If you have a website, the chances are it runs on a CMS (Content Management System). There are hundreds of them out there, some you will have heard of; Wordpress is the obvious one. Others include Drupal, Joomla, and Umbraco. These are great for the most part, as they require…
I've just moved my site from HTTP over to HTTPS. It's not a huge deal for something like this, but it's something which I've really needed to do for a while, and something which is becoming more and more popular. For most people this won't mean much, and for this…
I've had the joys recently of being part of a code audit for a potential client for a change or re-build of a system. The code in itself was complete textbook...of how not to code a system. It looked like it had been built long long ago when OO…
Once again I've been inspired by a stack overflow question, and it made me think about issues of a shared hosting platform. You know the ones; the "host your site for £2.99 a month" sites. There's nothing inherently wrong with it (I was using them for a long time…
Earlier this week I was looking into RESTFUL web services and how to create them, so I set myself a small project. The idea was to do something very basic, but that could be useful for someone rather than just a proof of concept. i had no real direction. With…
Firewalls are not fun. I've got to open with that statement as I've been doing a lot of work with firewalls in the past couple of weeks. It's not been the most enjoyable of experiences, but I can see why it is needed. I've been working with some during my…
I spend quite a lot of time on StackOverflow, both in terms of finding answers for something I need, and also for helping people out with their issues. One question I see quite a lot is around security permissions for creating files on the server. Usually these questions are for…
Following the news this week that South Wales Police have been hit with a fine of £160,000 for not reporting missing data for two years, I got thinking about the importance of keeping data secure. The case itself is an extreme example of why you should keep data secure.…