In countries including Iran and Syria, governments commonly block common citizens from accessing particular websites. It’s a form of censorship commonly criticized in other parts of the world including the west. To avoid government restrictions, citizens commonly turn to proxy software, allowing them to bypass the blocks.

One popular proxy in the area is Simurgh, allowing users to securely connect to internet access points in other countries. However, a version of the software was recently altered by hackers who added a trojan virus into the mix during user installations.

“The malicious copy will install the Simurgh software, but will also install an undesirable backdoor on the victim’s computer,” explained the Citizen Lab in its report. Stolen data was redirected through a Saudi Arabian-based website.

Meanwhile, the creators of the proxy have advised interested parties to download the real version via the official website at simurghesabz.net.

The middle-east has been in the news lately regarding high-profile virus attacks. Earlier this week, Kaspersky Lab detailed the ‘Flame’ virus, intricate data stealing software mostly infecting computer systems in Iran. Kaspersky said Flame likely originated from a nation state.

Hackers Disguise Trojan with Popular Proxy

.CO domains are over a million registrations strong, worldwide. The extension has achieved “it” domain status as companies such as Twitter (t.co), Overstock (o.co) and LeWeb (leweb.co) are rebranding their online identities with .CO.

Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com) has a reputation for disruptive thinking and a product partnership with the best alternative to .COM fits perfectly within the Blacknight family. Michele Neylon, Blacknight CEO, explains: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with the .CO Registy. We love the .CO brand because it’s disruptive and are pleased that they have chosen us to be one of the select registrars to offer their domains.”

The team behind .CO work with a small group of select, accredited registrars to ensure they have a good marketing fit and relationship that will extend the brand of .CO worldwide. Naturally, they have chosen Ireland’s number one domain registrar as their latest partner.

Crystal Peterson of .CO states: “.CO loves Ireland and we are excited to be partnering with Blacknight, its number one domain registrar and hosting company. Our mission is to be the digital home for entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses and anyone looking for a short, memorable and global web address worldwide.”

Neylon continues: “.CO’s marketing ethos fits very closely with ours, and as a registrar we like working with registries that share our vision. .ME is another company that does that, I can think of a few that I won’t mention that do not. We love what .CO is doing and are pleased to support the domain.”

There are still many great .CO domains available. To register your .CO domain, visit http://www.blacknight.com/dotco.html where you can also add dynamic services like the new Blacknight “no fluff” cloud hosting.

About Blacknight:

Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

Blacknight Announce Partnership with .CO

The new bandwidth is provided by New World Telecommunications Limited (“NWT”), a leading carrier in the Hong Kong Market.

Host Virtual’s Hong Kong Cloud is specifically designed for customers who require low latency access to mainland China with dedicated bandwidth. Competitors typically provide shared bandwidth or route traffic through higher latency locations such as Japan.

“Our Hong Kong cloud provides premium bandwidth and services that are critical to business and latency sensitive customers,” said Sandy Bhargavi, Sr. Vice President of Operations for Host Virtual. “We’re pleased with the performance of our new NWT circuit and our continued investment in the market.”

Host Virtual also recently announced a significant physical expansion in Hong Kong to meet demand, as well as support for AliPay, China’s leading payment processor with over 500 million active users.

In addition to its premium Hong Kong Cloud, Host Virtual’s Los Angeles and San Jose clouds provide extremely cost effective peered access to the China mainland. This fills the need for customers who may not be as latency sensitive, as well as Chinese companies providing services within the United States.

The Host Virtual, Inc Cloud allows customers to easily deploy over 190 Linux, FreeBSD, VOIP and Hosting appliances in just a few minutes, with native dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 support to any of its 11 worldwide locations. Combined with advanced tools and services, such as BGP AnyCast, Load Balancing, and worldwide CDN support Host Virtual provides a seamless IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) base for customers.

About Host Virtual, Inc.

