Sandra Viveiros, Author at E-Tech

Serious Benefits of Hosting Your Website in Canada

Serious Benefits of Hosting Your Website in Canada

By Sandra Viveiros|2019-02-13T12:03:48-05:00February 13th, 2019|Hosting, Uncategorized|

Have you ever wondered, “Does it really matter where my website is hosted?” the answer to this is a short and simple “Yes!”

Wherever you choose to host your website, you are also choosing where to store your website’s data. Before diving into this let’s look at what website hosting really means.

Website hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web pages onto the Internet. A website hosting service provider is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed by the public.

Websites are hosted or stored on servers, and when internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your webpages will be delivered to them through the browser. [1]

When you choose a hosting provider to host your website you should always ask the question, “where is my data actually being stored?” This should make you think about the benefits of where your data is being stored.

Here are some of the main benefits and security reasons on why a Canadian company should host their site in Canada.

Privacy:

Storing your data in the cloud is one thing, but where the server is located is another. Your websites, databases and emails are governed by the laws of where the server is located, i.e. Servers in Canada fall under the Canadian legal system, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This is where private information on hosted servers is strictly regulated with laws designed to protect sensitive and personal data.

Unlike Canada, servers in the United States fall under the legal system, Patriot Act where the United States government can legally access any data, block you from your data, and monitor your communications if your activity is deemed suspicious. Even if you are a Canadian citizen, if your website is hosted in the United States, then you are subject to their laws and regulations.

The benefit of Canada? It is one of the strictest countries in the world when it comes to managing personal data and information. Compared to other countries, Canada places personal security as a higher priority and it is regarded as an essential right.

Pricing:

In the past, Canadian based clients may have chosen United States based hosting providers because they were a bit cheaper and cost was their primary concern. Nowadays, with the expansion of data center space in Canada, pricing is now relatable!

In addition to this, when choosing a Canadian based hosting provider, you are generally also billed in Canadian dollars – saving you several currency conversion fees.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

SEO is about more than keywords and content optimization. It’s about who you host with as well. If you’re looking to increase your presence in a certain country like Canada, then hosting your website in Canada is a good option. By choosing a hosting provider where your information is stored in Canada, you will automatically get a Canadian IP address.

As an example, when someone in Canada goes on google to search for hosting, it will automatically load Canadian IP addresses that are near to where you’re searching from, affecting your local Google rankings if your data is stored close-by.

Having a website hosted in Canada will increase your search relevancy within Canadian-based search results and increase Canadian traffic. You will have a much greater chance of being found on google if you are hosted with a provider in Canada.

Improved performance:

Believe it or not, the distance between the server and the computer that is loading the website will make a difference. If your target audience is Canada, then a Canadian based service provider will decrease your website’s load time and improve the amount of time people stay on your website.

It is proven that the longer a person waits for your website to load, the quicker they are to bounce off your website and never return. Load speed time is very important for your business’ SEO, especially with the faster technology getting released seemingly everyday.

In fact, we have become impatient with our technology that if your pages take longer than 3 seconds to load, most people will exit the page. The closer your data and online information is to you and your customers, the better your site load will be. Remember that fast websites are always better.

Security:

It’s important to feel secure about where your information is stored and to know that the data centers that your hosting provider are using are secure as well. Before picking a hosting provider, you should be asking about daily backups & restore points, continuous uptime, and they should also be up to date with valid Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates[2] so that customers trust going on to your website.

If anything were to happen, it is ideal to have a hosting provider that is located close to you.

Another thing to look at is making sure you have distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection[3], and a business continuity plan in the event that those servers fail.

It is very important to choose the company you are hosting with very carefully, and to consider where your information is being stored. You must look at all aspects. If the location is not in the same country in which you are trying to target your customers, your at risk for privacy & security concerns, as well as lower SEO and worse website performance.

Are you looking for a Canadian-based hosting provider? Check out our Hosting Services page for more information.

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The Business Guide to Ransomware

The Business Guide to Ransomware

By Sandra Viveiros|2019-01-17T16:05:32-05:00January 17th, 2019|Uncategorized|

Can’t see the PDF? Download it here.

Four Business Continuity Planning Essentials

Four Business Continuity Planning Essentials

By Sandra Viveiros|2019-01-17T16:03:10-05:00January 17th, 2019|Uncategorized|

Can’t view the PDF? Download it here.

Effective Nov 1st – Canadian Businesses Must Report All Data Breaches to the Government

Effective Nov 1st – Canadian Businesses Must Report All Data Breaches to the Government

By Sandra Viveiros|2018-11-21T12:58:23-05:00November 21st, 2018|Uncategorized|

On November 1st 2018, Canada implemented it’s new law on data breaches – what does this mean for you and your business? We read through the legislation and broke it down and made it as simple as possible. Here is everything you need to know on Canada’s new cyber security laws: the Breach of Security Safeguards Regulations.

When do I report a data breach?

As a business keeping personal information about their clients, it’s important to know what a breach of security safeguards even means. Canada recognizes the different ways you can protect your data: from physical measures (like locked file cabinets), organizational measures (like security clearances), and technological measures (like passwords and encryptions). A breach of security safeguards means the loss of, unauthorized access to or unauthorized disclosure of personal information caused by a breach of any of the three measures last mentioned – OR failing to implement any security measures at all. Whether the breach affects 1 person or 1,000,000 people, you still must submit a report. There is no specific timeline you must follow to report a breach. Instead, a report shall be given “as soon as feasible” after an organization recognizes a breach[1]. If a breach to your organization does happen, you must keep record of the data breach for at least 24 months from the day your breach occurred.

Who and where do I report a data breach to?

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is the official government office responsible for processing all data breach reports.

