Nexus Internet Services

Nexus Internet Services Nexus Internet Services provides webhosting and custom website design/build services.

10/15/2017

Tis the season to be scamming...

Well, that's not entirely true. For that group of individuals out there who seem to relish in taking advantage of others, its always the season.

One scam to be on the watch for is the domain name REGISTRATION letter. Now this can come to you in email, or postal mail, but it is always timed by the scammer to come in around 2 months before your domain name comes up for renewal... close enough that it could be misread as a domain name RENEWAL notice, even though they have nothing to do with the renewal process.

They make it sound so important that you get back to them right away, otherwise you might lose your domain registration (which again, has nothing to do with your ICANN domain registration) and prompt you to fill in the form, requiring payment of large fees (better do it quick) that you need to do in order to ensure (do it now) that your domain is registered (now now now).

Closer reading however reveals that this is a search engine listing offer. This has nothing to do with your domain name registration. They're using your domain registration information to solicit business from you (which is against the fair use entitlement of the ICANN registry system).

Another scam is one which is even more devious - they wish you to change your registrar to them. In doing do, you end up paying more than you should for your domain registration/renewal.

Can something be done to prevent this? Not really - in the case where the request is using information in an unsanctioned way, ICANN shuts one down, and two more spring up somewhere else. It must be a lucrative business model or they wouldn't be doing this. In the case of the domain registration change 'suggestion', the party is soliciting business from you to move from your current registrar to them.

However, with proper diligence from domain owners such as you, you can put a dent into these scams.

1. Carefully read any emails you receive about your registered domain(s). Do not act unless you are completely sure you understand what is being asked of you.

2. Recognize that high pressure sales are almost certainly a scammer playing on your worries and fears. Go back to 1 and read that email/letter again carefully.

3.. Recognize the type of requests which will be made of you.

Yes, your domain will come up for renewal - however no ICANN accredited registrar, will use the type of high pressure tactics that you see in these letters.

ICANN also requires that we send you notifications (which Nexus does by email) once per year to have you validate your contact information.

Nexus will also warn you (multiple times) that your domain is coming up for renewal - but those warnings will always point you to the online registration system. There will be no form to fill out and mail in with a cheque.

Being aware of what is going on out there is the first step. But it will take your diligence to ensure that you are not caught off guard. If in doubt, drop an email to the support desk, and describe what is being asked of you. We'll let you know if it's on the level.

05/09/2017

Its a jungle out there - and even when you think you have yourself protected, you probaby dont. While diligence here at Nexus ensures rotating complex passwords, we often get challenged as to why the user passwords we supply are so strong, and difficult. Well, its quite simple - we're trying to protect YOU.

3 Quick Facts on Why a Strong Password Policy Matters - from DigiCert

1. 73% of users have the same password for multiple sites, 33% use the same password every time creating an easy target for breaches and identity theft.

Are you one of the 33%? One of the 73%? You need to do better before you become a victim of password theft and reuse.

2. Strong password policies have come a long way. When I created my very first online account many, many years ago, my password was the word “cool” (don’t judge me, ok? I was very young at the time).
That password has long since been changed, to something much more secure, but passwords still remain part of every day life as more and more of the services we rely upon are managed online through web sites or mobile applications, banks and other very confidential areas.

Users today are inundated with passwords they must remember. Think about it. Website logins, email accounts, social media accounts, banking accounts, smartphone pass codes, ATM pin numbers, and home security system alarm codes all require some type of password.
Creating a strong password policy is key to helping users safeguard these critical systems they rely on every day. While additional complexity can seem like an inconvenience to many users, it shouldn’t prevent a strong password policy from implemented in your organization.

Consider these 3 quick facts supporting a strong password policy requirement:

Fact: 73% of users have the same password for multiple sites, 33% use the same password every time.

When it comes to security breaches, we’ve seen an escalation of security breaches. Even major brands have had systems compromised exposing user passwords. While administrators quickly respond and notify users by forcing password changes, their efforts are limited to their own site.

Changing a password with one site is not always enough. Chances are that compromised passwords are used elsewhere, leaving users vulnerable to hackers.

Fact: Every extra character in your password increases the difficulty for hackers to crack it.

The most commonly used password is…123456.

And it’s closely followed by just as insecure passwords like “password”, “welcome”, and “12345″.

Think one extra letter or number doesn’t mean much? Consider this:
A 6-character password with only letters has 308,915,776 possible combinations.

An 8-character password with only letters has 208,827,064,576 possible combinations.

An 8-character password with letters (upper & lower case) and includes numbers and symbols has 6,095,689,385,410,816 possible combinations.

There is real strength in numbers…or in this case, extra characters required by strong password policies passwords.

Fact: Multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security that is difficult for hackers to crack

A strong password policy doesn’t need to be the only line of defense to your systems and network. Adding multi-factor authentication creates multiple layers of security to protect users and resources.

At DigiCert, we strongly recommend that users enable multi-factor authentication in order to secure their certificate management account. Users can include IP address restriction, client certificates, and one-time passwords as their layers of defense.

Correctly implemented, these additional access requirements act as an extra layer of security protecting accounts even when hackers have been able to obtain a user’s password.

Strong Password Construction Guidelines

Good passwords are critical to information security. Lack of thought in creating password policies increases the chances of unauthorized access or compromised data. The SANS institute recommends that strong password policy include the following characteristics:

-Contain a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, punctuation, numbers, and symbols.
-Contain at least 15 characters.
-Be unique from other accounts owned by the user.
-Never include dictionary words
-Never include patterns of characters

Go even further in your password policy by encouraging the use of pass phrases, which use phrases along with the strong password guidelines to add even further difficulty to passwords being compromised.

The full negative effect of a compromised account sometimes can take months or years to be felt. With the nature of information we deal with online each day, there’s no room to be relaxed about our approach to account security. Keeping users, systems, and resources secure today requires a combined efforts using strong password policies and staying on top of the latest information security best practices.

10/18/2015

Well, its not 2016 yet, but why wait? Our 2016 lineup of physical and virtual servers is now online and ready to go. They come with newer, faster hardware, but we've been able to keep pricing the same giving you incredible value.

Physical Dedicated Servers are available in multiple configurations starting with 32GB and dual 2TB drives from $169/mo.

Virtual dedicated servers with 10GB of RAID10 SSD on the Openstack series or 25GB of high-availability NVMe clustered disk on the Odin series (Windows licence as an Option). Both now enjoy serious performance increases from Intel processors under the hood. Openstack series starts at $9.99/mo while Odin starts at $19.99/mo

Address

301-420 Erb Street W
Waterloo, ON
N2T1A3

Telephone

519-886-3437

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