Host Virtual, Inc. is a cloud hosting provider that operates dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 IaaS clouds worldwide. Built around scalability, self-service and ease of use, Host Virtual customers can deploy Linux, VOIP or FreeBSD servers to any location within minutes. Free from the hassle of complicated, pay-per-minute or per-resource plans, Host Virtual customers can deploy to any of its cloud locations with unlimited usage for a low, flat monthly fee starting at under $10 per month.

For more information about Cloud Hosting or Host Virtual, Inc.’s Cloud VPS hosting and virtualization services, please visit http://www.vr.org/.

Host Virtual Adds More Connectivity to Cloud

“We are thrilled to have finalized the software updates for the Phoenix NAP Secured Cloud multifacility functionality,” said Ian McClarty, Phoenix NAP president. “Soon users of our cloud solution will be able to create virtual machines at different facilities around the world and we couldn’t be more excited!”

Phoenix NAP’s first node location will be located in Amsterdam followed by Ashburn, Virginia. Additionally, Phoenix NAP Secured Cloud’s newly updated software and system includes API options to automate VM creation and deletion, add firewall rules instantly, create and modify any server or service object in the system, and utilize the accounting and CRM system of your choice.

“As providing leading systems and solutions has always been our top priority, the opportunity to leverage API calls for automating a number of cloud management tasks falls right in line with our ease-of-use cloud philosophy,” said William Bell, Phoenix NAP director of Information Systems. “Following this software update, we look forward to growing and expanding our features, functionality, and global presence even more in the future.”

Phoenix NAP is a PCI DSS Validated Service Provider and a SOC Type 2 audited facility.

About Phoenix NAP

Phoenix NAP, a full service data center, premier infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider and primary network access point (NAP) for the Phoenix, AZ, metro region leads the path for technology systems and solutions through its innovation and vastly redundant data center systems. Our highly personalized approach ensures that all of your requirements are met. Whether it’s high-density colocation, flexible storage, physical servers or Phoenix NAP Secured Cloud services, our enterprise-grade facility and certified NOC technicians supply IT solutions to fit your every need. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.phoenixnap.com.

Phoenix NAP Secured Cloud Releases Update

PEER 1, known for its innovative recruitment methods and commitment to outstanding customer service has established itself as a leading employer on the South Coast. Growth of the company in the last 12 months has seen it open a £10 million custom-built datacentre in Portsmouth.

“Our staff focus on providing the service excellence which our customers expect, so we work hard to create a passionate and inspiring work environment for our staff, it’s a two way process,” said Dominic Monkhouse, EMEA MD at PEER 1 Hosting. “Winning this ranking doesn’t mean our task is over, we’ll continue to enhance the PEER 1 workplace, to become the best place to work in the industry.”

The Best Workplaces Programme is the largest of its kind and surveys both employees and management to get a holistic view of the organisation’s HR policies and practices and how these are perceived by employees. The programme focuses on employee’s trust of their management, pride in their work and their level of enjoyment working with colleagues through a culture audit. Employees working for organisations named by Great Place to Work® are 87% less likely to leave the organisation, according to the MacLeod Government Review.

Tom O’Byrne, Chief Executive, Great Place to Work® said: “This has been a particularly good year for the Best Workplaces list. Not only has the number of successful organisations increased from 70 to 75 but the standard of entry has been particularly high so getting a place on the list is a significant achievement for our winners.”

The Great Place to Work Institute UK specialises in workplace assessment and enhancement. The company assess what makes an organisation’s employees tick and how leaders can improve their business performance by understanding and improving their workplace culture. Confidential surveys and questionnaires are completed by employees and managers to enable the most accurate result.

A copy of the full UK list can be found here http://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/best-workplaces/best-workplaces-in-the-uk/624-2012

PEER 1 Ranks as a Best UK Workplace

Simple Invoices – A cross-platform web app, Simple Invoices allows you to track your finances, manage customers, export invoices to PDF, use payment gateways such as PayPal, and manage inventory.

siwapp – This easy-to-use invoicing system includes support for automatically generated invoices, PDF exports, and multiple currencies.

