The Good Web Guide Awards

” The hunt for stunning sites has begun “, The Good Web Guide Awards attracts entries from both grass roots startups and established players.

Last year entries were received from the likes of Foxtons, Belstaff, Black Tomato, Wicked Uncle and Posh Totty, with The GWG Website of the Year going to TrustedHousesitters, the world’s largest house/pet sitting network.

This year’s programme has several new categories for entrants, including Sports, for individual sports/clubs, sporting news and blogs and Corporate, for sites promoting organisations/businesses’ services or products.

2015 Website of the Year Winner: TrustedHousesitters.com connecting home & pet owners who need trustworthy people to housesit

The winning site will win a number of prizes worth over £7,000 to help perfect their online presence. The distinguished panel of judges includes serial entrepreneur and internet investor, William Reeve, whose past successes include Lovefilm and Forrester Research, Stefano Maruzzi, Vice President EMEA of GoDaddy, the world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, Kitty Parry, founder and CEO of the Social Media Compliance, Aneeqa Khan, founder of eporta, one of the largest interiors inventories globally and others.

Ghostbusters – The Crazy Dance

I was out with 106.9 SFM in the streets of Sittingbourne on Saturday.  We were broadcasting live from the town centre as part of the fantastic sci-fi weekend that they were having.  Whilst filming on periscope a little man honed into view and started dancing along to Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghostbusters song that was playing out.

 

Free Guide to Internet Security published

As the debate about Apple’s stance on encryption and privacy continues, many people are left wondering how they can do more to protect their data and communication from being viewed by governments, law enforcement agencies and other public organisations. Apple is currently locked in a long running and increasingly high profile feud with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over access to information contained on a mobile phone.

There are understandably polarized views on whether or not such personal information should be accessible by the authorities, but for those keen to retain their privacy away from prying eyes, there are ways and means of doing more to secure their online identity and Internet activity. BestVPN has produced The Ultimate Privacy Guide that provides advice and guidance for those preferring greater privacy.

“Apple’s refusal to bow to the FBI’s demands to unlock an encrypted phone has heightened awareness of the privacy debate and many people just don’t know where they stand on the matter, if indeed they are aware at all of the issues involved,” says Peter Zaborszky, founder of BestVPN. “Over recent weeks we have seen increased interest from individuals who are concerned about their personal privacy and have decided to use a Virtual Private Network.”
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) offers individuals an effective means of protecting a person’s identity when online. Essentially a VPN is a server somewhere that an individual can connect to and route their Internet usage through. This not only hides a person’s identity, but also makes it appear as though they are in the country where the server is situated.

“VPNs were originally servers inside companies that employees could connect to so they could easily work from home,” explains Zaborszky.

“Now, they are more commonly used as an effective way to protect your identity online, which has become especially important in recent times amid snooping revelations and the potential for surveillance laws to be relaxed.”

In the UK this week, the Investigatory Powers Bill (or ‘Snoopers Charter’ as it is often colloquially referred to) was passed in Parliament and allows the government and other authorities, such as the police, to view users web browsing histories and hack mobile phones. As with the Apple versus FBI battle, the Bill has polarized opinions and has come under intense criticism from some quarters for being both unclear and over the top.

The BestVPN Ultimate Privacy Guide is free to view on the BestVPN website where other useful information about privacy and keeping safe online can also be found in its news section.

123456 – how safe is your password?

A list of the top 25 passwords have been revealed by the website Gizmodo.

The information comes from SplashData who complies an annual list of millions of stolen passwords made public throughout the year and assembles them in order of popularity.

How safe do you think your password is?  Does it feature in this list?

1. 123456 (Unchanged)

2. password (Unchanged)

3. 12345 (Up 17)

4. 12345678 (Down 1)

5. qwerty (Down 1)

6. 123456789 (Unchanged)

7. 1234 (Up 9)

8. baseball (New)

9. dragon (New)

10. football (New)

11. 1234567 (Down 4)

12. monkey (Up 5)

13. letmein (Up 1)

14. abc123 (Down 9)

15. 111111 (Down 8)

16.mustang (New)

17. access (New)

18. shadow (Unchanged)

19. master (New)

20. michael (New)

21. superman (New)

22. 696969 (New)

23. 123123 (Down 12)

24. batman (New)

25. trustno1 (Down 1)