Ping! Zine Issue 82 - Cyber Security by Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine

PINGZINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

PING! ZINE

THE STAFF...

082

EXECUTIVE STAFF

Cyber Security Expert Examines Dire Threats to our Internet Security

Publisher Keith Duncan Production Manager Lois Clark-Mayer Marketing Director Zachary McClung Executive Editor Dave Young Senior Online Editor Robert Lang

EDITORIAL STAFF Technical Editor Frank Feingold

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Associate Editor Peter Burns Headlines Editor Derek Vaughan

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

six IS TRADITIONAL HOSTING DEAD?

eight ENDURANCE, SITE5 & VALUATION

john zanni hillary stiff netswitch GINNY GRIMSLEY

ten CYBER SECURITY EXPERT EXAMINES DIRE THREATS TO OUR INTERNET SECURITY

sixteen YOUTUBE MY TWITTER AND I’LL FLICKR YOUR GOOGLE

eighteen 3 TIPS FOR HIRING A TOPNOTCH ANDROID DEVELOPER

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SHARON KOIFMAN JENNIFER L. JACOBSON ZACHARY MCCLUNG

ADDRESS Ping! Zine, LLC

SEVEN MARKETING TIPS TO KEEP CUSTOMERS ENGAGED

twentty-two EIGHT NONPROFIT TECH TOOLS

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GROW YOUR SHOPIFY STORE: FIVE REASONS TO OUTSOURCE YOUR LIVE CHAT TODAY

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PINGZINE, LLC, P.O. Box 516, Denham Springs, LA 70726. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce part or all of this issue must be secured in writing from the publisher. Complementary subscriptions are at the discretion of the publisher and may be cancelled or modified at any time. Unsolicited submissions are welcome. We assume no liability for lost or damage of submissions. We

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BITS & BYTES

Is Traditional Hosting Dead? by: John Zanni, CMO, Parallels, Inc. Before cloud, there was Web Hosting. For decades, traditional web hosting providers had a solid business opportunity and a seemingly never-ending supply of new and growing customers. With over 600 million web sites worldwide, hosting web sites and web applications is one of the top infrastructures workloads delivered by hosters large and small. In fact, this past year alone 300,000 new web servers were spun-up in datacenters around the globe. But that world is now gone. AWS, Linode and Digital Ocean killed it. Main-street businesses are now moving to the cloud and the traditional hosted infrastructure approach does not work for them. This market shift has caused the face of the web hoster to change forever. If you look at Google Trends as an indicator of broad market trends, you’ll see something interesting. Web hosting is making a move from generalist to specialist. The general search terms that used to drive the market – such as web hosting, e-commerce hosting, dedicated server and PHP hosting – have all been dropping off sharply in favor of specialized terms such as WordPress hosting, Shopify, Linode and web app hosting. The same thing is true when looking at Parallels Plesk users. Use among web hosters is slowing, while the number of “web professionals” using Plesk is growing exponentially. The increased value placed on web presence by businesses is creating a need for higher-value and more managed services from web professionals such as web designers, web developers and other digital agencies. Edge Strategies (Edge Strategies, Web Value-added Provider (VAP) - Understanding Their Business Models and Identifying Opportunities to Influence their Behavior) estimates that web professionals influence approximately 160,000 web servers per year, yet most providers of web infrastructure are not targeting this critical part of the value chain. Given these vast industry changes, one way for infrastructure hosters to grow market share is to create offers targeted at specific audience segments and create solutions that support the needs of each segment. In this new world, building customer solutions around a powerful web management toolset is the key differentiator for infrastructure providers. Parallels Plesk 12 caters to the very specific needs of four distinct audience segments: · Web Administrators including IT professionals and website hobbyists who are hosting self-managed sites · Web Application Developers who are hosting web applications · Web Professionals and Digital Agencies who are managing and hosting WordPress sites · Service Providers who are hosting and reselling unmanaged shared accounts Each market segment gets a specialized version of the software that best suits their needs, so that hosters can create profitable, targeted infrastructure solutions. The global marketplace has changed the web dynamic, which has led to the evolution in web hosting. Infrastructure providers must break out of the traditional control panel mindset and start understanding how a high-value web management solution will create a strong, growing and resilient business opportunity that will carry them forward. P! 06

