iT – Security, iOS & OSX

Cyber Security is important to us all. If you think you have nothing to protect, think again. If a hacker has access to your computer or your website – you are vulnerable. You can’t completely protect yourself, but you can make it more difficult. As the first line of defense, you should at least check your website. This tool will give you a really good picture of what your site does for you by way of protection. If your ISP is not interested in assisting you, and you can’t do it yourself, change ISPs. At the very least, begin with establishing your website with HTTPS. It’s now available as a free certificate, and you can update it every three months automatically. If you have any sort of payment system or classified data on your site you MUST have it.  Don’t be fooled into paying thousands for bespoke Security Certificates, even the Big Players are now moving toward freely issued certificates. You can find details of the Certbot/LetsEncrypt foundation here. It’s the tracking of certificates that make them valuable, not the issuing authority.

To begin – click the link here. It opens in another page, and type in your website address. It will check it and give you a report.

Analyse your CSP. (Content Security Policy)

(extract) from the site:

Report URI was founded to take the pain out of monitoring security policies like CSP and HPKP. When you can easily monitor what’s happening on your site in real time you react faster and more efficiently, allowing you to rectify issues without your users ever having to tell you.

Our platform is constantly evolving to help you, our users, better protect your users.”

 

I take security seriously and encourage others to do the same. To that end, I also use DKIM, DMARC, and SPF signing in my mail server, as well as security certificates issued by LetsEncrypt and maintained by Certbot. In addition to that, I have Amavis and related antivirus software running on my Postfix/Dovecot mail server.

You can check your Certificate Chain for Security and Currency here, by Qualsys. Again, just enter your https website, and wait for it to complete its mission.

Mine looks like this. It also returns a LOT of other useful information for you.

… and I have nothing of value on my website. So why? I don’t want others sneaking onboard and using my website and server as a free gateway for their scurrilous activities.

Apart from writing. this is my other interest.

Programming the iOS devices like iPhone, iPad and so on, and the Mac at all levels including my own Web server and mail server.

Mostly on these pages, you will find tutorials I have created, reminders to myself of how things are done, and other code snippets. You will also find references to a couple of apps I have written that are of use in various quarters.

Feel free to contact me on Twitter or Facebook if you have questions about any of the apps or the code samples. Social Media links at the top of the page.

Last Updated on April 11, 2019 by @R_A_Chalmers