Ofuz – Ofuz provides a cloud service but also offers its software as an open source app that you can install on your own server. Features include time tracking, task organization, collaboration, emailing and web forms, online payment support, and more.

MyClientBase – This community-drive app allows you to collect payments online, track invoices, create and edit templates, configure taxes, and use it in multiple languages.

Amberdms – Much more than simple invoicing, Amberdms is a complete accounting, billing, and service management application. You can keep time, export to CSV and PDF, perform regular service billing, and integrate third-party add-ons using the SOAP API.

All of these applications are freely available under various free software licenses, and because their source code is open, you can modify them to suit your needs.

Free Invoicing and Payment Services Software

One primary factor according to Cisco includes an increase in devices. Specifically cited was a projection estimating the availability of 18.9 billion network connections within the next four years.

Another reason was the emergence of more internet users within the timeframe. Cisco cited a U.N. study estimating that nearly 45% of the world’s population would be online by then.

Other factors included faster broadband, more access to videos and the growth of Wi-Fi. Breaking down the 1.3 zettabyte statistics means user IP traffic will run at 110 exabytes every month.

A big subject of discussion in the web community has been the emergence of IPv6 compatibility. Another projection by Cisco estimated that IPv6-capable devices would increase by seven billion in 2016 compared to last year.

Cisco’s projections were made with the company’s Visual Networking Index as part of an annual release.

IP Traffic will Hit 1.3 Zettabytes Annually in 2016, Cisco Projects

“As the industry rapidly moves away from legacy, client/server-based access control systems to our innovative, web-based solutions, we remain laser-focused on building a strong team to support our customers’ needs today, while laying a stable foundation for the future,” said Dave Basil, RedCloud CEO. “We are thrilled to add such talented, proven leaders, who can draw upon decades of access control industry experience across the operations, engineering and sales disciplines and are capable of making immediate contributions from day one.”

As Director of Operations, Carlos Nevarez is responsible for all of RedCloud’s customer service and business operations. Prior to joining RedCloud, Nevarez was the Director of the ITT-Exelis Customer Service and Program Implementation team, supporting all domestic and international customers. While at ITT-Exelis, Nevarez successfully implemented best practices and procedures designed to improve the overall customer experience and increase service level agreement compliance. Earlier in his career, Nevarez held management and engineering positions at SRA, ERA and Northrop Grumman.

Robert Wing assumes the role of Director of Sales, Central Region for RedCloud and will lead sales efforts in an area spanning from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Shore. Wing possesses over 25 years of experience working in the access control, computer hardware, software and electronics fields with Securitas Security Solutions and FERMI National Accelerator Laboratory. Prior to joining RedCloud, Wing was Director of the North American Field Sales Engineering Team at Lenel, where he was tasked with providing pre-sales engineering expertise and evaluating the cost effectiveness and reliability of access control solutions to meet customer requirements.

As Customer Enablement Services Manager, Brian Koszuta joins RedCloud as a proven industry veteran with 13 years of access control experience. Koszuta served most recently at AMAG Technology as a field sales engineer, addressing the access control needs of IT and security departments. Prior to AMAG, Koszuta worked with Lenel Systems International as a member of the Product Management Team, most recently serving as a Technical Product Engineer for a prominent university, where he was tasked with designing and troubleshooting procedures and solutions for a campus with more than 50 buildings.

Pete Saunders joins RedCloud as a Systems Engineer, bringing over 25 years in the computer software and hardware industry and an extensive track record in advanced technology and security. Previously, Saunders was responsible for web-based application development and database engineering at Cape Fear Webmasters and spent more than seven years at Nexwatch and Honeywell developing software, supporting physical access control solutions and providing engineering support for customer sites.

About RedCloud

RedCloud, formerly known as PlaSec, is a revolutionary access control solution, engineered from the ground up by IT and security veterans to deliver a new standard in performance, integration and efficiency that can only be achieved through convergence. RedCloud’s patented, web-based, physical and virtual appliance platform leverages an open architecture, integrates identity management and video surveillance and achieves the highest level of scalability with the lowest cost of ownership, making RedCloud the logical choice in access control. For more information, please visit http://www.redcloudsecurity.com.