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PING! ZINE BITS & BYTES

Endurance, Site5 & Valuation

By: Hillary Stiff - Cheval Capital, Inc. Disclaimer: This post is for general information purposes and is not meant to be taken as financial advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks, a comprehensive discussion of valuation or how to do the calculations discussed. Please be sure to consult your financial advisors when valuing your company, considering the sale of your business or making other financial decisions. We get a lot of questions about transaction values so we thought for our inaugural PingZine article that we’d take a look at Endurance International Group’s August 7th announcement of their financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 to see what they can tell us about valuations in the hosting industry. Some background, Endurance is one of the world’s largest hosting companies, providing service to over 3 million subscribers. It has grown to that size through a mix of acquisitions and organic growth. At the beginning of August it released its June 30th, 2015 financial results. In that release, it also announced the acquisition of the Site5 & Verio hosting businesses. We’ll start by looking at the valuation for Endurance as a whole and then at some of the details of the Site5 transaction. (Full disclosure: Endurance was a client of ours for a number of years although not recently.) How much is Endurance worth? The first step in answering that question is to ask another question. To whom? The value of Endurance to the stock holders is different than the total value of the business’s operations, aka the Enterprise Value. A firm’s Enterprise Value combines the values of the various parts of the business that are pledged to the stock holders, the debt holders and others. The Enterprise Value is what we’re after. Enterprise Value. Enterprise Value (“EV”) represents the total economic value of a business’s operations. The calculation itself can get a complicated depending on the company but for most here is a typical formula: Enterprise Value = (Fully Diluted Shares * Current Stock Price) plus Debt (long and short term, including capital leases) less any option exercise proceeds (# of options * exercise prices) for un-exercised, in-the-money stock options included in Fully Diluted Shares less cash & marketable securities. We try to exclude from Fully Diluted Shares all out-of-the-money options and warrants. (See more at: http://www. chevalcap.com/2009/03/enterprise-value-calculation.html) So to get these figures we head into Endurance’s June 30, 2015 10Q financial report & Yahoo Finance. Fully diluted shares: 136,618,108 - Balance sheet, Note 10, CCI calc. Current stock price: $14.80 - Yahoo Finance for September 4 Total debt: $1,105,514,000 - Balance sheet Option exercise proceeds: ~$64,150,404 ** - Note 10 to the financials Cash: $35,533,000 - Balance sheet This gives an Enterprise Value of approximately $3.0 billion. (NOTE ** Calculating the value of in-the-money options can be a bit tricky due to the information disclosed and our calculation for Endurance is an estimate only.) So by itself, Endurance’s EV of ~$3.0 billion is not that interesting a number by itself. It can give us a sense for how big Endurance is but other than that, it is not easily comparable to other companies. However, if we divide the Enterprise Value by Endurance’s Q2 Revenues & EBITDA (annualized) we get much more usable information. In this case, taking revenues (from the Income Statement) & adjusted EBITDA (from Key Metrics on page 27 of the 10Q) for the three months ended June 30th, and multiplying by four, gives us Annualized Revenues of $729,724,000 and Annualized Adjusted EBITDA of $246,204,000. That means Endurance is being valued by the stock market at roughly a multiple of 12x their annualized adjusted EBITDA and 4x their annualized Revenues.

BITS & BYTES PING! ZINE These multiples can be compared directly to similar valuations of other hosting companies to get a sense for the overall market valuations of hosters and each company is being valued relative to each other. Cheval regularly posts summaries of current valuations on our website at - http://www.chevalcap.com/ valuations/index.html. (One cautionary note. While Endurance is valued at 12x adjusted EBITDA and 4x revenues, that does not mean that they will pay those prices for your hosting company.) Anything else in the financial reports? Actually, there is a ton of material in the 10Q financial report and on Endurance’s website. (I suggest in particular looking at their “Investor Overview Presentation” presentations at http://ir.endurance.com/events.cfm.) One announcement in particular was Endurance’s acquisition of the hosting company, Site5. Endurance has always taken a low profile about announcing its acquisitions and Site5 was no exception. In general, this disclosure strategy is a sound one for acquirers, although it makes life difficult for folks like us who are trying to figure out the valuation. So let’s take a look at the available information from Endurance about Site5; 1) In Note 3 (page 12) of Endurance’s August 7, 2015 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission they indicate that they paid $23 million in cash for Site5. 2) However, they also indicate that they already owned 40% of Site5 so the $23 million paid was for the 60% of the business they didn’t already own. While this suggests a total purchase price of $38.3 million, Endurance goes on to say that the purchase price was $34.9 million, likely reflecting an another adjustment. 3) Endurance’s slide presentation for their Q2 results (also available on their website) indicates that Site5 had ~58k subscribers. This gives us a valuation of roughly $600/subscriber for the Site5 business. Unfortunately, $600/subscriber is kind of it. There is no Site5 revenue or EBITDA information disclosed or anything else that gives a sense for how Endurance valued Site5. What does it all mean As you can see, there is a mix of information publicly available about Endurance and similar information is also available about other publicly traded hosting companies. At times there is enough information to figure out the purchase multiples of acquisitions (and at times not.) In almost all cases though, it’s possible to get a good handle on the market’s valuation and to see how they are being valued relative to others. We hope this has been helpful and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at management[@]chevalcap.com]. Places to go for more information: - Public company information - https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html - Enterprise Values of major public hosters - http://www.chevalcap.com/valuations/index.html - Calculation of Enterprise Value: http://www.chevalcap.com/2009/03/enterprise-value-calculation.html Cheval Capital (www.chevalcap.com) is a boutique investment bank that specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance. We are a licensed Broker-Dealer and a member of FINRA and SIPC. While Cheval has expertise in a variety of industries, we have been particularly active in the Internet services arena. Over the past decade, we have represented companies including The Endurance International Group, SingleHop, and Rackspace Managed Hosting as well as many smaller companies in over 290 web hosting and ISP M&A transactions. We currently distribute a list of smaller hosting assets that are for sale. Whether you’re a prospective buyer or seller, or interested in equity or debt financing, we’d welcome the opportunity to talk with you about your business and goals. You can reach Frank or Hillary via phone or email.

