and policies and procedures.
We appreciate your business, patience and understanding as we work to improve our services. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email support@adhost.com.
Will Riffle
President and CEO
Adhost Internet
IPv6 Update from Adhost CTO
Posted in Company News,IndustryAs of January 30th, Adhost is Time Warner Telecom’s first IPv6 customer. Adhost has been at the forefront of the IPv6 rollout and has been committed to convincing our providers to adopt IPv6 across their networks. We currently have multi-homed IPv6 connectivity through Time Warner and NTT/Verio, and we’re working to get additional IPv6 connectivity through AboveNet and Level 3.
The latest estimates indicate that the last available IPv4 space will be allocated and used by 2011. After that point, no additional IPv4 addresses will be available for use on the Internet. Adhost has been actively using IPv6 space since 2005, so we are well positioned to transition seamlessly to an IPv4/IPv6 “dual-stack” Internet and then to an IPv6-only Internet.
If you have any questions about IPv6, visit our IPv6 support page or send email to mksmith <at> adhost.com. I’m always more than happy to answer questions.
permalink | digg this | technoratiMicrosoft Windows 2008 Launch Event in Seattle
Posted in IndustryAdhost invites you to join us at the Microsoft Server & Tools 2008 Launch “Heroes Happen Here” event on April 1 in Seattle. Microsoft is launching three powerful new products to make it even easier for you to be an IT hero at your company. Attend the Seattle event to learn how—then leave with a launch giveaway kit that includes versions of the Windows Server® 2008 operating system, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008, and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008. And be sure to stop by our booth in the exhibitor expo.
The event is sold out to the public but they have saved some spots for customers of their partners. Space is limited - register today at http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=126636
permalink | digg this | technoratiAdhost Security Certifications
Posted in Company NewsCongratulations to two Adhost team members for completing security certifications: Mike Smith received his CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and GISP (GIAC Information Security Professional), and Richard Stockton completed his GIH (GIAC Incident Handler).
permalink | digg this | technoratiSpoofed Adhost Emails
Posted in SecurityWe note that clients are receiving email that looks like this:
==========================================================
Dear user stockton,
You have successfully updated the password of your Adhost account. If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact Adhost customer service at: admin@adhost.com.
==========================================================
There is a zip attachment to this email, and if you open it, you could be infected with the “Mytob.KU” worm. Our virus filters have been catching this email if it is bound for one of our local pop/imap accounts, but if the mail is aliased to go offsite, it could get through to you. BEWARE! If this email gets through to you, just delete it without opening the attachment.
Note that “admin@adhost.com” is NOT a normal Adhost support email.
permalink | digg this | technoratiSorry, no posts matched your criteria.