Access Control Provider RedCloud Expands

The new version features performance and stability improvements, protection against symbolic link attacks, and the removal of all setuid root binaries from inside the CageFS.

“Hackers often use setuid root binaries to escalate privileges and gain root access to the vulnerable system,” said Igor Seletskiy, founder and CEO of Cloud Linux Inc. “Removing them from a hacker’s reach should significantly reduce the number of attacks against shared hosts.”

“Our shared hosting security increased dramatically the day we put CageFS in place,” said Hamza Aboulfeth, CEO of Genious Communications. “In other words, thanks to CloudLinux’s CageFS, our clients’ websites won’t be affected because one hosted website within our server is vulnerable!”

CageFS is available at no charge to existing Cloud Linux customers. It can be installed on existing production servers without the need to move or migrate customers.

About CloudLinux

CloudLinux was founded in 2009 to address the distinctive needs of web hosting providers. The company’s headquarters is in Princeton, New Jersey, and its development team, which is composed of employees with an appreciable proficiency in the hosting business, is based in Donetsk, Ukraine. CloudLinux is a stable privately funded company geared toward providing the ideal OS to make even the most intricate and divergent hosting needs more straightforward and less complicated.

For more information about CloudLinux, visit http://www.cloudlinux.com.

CloudLinux Unveils CageFS Version 3.5

Currently, Cahn is the President and Director of RightOfTheDot, LLC, an Internet consulting and advisement firm, co-founded by him and domain industry legend, Mike Berkens. RightOfTheDot, LLC specializes in new and existing TLD consulting, board advisement, as well as other domain services sales, marketing and strategy. Currently the firm is helping companies maximize profitability and strategic direction for the new and existing gTLD program set to roll out later this year.

“I chose to invest and take an active role in Domain Holdings because I really believe in and respect the leadership, like the differentiating and leading technology offering, and know that my contribution can further the strategic direction and success,” Monte Cahn said, also noting that RightOfTheDot, LLC has chosen Domain Holdings Group as one of its partners for providing premium domain sales and monetization for new and existing TLD clients.

Prior to starting RightOfTheDot, LLC, Cahn founded and was the CEO of Moniker.com in 1999, which he grew to become a Top 7 ICANN Accredited Registrar and a leading domain monetization company during his 10-year tenure. Cahn successfully brokered the historic sales of Wallstreet.com and Autos.com, recognized as the first $1 million and $2 million sales in the industry respectively. Cahn is also responsible for selling more than $300 million in domain names in the last 10 years, including seven-figure sales of Cameras.com, Dating.com, Photo.com, Bored.com, CreditCheck.com, as well as industry-leading sales of Slots.com for $5.5 million and others. Under Cahn, Moniker was widely considered the industry’s leading premium domain auction and brokerage company.

Cahn is also credited with starting the very first domain brokerage company in 1996. He pioneered and innovated what are now considered industry standard services, including: WhoIs privacy, domain escrow, domain appraisals, bulk domain management, domain security and theft prevention, stealth acquisitions and live domain auctions.

“Monte brings with him a range of knowledge dating back to the mid-90s where he was able to contribute services that widely shaped the industry and are still in use today,” Domain Holdings Co-Founder John Ferber said. “That type of forward thinking fits with our philosophy as we add to our brokerage and monetization services.”

About Domain Holdings

Domain Holdings is a world-class service provider in the buying, selling and monetizing of domain names. The company was co-founded by Chad Folkening, a longtime domain industry veteran, and John Ferber, co-founder of Advertising.com which was acquired by AOL for approximately $500 million in 2004, and whose collective online products and services have grossed more than $3 billion since 1996. DomainPower is an end-to-end domain monetization platform and marketplace. Like us on Facebook and Follow Us on Twitter. To see a list of premium domain names, please visit or our premium brokerage page.

Monte Cahn Joins Domain Holdings Group