Fireside21

We have received a number of calls and emails from clients about last night’s hacker attack on Congressional web sites. First of all, no Fireside21 client web sites were impacted by this attack.

I don’t know for sure exactly how these sites got hacked—I would just be speculating without conducting an audit of server logs. I do want to take this opportunity to re-assure our clients of things we do at Fireside21 to protect our client’s web site and constituent data.

Our system is safer for several reasons:

1. Our web servers run the latest software and have anti-hacking protection built-in.
2. We write our own software and adhere to the best practices for handing anonymous input.
3. All our administrative functions are limited to the house network, which means hackers have to breach the house firewall before they can even try to access our admin servers.
4. All administrative logins are encrypted with the same technology used by banks and online stores.
5. We lock accounts that enter too many bad passwords, making it hard for hackers to try and guess your password.

One thing I recommend for everyone is to be careful with your usernames and passwords. Pick a complex password, change it often, and don’t let anyone know what it is!