Dedicated Server Reviews

Fist off I would like to apologize for the delay in my posting, things have been manic in my world, however shifting back onto track.  I would like to talk today about offering security to users.  I'm not talking about strong passwords or viruses, I'm talking about encryption.

Is it possible for hosting companies (especially those based in the US) to offer real encryption to the end user?  With all of the issues circulating in the news these days about the current administration and the US government agencies, this has to have an affect on the hosting community.  I know personally it has an affect on what I do and the way I do it.

If you were to offer encryption to your end users and clients, how far would you be willing to go for them should their information become of interest to certain agencies?  Is it worth your business to stand for this?  Is it a larger issue than business?  Is it easier to just not offer it so it doesn't have to be dealt with?  Do  you think it should be offered so the data can be obtained?  All of these are simple questions that have not so simple answers.  I feel each of us has to reach pretty far down to reach a decision about this, most certainly not material that is to be taken lightly.

Is it OK to allow your clients and end users to use encryption at all?  What if you offer an email service that has POP or IMAP access.  Will you allow your users that use Outlook, Apples Mail utility or Thunderbird to use one of the plugins available to encrypt and send their messages?  Would you encourage this?  What are the implecations of this kind of offering?  Are you really passing the responsibility of this on to your end users if you choose this route?  There are more than the actual messages that are useable when it comes to retreiving data.

So this was more of a precurser to what I want to talk about in the next couple of weeks.  Loads of questions just kind of thrown out there to put some ideas into some heads so we can maybe create a dialog about what's going on.  I'll continue next week with a more complete look into just what is available for use by people that want to extract information and what may be a good idear and what may not be if you want to play this game.  If there is anything specific around this topic you may want to discuss or see looked into, please let me know.  This is something that is of great interest to me and something I think all of us should be aware of.

Thanks for listening....

 

JB 

• Earthlink's New Edge, Chosen by County Bank Network
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WebmasterWorld's Search and Internet Marketing Conference entitled PubCon will be held this year from December 4^th – 7^th at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will feature an unbelievable array of search engine marketing talent and a speaker list that reads like a who’s who of the search engine universe. There will also be plenty of web hosting and webmaster discussion as well – and expert panels featuring a broad range of topics.

I caught up with the show’s founder and organizer, Mr. Brett Tabke, to get his take on this year’s event. Mr. Tabke directed me to the speaking agenda where I found out that among this year’s speakers are:

The founder of Craig’s List – Craig Newmark
Leader of the Google search engine rankings spam team – Matt Cutts
Venture capitalist and author – Guy Kawasaki

Of course there are the panels of experts on a variety of topics. I will be on a panel that will discuss web hosting and search engine optimization. I’m also on another panel on “tools of the trade” – this will reveal what specific tools I use to help with search engine rankings.

There is also a reprise of the “Google Reception with the Google Engineers”. This was a very popular event last year. Essentially, Google makes their engineers that are experts in various aspects of Google search available to answer questions – while there’s a giant party going on in the background. This is a great opportunity to learn tons about Google – even if you don’t have any specific questions. I learned quite a bit by simply listening in on other people’s questions and answers.

Mr. Tabke mentioned that he expects “a couple thousand attendees and 50-75 exhibitors”. When I pushed Brett to weigh in on what a “must see” item was at this year’s show he said, “Guy Kawasaki is back this year and hosting a panel himself. He is widely regarded as one of the top panel moderators in the business today. He is hosting a session with techs for the big four search engines”.

Be sure to book the date if you need to rub shoulders with the best of the best in the search engine and webmaster community.