PING! ZINE by netswitch

Cyber Security Expert Examines Dire Threats to our Internet Security and What We Need Do About It

feature PING! ZINE With 90 million-plus breaches per year, and close to 400 new threats every minute, cyber-security attacks are fast becoming one of the top threats to the security, well-being and livelihood of individuals and companies around the world. Cyber-security expert Steve King, Chief Security and Operating Officer of Netswitch Technology Management, Inc., one of the top Internet security management companies in the world, says the threat is not only real, but it’s only getting worse and is here to stay. “Cyber-attackers are leap-frogging corporate defenses, malware authors have figured out clever and sophisticated tricks to avoid detection, ransomware attacks have soared 113% since 2014, social networks and new mobile apps are enabling cybercriminals, who are moving faster as corporate defenses lag behind, and predicted future attacks on the Internet are more serious than ever,” says King, who has 30 years of experience in computer data security. “The facts are that as long as you’re connected to the Internet, you will likely become a victim of a cyber-attack.” But King cautions that it’s not all doom-and-gloom or time to give up and get off the grid. Although not a guarantee, there are ways to protect yourself and your company from falling victim to cyber attacks, says King, but it takes diligence, awareness and adopting a multi-layered defense strategy. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, King discusses these very-real threats, what you can do to make your personal online activity secure, how you can make your business secure, tips on minimizing you and your company’s exposure, and some of the new threats looming on the horizon for 2016. King’s three-decade computer industry experience includes data security, software engineering, product development and professional services, as well as extensive market experience in Information and Cyber Security Management, Contextual Search, Digital Media, Business Intelligence, Content Management, eCommerce, and Data Science. In addition, King has managed product development with UNIX, Windows and Java platforms, founded four software and services startups and raised $42 million in venture capital. As a co-founder of the Cambridge Systems Group, Steve brought ACF2, a software security system, to market, which would become the leading Enterprise Data Security product for IBM mainframe computers. As a result, King is known as the “Godfather of Information Security.” Netswitch is one of the world’s leading Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) and the fourth fastest-growing Managed Services Providers in the world. It was ranked fifth in California and 61st globally from MSPmentor’s 2015 annual top global 501 MSP rankings. Netswitch’s corporate and advisory boards features some of the industry’s leading security experts and technology leaders, who have created many of the most popular data security products on the market today. Netswitch consults with and provides managed security services for some of the world’s leading banks, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services companies. In business since 2000, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Thailand, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Netswitch has partnered with global clients such as Verizon Wireless, Wells Fargo Bank, Charles Schwab, eBay, Vodafone Americas, Inc., and the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels Limited.

Q&A with Steve King of Netswitch Technologies: 1. How real do you feel the cyber threat is in the marketplace? Very real. The dark side of the cyber security landscape is growing rapidly. More hackers join the ranks and more attacks are being launched every day. The annual cost of losses from global cyber-crime has added more than $100 billion annually. Cyber-attackers are leap-frogging corporate defenses, malware authors have figured out clever and sophisticated tricks to avoid detection, ransomware attacks have soared 113% since 2014, social networks and new mobile apps are enabling cybercriminals who are moving faster as corporate defenses lag behind and predicted future attacks on the Internet are more serious than ever. The facts are that as long as you’re connected to the Internet, you will likely become a victim of a cyber-attack. 2. Is it here to stay? Absolutely. The rewards are bigger. The value of credit card and PayPal accounts are much larger than they were just two years ago. The hacking techniques are much more sophisticated and the cyber-criminals just keep getting better. The Dark Web, which is now hiding most cyber-attacks, is 400 times larger than the conventional web and it is completely anonymous. The cyber-security industry is way behind the curve and there are very few college curriculums focused on data- or cyber-security even today. No new graduates means increased upward pressure on employment and wages. The unemployment rate in cyber-security is negative zero and a trained and experienced security analyst salary averages $225,000.

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feature PING! ZINE 3. How vulnerable am I to a personal attack? Very. Let’s look at one attack target, social media. Currently, there are more than 3.5 billion social media customers worldwide with more than 70% of Internet users accessing social media services online. Social networking is one of the most popular ways for online users to spend their time, and to stay connected with friends and families. People that spend a lot of time on social networks usually click links posted by trusted friends. One popular technique hackers use to exploit this tendency is called Like-jacking. This is where hackers post fake Facebook “like” buttons to webpages. People click the “like” and inadvertently download malware into their computers. Other techniques known as Link-jacking and Phishing result in more than 600,000 compromised Facebook accounts every day. In 2015, three in 10 Facebook users reported being compromised and the trend is increasing. Paying close attention to links that seem strange and avoiding the “like” button are two ways you can reduce your exposure. There are also lots of online “Dummies”-type books that will help you recognize spoofs and spams. 4. What can I do to make my personal online activity secure? Monitoring and reviewing your credit and debit card activity is obvious and necessary, but in addition you should sign up with your bank for real-time notification services so that you get an email or text alert when your card is charged an amount above that which you specify or when it is used online. This is a simple way to discover any large charges or online charges at the moment they occur. Notifying your bank then immediately will not only relieve you of the liability but will also help the bank in tracking down the perpetrator. Trust no one is a good guideline. When someone tries to trick you into disclosing passwords or personal information, you will naturally think twice and insist that they prove they are who they claim they are. Simply never give any information to an unsolicited caller, website or email. With online purchases, you can look for indicators of authenticity like a closed lock symbol repeating the https URL address, but this like many other symbols these days is not foolproof. What is known in the industry as Safe Browsing Service or Short URL Checking are not hack-proof. Hackers are skilled and have figured out ways around all of these checkpoints. The best advice is to minimize your exposure by using only a single online shopping service like Amazon or at least use different credit cards at different sites so you minimize your card replacement activity. The new credit card chip and pin technology has no impact on online or card-not-present purchases and there is no 100% secure defense against online fraud. Never use your debit card for online shopping as you will be providing fraudsters a direct path into your savings account and you will have reduced limited liability compared to credit cards. If your debit card is used in a fraudulent transaction and you haven’t noticed it or reported it for a period of 2 days (which is not unusual in card fraud) you will be liable for $500 of the loss. Password Tips: We have seen data that says upwards of 90% of passwords are made up of initials and birthdates. These are all easily hackable. Here are three simple password tips: -Don’t just use one password or a successful thief will immediately have access to all of your accounts. -Make your passwords hard to decipher. Make them at least 8 characters long. Combine a personally memorable sentence with some personally memorable tricks and special characters to modify that sentence into a password to create a lengthy password. An example of this would be “This little piggy went to market” becomes the password, “!tlpWENT2m…?”. But don’t use that one. Today’s password crackers know all about the first letter of every word in a phrase. You have to be more creative now. -Don’t post your passwords in plain sight, like on a Post-It stuck to your monitor. You would be amazed at how many people still do this. I am not a fan of password vaults because one of the top companies in that space was hacked a couple of months ago and all of the “vaulted” passwords were stolen along with the appropriate customer information to identify the password owners. I AM however a fan of identity theft protection companies who charge as little as $10/month and can save you several months of agonizing process trying to prove you are who you say you are following the theft of your identity. 5. What is number one tip to keep my personal accounts secure? Don’t shop online and use cash only. If you can’t do that, use an unlinked reloadable debit card for all transactions. If you don’t want to do that, only shop at one on-line location like Amazon. If you don’t want to do that, use a different credit card at each online site. OK — number one tip? Use a single credit card for online only and do all your shopping at amazon. Amazon is the most secure online site on the planet, but if they do get hacked, your damage control is limited to a single card.

