Here’s an interesting read if you work in or with a team that’s responsible for building public facing systems. It’s a collection of the top 25 programming errors that have been responsible for most of the major security breeches and system outages over the last few years. Some of them are pretty well known, some a bit more exotic, but it’s always a good idea to make sure you’re aware of the risks you’re facing and familiarise yourself with them.

Here are the top 3, which I’m sure most people are familiar with:

• Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure (‘Cross-site Scripting’)
• Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command (‘SQL Injection’)
• Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (‘Classic Buffer Overflow’)

Get the whole list here: Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors

What I like about the list is that there’s a plain English description after each vulnerability (further down in the document), which you can use when explaining to non-programmers what the risk is all about. So next time your website gets hacked, you can use this to explain to your CEO exactly how it happened.

On a side note: My mate Noah maintains that the single Most Dangerous Programming Error was demonstrated to us by James Cameron in the Terminator series: Giving complete control to machines results in disastrous consequences which includes them ruling the world and going back in time to kill your mother. I have a plan for that though; if we take down the satellites they won’t have access to internet satellite services and therefore will get lost as soon as they’re out of Bluetooth range of each other. Reckon that will work?

I came across a Webinar that happens every couple of weeks called “Building your Brand with Social Media”. It’s being run by a company called Silicon Cloud, an Inbound Marketing company. They use a trio of products you may have heard about in other circles, namely SalesForce, Hubspot and Sales Pipe, to deliver a number of services targeted at turning your website into a lead generation engine. I’ve used Hubspot before, it’s the engine behind Twitter Grader and quite an impressive engine at that. Anyway, Silicon Cloud offer a range of services, from Search Engine Optimisation, all the way to Inbound Marketing. I’m sure their Webinar might interest some of you.

Reserve your space for the 25th February

You know, one of the advantages of the Internet is that you can look up anything you want, wherever you are (assuming you have an Internet connection of course, and that’s one of the advantages of my Nexus One), especially if you can use Google to help.. However, sometimes what you really need is a pinch of inspiration. For example, today I was brainstorming with someone about finding a birthday gift for a mutual friend, and this time, Google just couldn’t help.

Eventually I did come across a website that takes a different twist to birthday gift ideas. Instead of giving you a set of products to browse through, it works by having different themes that you can use to drill down to a gift that will do the trick for you. For example, you can choose “Husband Gifts” or “21st Birthday” or “Girlfriend” and you are taken to a themed page that lets you zoom down into different subject areas. It’s only when you pick one of these that you are actually presented with a selection of products. I thought this was a great way to approach a common problem. You can still drill down to the product by choose the Category and Price Range, but you can find that sort of search pretty much anyway.

Roll on the inspiration!

If you’ve ever used Microsoft Exchange you’ll be aware of all the benefits it brings to your organisation. But if you’ve ever run your own Exchange Server though, you’ll know that there’s a significant amount of effort that needs to go into managing and maintaining both your users and your server infrastructure. There is an option however that will give you the best of both words. Use a hosting Exchange platform sitting out in the cloud somewhere.

I’ve been thinking about the subject because I came across a hosted Exchange offer by Rackspace which seems to offer all the benefits without the pain. It costs $12.50 per mailbox that they host for you; which really means that if you have a small company you can make use of their service at a low cost, and then scale the capability as your organisation grows. They currently have over 6000 companies that make use of their service and they also add some extra functionality that helps make their offer more compelling. You get free anti-virus and anti-spyware scanning in the offering, a web-based control panel and you don’t have to be tied into a long-term contract. If you’ve never heard of Rackspace before, they’re one of the top hosting companies in the world, so you do know that your data will be secure.

So there you have it, all the benefits, none of the pain.

photo credit: akuban

I’ve just noticed that this Thursday is the Third Thursday of the month; and we all know what that means. Yes, it’s Social Media Club day in the Isle of Man and we’ll be meeting up for a pizza down at Paprazzi on the prom. For those who have never been, it’s a social event aimed at users, both novice and experts of Social Media and helps provide a forum for people to discuss ideas, issues and new developments in the field.

Personally I try never to miss them. I do tend to meet lots of people online, but it’s much nicer putting a face to a Tweeter or actually debating an issue (rather than discussing it on a Facebook board). I’ve made a number of friends and contacts this way; people who would otherwise just have been yet another “Friend” on my Facebook Friends List. If you’re working with Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, or one of the plethora of social networks out there, then come along, grab a bite and come socialise with us.