Email Hacking Yahoo: I always tell my clients to use gmail and this is another reason why

Hey, Yahoo is a great email service, no doubt about it. Yes, I have some email account there but not my main ones.

Just keep in mind that Yahoo it is owned by Microsoft - so that tells you something - right? Gmail offers more features to manage your email. Plus, most important to me and my clients, it offers free email forwarding. To do that in Yahoo you're gonna have to pay a subscription.

Gmail also also you to receive email from multiple account in one place for free. But i don't want to rant about how I enjoy email today. I just want to share this news story about someone hacking yahoo accounts (see below). Be safe.

Steu

An internet hacker has offered to sell code that will allow a person to hijack Yahoo email accounts.

The hacker, said to be an Egyptian who goes by the username TheHell, has offered an exploit for the price of $700 on an underground cyber crime community called Darkode.

It works when AN unsuspecting email user clicks on a malicious hyperlink, sent in an email. By clicking on the link they unwittingly allow a cyber attacker access to their Yahoo Mail account.

'After the victim clicks the link, he will be redirected to the email page again,' a YouTube video advertising the hack said.

Online security blogger Brian Krebs noticed the publicity from the suspected hacker last week.

The exploit 'targets a “cross-site scripting” (XSS) weakness in yahoo.com that lets attackers steal cookies from Yahoo! Webmail users,' he explained in a blog posting on his website Krebs on Security.  

'Such a flaw would let attackers send or read email from the victim’s account. In a typical XSS attack, an attacker sends a malicious link to an unsuspecting user; if the user clicks the link, the script is executed, and can access cookies, session tokens or other sensitive information retained by the browser and used with that site. These scripts can even rewrite the content of the HTML page,' he added.

Krebs informed Yahoo about the intended attack and the internet company said their security team is responding by fixing any potential vulnerabilities. 

'Fixing it is easy,' Ramses Martinez, Yahoo director of security told Krebs. 

'Once we figure out the offending URL, we can have new code deployed in a few hours.'

Krebs informed Yahoo about the intended attack and the internet company said their security team is responding by fixing any potential vulnerabilities.

'Fixing it is easy,' Ramses Martinez, Yahoo director of security told Krebs. 

'Once we figure out the offending URL, we can have new code deployed in a few hours.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238959/Millions-Yahoo-Mail-accounts-vulnerable-email-hijacking.html#ixzz2DRXqJjkj

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Steu Mann is an SEO Specialist. He has been successfully working with online technology since 1997. Follow him on Twitter at @EzWebManifest. If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to receive Free Web Site Tune Up Tips in the future.

Power of blogging to get attention, using discernment on the internet

The internet is surely a place for news and info you won't ever see on main stream media.

But, the essential element is using your own discernment to see if the news is worthy or just disinformation being placed as a campaign to dumbify viewers.  IMHO, there is plent of worthy news and even more disinfo being published by those whose want to control one something or another.

Anyways, in China this morning there is a blogging story that cost a top political boss his job and reputation. I would call this a quality example of the power of the internet proving real news.....


Communist party official sacked after pictures of him having sex with his mistress are leaked online

A Chinese Communist Party official has been sacked after images of him having sex with his mistress were posted on blogging websites.

Lei Zhengfu, a district party chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing, was fired after an investigation by the party's discipline watchdog confirmed that it was he who appeared in the video, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The case highlights the influence of China's fast-growing blogging community, and the ruling Communist Party's increasing sensitivity to public anger over abuse of power, official impunity and corruption.

The agency reported on Thursday that Lei had told a reporter the video, shot in 2007, was a fake.

The party has stepped up its rhetoric against corruption, seeking to counter anger from citizens over regular reports of graft and debauchery among officials - but efforts to root out the problem are reported to have been ineffective.

Bo, who also faces possible charges of corruption and abuse of power, has yet to stand trial.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237343/Communist-party-official-sacked-pictures-having-sex-mistress-leaked-online.html#ixzz2D3uC8Ffk 

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Steu Mann is an SEO Specialist. He has been successfully working with online technology since 1997. Follow him on Twitter at @EzWebManifest. If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to receive Free Web Site Tune Up Tips in the future.

Social Media Power - Real Time: NBC host sparks Twitter storm over everything from mispronunciation to his thinning hair during Thanksgiving Day parade coverage

Like it or not, social media can and does cause waves of attention, be 'em good or bad, for just about anyone.  I keep saying that social media is tool to manage your web reputation. This is a real time news story about how this poor guy at NBC  getting hammered on Twitter; one of the top three social media tools.

'Dear Matt Lauer, RETIRE': NBC host sparks Twitter storm over everything from mispronunciation to his thinning hair  during Thanksgiving Day parade coverage

It has not been a good week for Matt Lauer, nor is it shaping up to be a happy Thanksgiving.
Following the allegations he is set to be axed from the Today show over plummeting ratings, the NBC host has become the butt of a number of jokes on Twitter for his coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Users of the microblogging site commented on everything from his mispronunciation of a popular Gershwin song to his lackluster presenting skills and his ageing appearance.