6. How about my business? What are the top 5 tips to keep my business secure? You have to adopt a multi-layered defense strategy. The 5 layers you must put in place are: 1. Policy and Enforcement. You will need to determine and decide an exact set of rules related to security that must be followed by everyone in the organization. This usually begins with defining who has what access and authority to get information and the process they must go through to gain access. Identity is an example of one of the most popular current attack vectors. One of the easiest ways for hackers to penetrate your defenses is to use authorized credentials. They bounce around your network until they find a set and then they’re in. You need to protect these credentials with identity management software (available from multiple vendors and very affordable), process and policy, and then you need to enforce the policy even if it’s the CEO who is requesting privileged access. 2. Training and Awareness. The vast majority of advanced malware infections today are the result of phishing, spoofing and malvertisement. Phishing is where an attacker tries to learn login credentials or account information by masquerading as a reputable entity or person in email, IM or other communication channels. That is one effective way hackers get authorized credentials which they later use to compromise your systems. Spoofing is the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. It is often used to get you to send important, sensitive and confidential documents by return email. A malvertisement (malicious advertisement) is an advertisement on the Internet that carries malware and if clicked (an offer you can’t refuse) can infect an entire network. There is software available for a few hundred dollars a month that not only trains your employees but conducts random tests throughout the year to keep them alert and on their ties. Training your employees to be able to identify these types of attacks and refreshing them on a regular basis will go a long way to prevent a devastating infection. 3. Software and Systems. There are numerous software packages available (over 435 of them actually) that purport to protect various attack surfaces against various attack vectors and styles. The five principal vulnerabilities are your website, your perimeter, your endpoints, your network and your files/systems/programs. You will need software that guards against both internal as well as external threats. You have to be able to control mobile devices logging on to your network remotely (phones, iPads, laptops, etc.), interactive applications that process data coming through your website (registrations, credit card, etc.), employees and contractors working with classified, sensitive or proprietary data (software, algorithms, designs, accounting, etc.), data that resides on servers connected to your network (ERP, CRM, HR, etc.), vendor and partner access points that connect to your network (billing, job accounting, maintenance, etc.), your own connections to partners in your supply chain, and all transaction activity running across your network. You want to prevent and block access, detect anomalous behaviors and capture and contain malware infestations before they are able to breach your system, steal your data or otherwise compromise your protected assets. With a subscription to only a couple of specialized and highly effective software products, you can provide all of this protection in a complete solution for less than the cost of an administrative hire. 4. Monitoring and Alerting. All the technology won’t help unless you are monitoring your network. You need to be able to monitor your infrastructure 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It only takes an hour or so for an advanced threat to penetrate and begin exfiltrating data from your files. If you only monitor your network environment during working hours, you are leaving yourself open to an attack 76% of the time. This does not create great odds for your business. If you can’t build your own team and staff three shifts across a 7 day week, then you should outsource the monitoring to a managed security services company who has trained and certified security analysts watching client networks all the time. Because these companies can scale their operations, this service is a lot less expensive than you would think. Certainly less than the cost of a new headcount. 5. Remediate and Restore. Once you have been attacked, the key to recovery is a planned remediation and restoration process that has been communicated and rehearsed so that everyone understands their responsibilities and are ready to act in the event of a security breach. The planning for this is crucial. There are various planning templates around that can guide you through appropriate processes for your particular business or you can hire a consultant who specializes in this area. You will need to have specified exact steps to take depending on various attack scenarios. The goal is to eradicate the malware and recover your systems to get everything in your infrastructure operating normally once again. You will need to know in advance exactly how you are going to communicate the event to your customers, shareholders and employees and when. The average downtime following a breach last year was 12 hours. This means 12 hours without email, systems, desktops, networks or internet access. This does not include recovery time or cost. Target Stores had great technology that detected their breach, but they didn’t have a remediation or recovery plan and the result was horrific. You don’t want to be that guy. 7. Do you see any new threats on the horizon for 2016? Yes. Security budgets are up only 2% in 2016, yet the growth rate for breaches and malware attacks was up 67% over 2014. You can do the math. Here are some threats looming on the horizon: -Hardware Attacks. While hardware-centric cyberattacks are not a new concept, the incidents are increasing and leveraging attack