Here is the website for the Privacy Commissioner.

Here is the form to complete to report a data breach to the government. The form can be submitted by email, post mail or in person delivery.

If you believe the victims of the data breach are at real risk of significant harm, you must notify them of the breach. Notification to the affected individuals should be given directly by email, telephone, mail, etc. In cases where direct notification can cause more harm to the victim or the organization, a report can be made indirectly through public communication.

What does my data breach report need to include?

A report to the Privacy Commissioner must include:

Legal name of the organization breached
Contact information on who can respond to any questions the government has
Number of victims affected
When the breach occurred
Description of the circumstances of the breach/the cause of the breach
Description of the personal information taken
The steps on how the organization will notify the victims
Any measures to reduce the risk of harm to the victims

A report to the affected individual will need to include all of the following:

A description of the circumstances of the breach
The day or period the breach occurred
A description of the breached information
A plan to reduce risk for the future
A plan for the victims to reduce the chance of breach in the future
Contact information if any victim wants to request more information on the breach

With the Canadian government getting more serious about cyber security, it’s important that organizations and businesses do the same. Cyber criminals have so many different weapons to choose from to breach your data, and it’s becoming more and more important to be proactive then reactive. Lucky for us, there are strong defenses against the best weapons:

Have you been hit with ransomware, or are you scared to be the next victim? Business Continuity Solutions can help you have a plan to retrieve important data in case a ransomware attack happens to your business. Remember to never pay the ransom.

Are you scared that the recent breaches to large corporations, like Facebook and Yahoo have left you vulnerable? Dark Web Monitoring ensures that you know when your credentials are being sold online.

Are you and your employees getting a lot of phishing emails? Email Protection Services and cyber security training makes everything safer, making sure no one falls for the most intelligent of internet schemes.

If you want to learn how to stay cyber safe, Contact Us to see how we can bring your business ahead of the game!

A Criminal’s Weapon – The Biggest Cyber Security Threats

A Criminal’s Weapon – The Biggest Cyber Security Threats

By Sandra Viveiros|2018-10-17T17:49:27-04:00October 17th, 2018|Cyber Security Awareness, Uncategorized|

How unsafe is the internet really? How much damage can be done online?

The internet is much more unsafe than it was 20 years ago. Cyber crime has risen year after year and has evolved every step of the way. Cyber criminals are so smart, and modern-day technology introduces so many new innovative threats to be wary of. Cyber War is real, and we are engaged in battle. It’s important to know who you’re fighting against, what weapons they are using, and what you are fighting for.

Who Are Cyber Criminals?

Who am I protecting myself from? How much power do they have?

The picture to the left depicts the stereotypical image visualized when someone says “hacker”. Like all crime, there are many individually driven criminals. But also like all crime, it has evolved to become more organized. For example, some of the most recognizable organized hacker groups are Anonymous (although they commit crimes that are more activist in nature), and Morpho (known for hacking Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Twitter)^[1]. These organizations are extremely powerful, enough to successfully attack governments and major corporations.

What Are Cyber Criminal’s Motives?

How much is my data worth?

There are many theories as to why people become criminals, but what is undeniable is the volume of opportunity cyber crime can generate for a common lawbreaker. A huge motivation is potential financial gain. Cyber crime has become so big and powerful that it is estimated that global cyber crime alone generates 1.5 TRILLION dollars annually^[2]. It’s also undeniable that it’s harder to physically steal someone’s wallet and get away with it than it is to steal their credit card information online and get away with it. Criminals are much braver behind a screen, and there are many ways that they can keep anonymous and commit crimes.

What Are The Biggest Cyber Security Threats Against Me?

What are the ways I can be attacked? How can I be protected?

1. Phishing emails and social engineering attacks

Almost everyone has received one of these spam emails: an email requesting either information, login credentials, banking information, etc. You can see from the red texts that this is clearly a scam. Phishing emails often have spelling mistakes, incorrect email domains and suspicious links. Here, we tell you how to identify phishing emails. These attacks have become more sophisticated. Cyber criminals will impersonate someone close to you, a mother, a boss, etc., and email you from an impersonating account.

2. Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS)

This is the technical term to overload an online service by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. In physical terms, it’s like closing a highway because there’s too much traffic on the road. Cyber criminals will do this to shut down your network, and it’s even something that can be bought over the Dark Web to commit to someone else’s servers if you had the mind to.

3. Ransomware

Like a simple, physical ransom, criminals will take something of importance to you and demand you to pay them back. In cyber crime, what’s important is your data. Cyber criminals will encrypt your files on your computer making them accessible only to them, and demand you pay them to get your files back. This can be extremely costly for business, and in fact most 75% of small to medium businesses report a ransomware attack has led to business-threatening downtime. Discover how to protect your business from ransomware.

4. Cryptojacking

With the emergence of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple, etc., has created another way that cyber criminals can remain anonymous online. Cryptojacking is the unauthorized use of another’s computer to mine cryptocurrencies, or cryptomine. Cryptomining, in the simplest terms, is the process of creating new cryptocurrencies – and once completed, you are awarded with currency. This requires a large amount of computer processing power, so cyber criminals will trick you into downloading scripts onto your computer to use your power.

5. Data breaches

Large corporations fall at the hands of hackers seemingly every week. One of the biggest data breaches to date was Facebook, where 30 million users were compromised. You can find out here the 10 best ways to stay safe on Social Media.

6. Viruses & Malware

There are so much computer viruses and malware nowadays that modern computers are bought with a trail run of an antivirus software, like Webroot. Viruses and malware can attack in many ways, from deleting files, to shutting down your whole device. Ensure your antivirus programs are always up to date and do routine scans of your devices.

Feel free to Contact Us for more information.

About Sandra Viveiros