Other comments were just general anti-Lauerisms.

When he introduced the popular George Gershwin hit 'SWonderful, he pronounced it as 'Ess-Wonderful', despite it being a well-known song, with notable versions recorded by everyone from Bing Crosby to Rod Stewart.

Tweets about the gaffe included: 'Matt Lauer announces that @niceworkbway will be performing "Ess Wonderful". Which is what Jewish families say before eating turkey'; 'Really Matt Lauer? "S. Wonderful" Try "S'Wonderful," one of the most popular Gershwin songs ever written. Heard of the Gershwins?' and 'Matt Lauer's enunciation of 'S Wonderful makes it clear that he is totally devoid of funk.'

Other viewers commented on how old the 54-year-old looks and noted his thinning hair.
'Matt Lauer doesn't age that well. Look at his hair though. I have a picture of him from awhile ago and he looks so much better', 'Dear Matt Lauer, RETIRE. YOU LOOK LIKE A CROTCHETY OLD MAN' and 'I remember when back when Matt Lauer had hair.'

On his presenting style, viewers tweeted: 'Matt Lauer's coverage of branded thanksgiving floats is indistinguishable from his coverage of the Olympic opening ceremony'; 'Matt Lauer should get a lifetime achievement award for saying ridiculous things with deadpan, absolute sincerity. Way to go Matt' and 'Is there a device to delete Matt Lauer's voice while watching the Macy's parade?'

The long-time host, who earns a staggering $21.5 million a year, is being blamed for the NBC morning show's dismal performance over the past three months and sources claim ratings will only improve if he is replaced.

He was also criticized last week for allegedly refusing to take a pay cut so that he could save some of the staffers from getting sacked, as Jay Leno did in the summer.

According to The National Enquirer, weatherman Al Roker is plotting to push the 54-year-old TV veteran out of his anchor chair and is lobbying a newly appointed Today producer for help.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236998/Matt-Lauer-faces-Twitter-storm-criticism-Thanksgiving-Day-parade-coverage-mispronunciation-thinning-hair.html#ixzz2CyvaSwlu 

SEO: seven common errors that kill SEO and how to make your site trustworthy to Google

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is morphing as the web continues to expand and be a larger part of our personal and business endeavors.  It’s no secret that Google and Bing are the new yellow pages. Anyone not coming to terms with that in their business plan is just working an old-school business model.  

Is SEO Dead?

With the recent shakedown of site performance from the algo updates (Panda and Penguin); sites losing their ranking and positions in the search engine results, you might think that SEO techniques are no longer working or not effective.

But, that is not the case. The algo updates are continuing at a furious pace to bring some authentic search results to all search engine users In other words, there is no more tricks and short cuts being tolerated to getting to the top of the heap on the search engine result pages. 

Here are seven reasons for low site performance in search engine visibility - in no specific order.

Keyword stuffing

Poor content writing

Automatic anchor text links

Unnatural links

Duplicate content

Content below fold

Hidden text

There are three emerging key perspectives in this “changing of the guard” of SEO: 1) site trustworthiness, 2) social signals, and 3) keywords as “natural” and “relevant”.

Site Trustworthiness

Have a meaningful content strategy. If you need to, hire writers and have them produce content that you can use in blogs and articles that is informational and educational about your products and services.

The days of benefiting from building links using free directory submissions are over. Kaput. Anywhere that accepts free inks is pretty much ignored by Google or in some cases it will actually hamper your pagerank.

Earn Google’s Trust

1. Don’t stuff your site with keywords.
2. Provide educational and informational content, that’s well written, on your site.
3. Make your site easy to navigate. Don’t make visitors go in circles.

Social Signals

Use social media to discover where your target market is online: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, blogs, industry locations and then hang out there. Make some friends and make them aware of the helpful, informational, educational content on your web site. Share their content and ask them to share yours too.

Keywords “natural” and “relevant”

Google has gotten more synonym-savvy over the last couple of years, there's no need to cram keyphrases everywhere you possibly can. For example, always using "blue suede shoes" as-is (the entire, original keyphrase together), you can also use just "blue" and just "suede" and just "shoes" within the copy. This is what I have been teaching my clients over the last few years.

Here is what Matt Cutts, Google SEO Champ, has to say about keywords, “People can overdo it to the point that we consider it keyword stuffing, and it hurts. I would just make sure you use key words and phrases in natural ways where regular people aren't going to find the content stiff or artificial. That tends to be what works best.”

I will be providing more strategic information over the coming weeks about the new “how to” on SEO as the algo updates continue.

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Steu Mann is an SEO Specialist. He has been successfully working with online technology since 1997. Follow him on Twitter at @EzWebManifest. If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe to receive Free Web Site Tune Up Tips in the future.