vectors like USB flash drive worms to conduct surveillance on targets is a new and effective penetration technique. The benefit to attackers is that without behavioral analytics monitoring a network, detection is very difficult. There is every indication that cyberattackers will continue to keep exploring how hardware can be infiltrated, and more ongoing attacks of this nature will be uncovered in 2016. -Commercial Software Vulnerabilities. Adobe Flash, Java and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer are three of the most vulnerable and will continue to dominate the software threat landscape just because of their huge install base and the inability of IT support people to apply the patches in a timely fashion (if ever). Most people will not migrate away from Flash due to the enormous amount of legacy content remaining online and even with new attack mitigation features, it remains a major vulnerability target. -Ransomware. This is turning out to be one of the most popular and virulent malware infections of the current year and arrives on your network compliments of a phishing attack or an accidental download. It locks your screen, encrypts your files and extorts a fee before giving you the cryptographic key required to get your files back. Since it has been so successful, it will continue to grow with new levels of sophistication and new stealth tactics. It may effectively encrypt your data on both systems and backups and even kernel components so that your own operating system will do its work on the fly. We will see an increase in ransomware incidents throughout 2016. -Cloud Computing. There are so many low-priced variants of cloud models available now and few of these hybrids are hardened to the degree Amazon AWS is. The universal appeal in terms of cost and efficiencies will drive more businesses to these variants with a dramatic collateral increase in vulnerabilities. They will continue to become irresistible targets for cybercriminals in 2016. -Wearables. The popularity of smartphones, watches, fitness bracelets and even smart clothing in the workplace creates an irresistible target-rich environment for hackers. All of these devices have communication capabilities and unprotected code that can be easily hacked and used as a backdoor to the corporate network. We will see a dramatic increase in cyber-attacks through compromised wearables throughout the new year. We will also see a related explosion in privacy legislation as a result. -Employee Home Systems. As businesses continue to improve their security postures and implement the latest security technologies, attackers will shift some of their focus to attacking enterprises through employees’ home systems. These relatively insecure setups and primitive home routers will yield easy corporate network access for hackers in 2016. -The Digital Dossier. Stolen personally identifiable information sets are being linked together, making the combined records more valuable for cyber attackers. Previously unexplained attacks against institutions like the UCLA medical center or Community Health Systems became obvious as these records were found combined with stolen credit card information and other personally identifiable information (PII) to create personal dossiers worth as much as $100 per data set on the dark web. 2016 will see even more robust black markets emerging for stolen PII along with usernames and passwords. -Malware Franchises. The evolution of malware has developed into complete kits available on the Dark Web for everything from ransomware kits to Denial of Service to point-of-sale breach kits. These kits are now being bundled for re-sale through franchise operators. It is sort of like a one shop stop for attackers and hacktivists who want to be able to stand up a complete arsenal on the web and go after anyone they choose. The Dark Web also provides cover for hosted computer viruses, Trojan horses and spyware through anonymous networks like Tor and will continue to provide increasing protection for these attacks in 2016 and beyond. It may seem like a daunting and near-impossible challenge to thwart all these ever-evolving hackers and sophisticated cyber-attacks, but King said with help and support from experts like himself and companies such as Netswitch, the threats can be minimized by being aware, minimizing your exposure and being prepared with a recovery plan if you are attacked.

About Netswitch: Netswitch is one of the world’s leading Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) and the fourth fastest growing MSSP in the world; ranked by MSPmentor’s 2015 annual top global 501 MSSP rankings. Netswitch developed MADROC® as the foundation for changing the way that businesses achieve their IT security goals by providing the most advanced cloud-based solutions to monitor and protect critical information assets without adding headcount or expensive hardware and software licenses. In business since 2000, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Thailand, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Netswitch provides its customers with experience and expertise in managing their IT infrastructure and defending their networks and applications from cyberattacks and data breaches. Small, medium and large companies have all partnered with Netswitch including global clients such as Verizon Wireless, Wells Fargo Bank, Charles Schwab, eBay, Vodafone Americas, Inc., and the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels Limited. At the end of the day, Netswitch customers enjoy the peace of mind they get through knowing we are looking out for them 24 x 7 x 365 days a year. For more information, visit our website.

PING! ZINE by joe thomas

YouTube My Twitter and I’ll Flickr Your Google By: Joe Thomas of Left Brain Digital

You hear it and see it every day: Follow me. Like us. Google it. And you know exactly what it means, don’t you? That’s the power of brand recognition. You know the Gecko, the e-Trade baby, and probably all the words to the Free Credit Score.Com songs, too. What? You thought these characters and catch phrases just happened overnight? Not! They were planned and strategically planted, and they have become the “faces” of their respective brands. Recognition is not the only thing – it’s everything. I’m going to use an author as our test dummy for this piece because I’ve developed enough author websites to know there is a lot of confusion about how they should brand themselves. I recently had a conversation with a prospective new client; let’s call him Gunther Zigby. Now, Gunther wrote a book and hired an out-of-work hairdresser to “build a website tonight” that finally appeared online four months later. After getting only 30 visitors to his site and not selling a single book in more than five months, Gunther talked to a friend of a friend, who gave him my number. I asked Gunther for his web address and he gave me the title of his book. I asked 16

youtube my twitter and i’ll flickr your google PING! ZINE him if he had misunderstood – I was asking for his web address, the URL for his site.

