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News

24. Jul. 2013.

Unique new virus and hacking protection at MediaCenter

For years, an unsolved problem in the world of free source website building applications (Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, etc.) is that vulnerabilities are discovered before updates are available, so even with regular installation they become vulnerable from time to time. Vulnerabilities can be exploited by unauthorised people to hack into websites, modify them, use them to send spam and cause inconvenience to their owners.

It is important to know that the server behind the website is not the one that is being hacked, but only the files of the website are being modified, exploiting the vulnerabilities of the website. Our experts have been researching a solution to this phenomenon for years and we have now achieved a breakthrough.

We have developed a protection system that analyses the web server's network traffic and filters out traffic that is unlikely to be part of the normal traffic of the website based on a point system at the time of the request. This method is highly effective in filtering out malicious intrusion attempts, which are immediately expelled by the protection. The system also includes a real-time virus scanner that analyses files uploaded via the website and blocks files that are attempting to be uploaded by exploiting various vulnerabilities.

The first version of the defence, launched live on 26 March 2013, was also more effective than expected. It has solved problems that we had not originally thought of, such as the ability to prevent form-based spam in many cases, and the ability to protect even long-outdated, clearly vulnerable frameworks.

As an indication of the effectiveness of the system, we have measured a 90% (!) reduction in website incidents in the MediaCenter service area since launch, with active protection.

The protection is active on all hosts. It can be turned on and off by setting the "Hack protection" option in the PHP Settings menu on the Web hosting settings.

The system is currently in test operation and is being continuously improved based on user feedback. If you have any comments or questions about our new protection solution, please contact our Customer Support team.

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