OnYourMark, LLC Blog

For the clients that use OnYourMark SMTP servers, beginning on August 15, 2009 the outgoing email server address will change from mail.samplenamehere.com to smtp.samplenamehere.com (replacing samplenamehere.com with your domain name). Many clients have already made the change but for those that haven’t now’s the time! The reason for this change is growth; we want to prevent a situation where are email servers are overloaded! This also gives us further separation of services to mitigate any potential problems that could arise and make further growth easier.

When you change the settings, there should be no lapse in service. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Yesterday, at approximately 3:00pm CST it appears that our database cluster experienced a very heavy load from a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. This caused some services to become slow or unresponsive for a short period of time. We had the problem diagnosed and amended by 4:00pm CST.

Although we don’t know the exact cause yet, we believe it may have been a failed attempt to breech the  security of that server cluster.

We are going to be taking steps in the upcoming days and weeks to further tighten website security, as well as database resiliency to ensure this does not happen again. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

From time to time you may receive tests of your website’s forms from OnYourMark staff.  If your site is updated, forms are tested to make sure the updates did not effect the forms’ functionality.  Form tests may also be sent if we are doing behind-the-scenes technical updates as part of your site’s hour per month of promotion and maintenance.

If you receive a test submission from your website’s forms, it is extremely important that you forward the emails you receive to OnYourMark as soon as possible! This confirmation lets us know that the form is working properly.

If you have questions on your website’s forms, please Contact Us.

Periodically we need to review the google sitemap that was added to each client’s site last year.  We review it to make sure it is up to date.  We also use the Google Webmaster tools to make sure Google is still able to read it and is not finding any errors.  If we find errors we are correcting them.

Each December we reactivate our client’s banner ads on theBubbler.com.

theBubbler WisNetwork offers targeted advertising to Wisconsin residents. You can advertise on theBubbler.com or any WisNetwork website that reaches your desired audience.

We offer:

• Over 30,000 unique visitors a month and rising fast
• Incredible visitor loyalty, visiting often and viewing many pages
• Over 8,500 Wisconsin links – many provided by our Members
• Over 7,500 registered members
• A positive, family-friendly environment
• A strong willingness to work with you to achieve your goals
• Affordable rates, custom programs to meet your needs

Keith sent staff a message last night that I have just had an opportunity to read.

It seems Google is about to launch a new product called Chrome, a browser that was designed to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

I will need to do some more research before I know exactly how I feel about this new browser.

Google’s tendency to monitor your browsing habits and giving you results based on what they think you want to view gives me cause for concern.  I am interesting in using my browser to view things I want to view.  Not things they a computer thinks I want to view.

Beta I think comes out today….I guess the proof will be in the pudding.

Dear Client,

We’d like to provide you with an update on recent spam attacks.

Our message security vendor has advised us on high volumes of bogus CNN and MSNBC messages that contain links to download malware. Spammers have copied the contents of CNN and MSNBC alerts and substituted a link that prompts users to upgrade to a new version of a fake Adobe Flash player.

The security service has detected and blocked the vast majority of these attacks, and continues to release protections to stop the new mutations. Their capture rate is over 99%; however, the attack volumes are so large (in the hundreds of millions of messages) that a 1% passthrough rate means that a few messages may end up in your inbox.

For best security practices, if you see any CNN, MSNBC, or suspicious news alert messages:

• Do not deliver these messages from your Message Center or Quarantine Summary.
• Delete these messages from your inbox.
• Do not click on any links in the messages.

If you need to access CNN or MSNBC content, visit the website directly.

Please be assured that our security service considers virus and spam protection as their highest priority, and continues to be on the cutting edge against new spam attacks and tactics.

I noticed a new domain spoofing email come in today from icann@icannresolve.com, pretending to be the non-existent “ICANN Resolutions Department”, the email read;

Dear Domain Account Holder,

You are being sent this notice from ICANN due to the fact that you
currently own an active domain name. ICANN is currently upgrading all
domains from their registry database.

The upgrade will introduce new control options for your domain and easier
access. The new upgrade is required by the registry. All domain users are
expected to submit their domain information manually at
http://www.blockedsoyoudontgothere.com/spamaddress with the
required information for ICANN to apply the required updates.

The upgrades will be applied to accounts on a first come, first serve
basis. You have until July 25, 2008 to submit the required information to
avoid service and domain interruption.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

ICANNResolve
ICANN.org Resolutions Department

The whois record shows the domain being registered on June 14, 2008, making it pretty blatantly obvious that it was spam. Just in case though I took a look over at the actual ICANN site and found nothing to support the spam email. After some further careful snooping (actually I just visited the site, something I discourage you from doing), I can see they are simply trying to get you to after filling out some dubious forms, they can take your domain or credit card information.

For more information on what ‘Phishing’ is, please read the OnYourMark Ask the Pro article

If you receive one of these spam messages, please disregard it and notify us.

During the month of May and June we had an increasing number of complaints that email sent to Yahoo and AOL email accounts was not getting through to the recipient.  We spent considerable time working with Yahoo and AOL to determine the correct configurations on the mail server so that email is properly delivered to our clients and our clients’ customers.

Our backbone provider at TW Telecom will be doing network maintenance on their switches on Friday, June 13, 2008 (yes Friday the 13th, I didn’t pick it) which will result in periods of downtime starting at midnight and lasting for approximately 1 hour. OnYourMark support staff will be on hand to ensure all services are in working order when network connectivity is returned. We will make an update to this post when the upgrades have been completed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the support team at 1-800-747-3399 or email them at support@onyourmark.com.