d e t r a t s y t Well, Gunther, no. Not really! r a ep h t n e h Zigby because it leads me into a really importantI only mention Gunther #w

“That’s it,” he said. “My book title is my website address, too. Pretty cool, huh?”

sounding message: The Proper Packaging In Relation to the Development of Your Brand. 1. As an author/writer - understand that YOU are the brand – not your book. Have you ever heard of John Grisham? I rest my case. 2. A good many authors are also public speakers. When was the last time you heard of a book being hired for a speaking engagement? See, when it’s all said and done, they really do want YOU! 3. If your website URL is your book title, what happens if, and when, you write another book? Now you’re catching on; you just figured out that you’d have to build a whole new website for the second book, didn’t you? As an author, odds are you have written one or two books, but are still virtually unknown outside of your circle. It’s not easy, but without the right tools, it’s pretty much impossible to break out of that circle. You have to create a package that will upgrade you from “virtually unknown” to “hot commodity.” That requires a plan and execution. You may be branding yourself as an expert on your topic – because you are! That’s a smart way to go but only part of the package. What kind of expert are you? Are you a roll-up-your-sleeves hands-on sort? Or do you have a flash and polish that make people say, “She’s successful. I need to listen to her.” Or, are you a funny, approachable everyone’s-favorite-uncle type? What is your message? Your promise? What can you consistently deliver, whether it’s on your blog or as a speaker? Even when you have everything 110 percent right, it’s not easy achieving the stature that makes your name as well-known as, say, John Grisham’s. But by laying the right foundation, you’re at least giving yourself a good running start. About Joe Thomas Joe Thomas is the founder and owner of Left Brain Digital (www.leftbraindigital. com), a web development company. He’s an award-winning web designer/ developer with more than 18 years of experience in print and web design and development. Thomas’ work became a major influence in graphic and web design in the “Y2K” era of the Internet’s dot-com explosion.

PING! ZINE by sharon koifman

3 Tips for Hiring a Top-Notch Android Developer If you want to hire Android developer talent, you may be tempted to seek candidates locally, and you may also be interested in only hiring on-site professionals to get your product completed. The fact is, however, that the Internet offers the ability to not just advertise available projects locally, but also globally. On top of that, you can use the web to find qualified Android development talent who are available as remote workers, maximizing efficiency and your budget. Below are three tips for hiring a top-notch Android developer or development team using the Internet: Hiring The cost of your Android developer talent is important, but you also need to consider what your company expects to get out of your investment. 1. Consider the Cost When it comes to developing Android apps and software, costs can vary widely. While the development of a simple app may run you a few thousand dollars, more complex apps can range into the tens of thousands of dollars for professional development staff. In rare cases, such as when an app is extremely complex and requires a great deal of development time and effort, the costs associated with hiring a developer or developers can reach near $100,000 or more. All of this will need to be factored into your budget, and you should also remember that, in most cases, you get what you pay for. Hiring In many cases involving Internet technology, it pays to think differently. By presupposing that only candidates who have the “expected” requirements will do a good job, you may be limiting your intended product. 2. Experience Matters … Only When It Doesn’t As just mentioned, yes, you often do get what you pay for, but this shouldn’t hinder your search for qualified developers who don’t have the expected education or work-related experience. Unlike other professions, such as psychology or healthcare, many developers these days have learned skills on their own, completely independent of a formal education. In fact, if you want to hire Android development talent these days, you might even be better off by looking for professionals who have learned on their own. These individuals have proven their passion and desire for not only Android development, but also for learning new things and sticking with a subject of study without any guarantee of a return. In short, self-taught developers know what they want and are not afraid to take risks. This can be a huge benefit to your company and to your final product. 3. Don’t Limit Your Developer Search Finally, it would be wise to recognize that remote workers are the way of the future for many industries, so don’t limit your candidate search to professionals in your local area. The Internet has made it easier than ever hire Android development talent who reside in cities and countries across the world. Whether you communicate through email, text message, video conference, or phone calls, you now have the ability to work as a personal team, even if members are scattered throughout the globe. Distant Job offers solutions for employers and recruiters who are in need of top talent, and we place an emphasis on using technology to attract qualified professionals. Remote workers and teams are often the best methods to hire Android development talent, and we can help your business find the right people for your company’s unique needs. Contact our experts today to learn more by visiting www.distantjob.com. About Sharon Koifman Sharon Koifman is a veteran of the web hosting industry and an active participant in the tech community. He has been running a hosting company with 3000 clients and recently stopped to initiate a brand new consulting operation. As a consultant he became the Hosting Director for Applicure, the business development director for Soholaunch and consults with a few other hosting companies. These days he is running Distant Job

PING! ZINE seven marketing tips to keep customers engaged

Seven Marketing Tips to Keep Customers Engaged

PING! ZINE

Digital Marketing has become not just a commonality, but an absolute requirement for businesses who want to engage their customers at every stage of the buying cycle, improving their site traffic and producing more sales leads. Shane Broesky, CEO and founder of global mobile accessories company Färbe Technik, has experience as the former President of NetBlue Web specializing in Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Online Advertising and Brand Development. Here are 7 useful tips that Broesky is offering to help companies take their brands to the next level with this as part of their digital marketing plan: 1) Play the Smart Game: You can flood your social media and content marketing channels with as much fluff and noise as you want but it just means most people will tune you out. Target your advertising so you’re not shouting the exact same message. Change up your content marketing so it stays fresh and more people will come to you for all their needs. 2) Have a Functional Website: Having a functional website means your website should look great, have easyto-use navigation, and loads pages quickly. The easiest way to do this is to test every single element. It might take time but it’s better than losing business to your competitor. 3) Email Marketing (grow your list): Studies show that 72% of North American consumers prefer e-mail marketing as the number one way to receive permission-based promotions. Make sure your website and social media have a form that will allow you to gather customer information and give you permission to send them promotional materials. 4) Be Mobile Friendly: 48% of emails are opened on a mobile device first. All websites must be optimized for mobile devices or you’re already losing half of your customers. The amount of mobile-friendly strategic location-based campaigns are also on the rise and showing great results. Build a site that is viewable on mobile and tablet devices along with the standard desktop version. Keep them on the site and compel them to inquire. 5) Social Advertising: Paid Advertising on social media is no longer a luxury, it’s now a necessity. Learning how to create effective ad campaigns for Facebook and other social media platforms allows you to directly engage with your audience. Another thing to bear in mind is that Google+ is becoming more and more popular and is currently experiencing a surge in growth since introducing ‘Google+ Communities’. 6) Blog Like You Mean It: Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads. Having a blog attached to your site provides interesting and relevant content while increasing your ranking in web searches. 90% of consumers find custom content useful so do yourself a favor, start blogging, give the people what they want and reinforce your brand at the same time. 7) Be Different: The world of digital marketing is a mess of sound that can often engulf and completely drown out your best marketing ideas. Being unique is the best way to stand out. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Be controversial. Be remarkable.

PING! ZINE eight tech tools every nonprofit should use 1. NonProfitEasy - Database Management, www.nonprofiteasy.com NonProfitEasy is an all-in-one data management software solution that helps small to mid-sized nonprofits manage their operational logistics. From CRM and database management, to events, donor engagement, and even fundraising, NonProfitEasy offers a one-stop, affordable, integrated software solution to help nonprofits focus on their passion—not their paperwork. Includes: - Fully integrated core modules, Specialized add-on modules, Custom reporting, Use only the features you need, when you need them, Comprehensive technical and online support, Training webinars, Optional and affordable phone support 2. Google for Nonprofits - Donation Payment, Docs, Website Building, and Monitoring, Website: www.google.com/nonprofits/onlinebasics/ Features Include: • Donation Payment - Google Wallet streamlines the online donation process by allowing donors to use a single login and enjoy enhanced security for their personal data. • Shared Online Docs - Shared online documents, like Google Spreadsheets, can help everyone contribute effectively to a grant proposal or budget report. Google Forms let you easily get data from team members, volunteers and clients. • Website Building & Tracking - Use Google Analytics to keep a close eye on your website traffic. You can get a clear picture of your website’s effectiveness through charts and reports which you can easily share with the rest of your team. • AdWords - Get Your Business Online gives you hundreds of fresh website templates to choose from. Google Sites can also help you establish your web presence quickly and effectively. Google Adwords can help you improve the likelihood that someone finds your organization online, because your ads are eligible to show up next to Google search results. • Video & Map Sharing - Set up a channel on YouTube to show your nonprofit in action. Using Google Earth, you can map your nonprofit’s efforts across the globe, helping people understand how and where your organization works. 3. PayPal Giving Fund (formerly MissionFish) - Nonprofit fundraising, www.paypalgivingfund.org/index.html PayPal Giving Fund is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides businesses with a safe and easy way for their customers to support their favorite causes. The PayPal Giving Fund gives nonprofits access to innovative fundraising opportunities that provide new sources of support for their work. PayPal Giving Fund makes giving safe, easy, and reliable by: • Ensuring that 100% of every donation reaches the donor’s chosen nonprofit. • Certifying that nonprofit participants are tax-deductible and meet international standards restricting hate, violence and intolerance. • Managing the tax benefits of giving. 4. Basecamp - Internal Task Management System, www.basecamp.com Primarily through word-of-mouth alone, Basecamp has become the world’s #1 project management tool, helping teams stay organized and on-task. It’s easy-to-use and reliable, with a 15 year history. As a company, Basecamp is profitable, debt-free, and privately owned so they answer to their customers and no one else. Basecamp works on multiple platforms, including Safari (Mac, iPhone/iPad), Chrome (Mac, PC, iPhone/iPad, Android), Firefox (Mac, PC), and IE 9+ (PC, Surface). Basecamp also integrates effortlessly with email. Official apps are available for the iPhone in the App Store and Android on Google Play. 5. WeVideo - Cloud-based video editor (web and mobile), www.wevideo.com/ WeVideo is a cloud-based, social, video-editing platform that helps everyone from beginners to experts make great- looking videos complete with custom themes, pre-made titles, and a library of professional music and stock-video. 6. Hootsuite - Social publishing/monitoring platform, www.hootsuite.com/ HootSuite is a social media relationship management platform for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ Pages from one secure, web-based dashboard. Advanced functionality includes tools for audience engagement, team collaboration, account security and comprehensive analytics for end-to-end measurement and reporting. 7. Scribd - PDF Sharing Tool, www.scribd.com/ Scribd is an easy-to-use PDF sharing tool. Just upload your high-quality PDFs to Scribd and share them with the world. From one-pagers to full e-Books, Scribd helps you share it all. 8. SimpleBooklet - Interactive Web-Booklet Making Tool www.simplebooklet.com/ Convert your existing marketing brochure or build a new web booklet from scratch with SimpleBooklet’s code-free, drag and drop design tools. Add lead generating features such as contact forms, telephone lookups, and directions. Every live booklet can generate measurable new business interactions.

by jennifer l. jacobson PING! ZINE

8 Tech Tools Every Nonprofit Should Use Give Your Nonprofit a Technological Boost With These Great Tools By Jennifer L. Jacobson, Founder of Jacobson Communication With an estimated 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States alone, nonprofits help with everything from ending local hunger, advocating literacy, and even saving dogs from inhumane conditions in dog mills. Yet for all their diversity, nonprofits share many of the same needs. Here are eight useful tech tools that nonprofits can use to stay organized, funded, and in the public eye.

PING! ZINE Igrow your sopify store

by zachary mcclung PING! ZINE

Grow Your Shopify Store: Five Reasons To Outsource Your Live Chat Today! Live chat is one of the most important services you can offer your clients and yet it is one of the most underutilized customer service tools in ecommerce. In a recent Forrester Research survey 44% of online consumers say live chat is one of the most important features a website can offer. In another survey, they found live chat double conversion rates. Being a small Shopify store you maybe hesitate to offer live chat with your busy schedule and handing your customers over to a 3rd party seems unimaginable. Not having live chat or only offering limited hours when your schedule permits, is doing more harm to your business growth then professional service could. REASON 1: YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT IT Your potential customers want live chat, you’ll never hear it from them because you weren’t available to assist them when they were on your website. However, the next store they visited were available to answer their questions and they did get the sale. REASON 2: QUALITY OF SERVICE When offering live chat around the clock, you are providing a higher level of service to your customers. They are no longer waiting for when your available, they are receiving instant attention like they deserve. You can control the quality of the service. We e-mail you a copy of the transcript the moment that chat ends. You have 100% transparency and control over the quality of service you deliver to your customers. REASON 3: JUMP IN REVENUE With the huge boost in conversion rate and the higher dollar per order, you’ll see a boost in revenue. Plus, the agents will learn your customers and build a relationship with them. Creating an opportunity to further up sell and recommend products that maybe helpful to them. REASON 4: ALWAYS OPEN Your online store is always open to take orders. You should support your customers around the clock too. It is all about driving an exceptional customer experience. REASON 5: MORE TIME Since you will not have a stack of e-mails to dig through each day from customers because they’ll already have been taken care of, you’ll have more time to work on your business. Working on your business instead of in your business leads to better products and more revenue. Start growing your Shopify store revenue today by outsourcing your live chat to Synersis Media. We Get Customer Service and can help you grow your business. The next 20 stores that sign up in our July on boarding class receives 20% off. Use coupon code grow.

PING! ZINE closing remarks

i2Coalition Welcomes Four New Members to the Board The Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) has elected four new members to its Board of Directors. The four – Melinda Clem of Afilias, Jordan Jacobs of SingleHop, Ditlev Bredahl of OnApp and Graeme Bunton of Tucows – join the i2Coalition’s Board with years of experience dealing with the nuts and bolts of the Internet – including the cloud, web hosting and domain name registry. These four new members will be joining seven returning members who will be serving their second terms. “Today’s announcement of the four newest board members represents an exciting next step in the growth and evolution of the i2Coalition,” said Christian Dawson, Chair and Co-Founder of i2Coalition. “Each of these four Internet warriors bring an incredible breadth of knowledge and experience to our cause, and with their support, the i2Coalition is poised to be the leading voice on the issues that impact the Internet infrastructure community.” Melinda Clem, Afilias Melinda Clem has nearly 20 years of finance, strategy and corporate development experience in the telecommunications and Internet infrastructure sectors. She currently has her own independent consulting business, where she focuses on the domain industry, and specifically, works with Afilias, the world’s second largest domain name registry, on a variety of their new TLD opportunities. Melinda also brings experience from early stage projects in retail data analytics, mobile applications and IoT initiatives. Jordan Jacobs, SingleHop Jordan Jacobs is the VP of Products of SingleHop, a hosted IT infrastructure and cloud computing company. He has more than a decade of experience in business strategy and product development in the cloud, hosting, and managed services market. Jordan is extremely technical with practical business aptitude derived from professional experiences spanning from cloud architecture and design, to data center engineering. Ditlev Bredahl, OnApp Ditlev Bredahl is the CEO of OnApp, a company that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service software for hosts, telecos and MSPs. He is an Internet and hosting industry veteran, with more than 18 years of experience leading hosting and related technology companies. Before founding OnApp, Ditlev led UK2 Group’s hosting companies as Managing Director and CEO, and spearheaded the launch of VPS.NET, which now operates one of the world’s top 5 public clouds. Graeme Bunton, Tucows Graeme Bunton is the Manager of Analytics and Insights and the Manager of Public Policy for Tucows Inc, where he is actively engaged in numerous international working groups addressing Internet governance issues, including protecting registrant privacy and planning the transition of the IANA functions. Graeme is committed to making the world a better place through technology and the Internet. About i2Coalition: The Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) supports those who build the nuts and bolts of the Internet, and we treat it like the noble profession that it is. We believe the continued growth of the Internet is vital for growing an environment of innovation and seek to engage in ways to foster success of the Internet and Internet infrastructure industry. We seek to influence decision makers to weigh decisions on whether they are good or bad for the Internet economy and its foundational industries. In short, we seek to foster growth within the Internet infrastructure industry by driving others to harness the Internet’s full potential. To learn more about i2Coalition, visit http://www.i2Coalition.com.

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