Author Archives: Geneva Sibanda

About Geneva Sibanda

I assist companies in the Areas of Network Infrastructure Design and Implementation: (from Windows Active Directory Security, networking, etc.).

Improve the Security of your MySQL installation.

Improve MySQL Installation Security – mysql_secure_installation

This program enables you to improve the security of your MySQL installation in the following ways:

You can set a password for root accounts.
You can remove root accounts that are accessible from outside the local host.
You can remove anonymous-user accounts.
You can remove the test database (which by default can be accessed by all users, even anonymous users), and privileges that permit anyone to access databases with names that start with test.

With Ubuntu based systems you have the option of running the mysql_secure_installation script to initialize passwords and perform other security-related tasks. It manages for you much of the secure installation steps by assigning passwords for the accounts with the username root and removing the anonymous accounts.

The mysql_secure_installation tool helps to improve MySQL Installation Security. To execute this tool MySQL server service requires to be running. If you see the following error, it means mysqld is not running:

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

You can just run the following command line to make sure that MySQL Server is started:

root@gs2:~# service mysql start
mysql start/running, process 2194

Now you should be ready run mysql_secure_installation and this program enables you to improve the security of your MySQL.

root@gs2:~# mysql_secure_installation

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL
SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!

In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we’ll need the current password for the root user. If you’ve just installed MySQL, and you haven’t set the root password yet, the password will be blank, so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none):
OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL root user without the proper authorization.

Set root password? [Y/n] y
New password:
Re-enter new password:

Password updated successfully!
Reloading privilege tables..
... Success!

By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y
... Success!

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from ’localhost’. This ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y
... Success!

By default, MySQL comes with a database named ’test’ that anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y
- Dropping test database...
... Success!
- Removing privileges on test database...
... Success!

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y
... Success!
Cleaning up...

All done! If you’ve completed all of the above steps, your MySQL installation should now be secure.

Thanks for using MySQL!

root@gs2:~#

Installations and securing MySQL database are part of the duties of a database administrator. In the next post I will covered the howto connect/logon and create a database in MySQL and how to use MySQL to perform different tasks. I will show you how to grant user access and manage your MySQL databases.

How to Install MySQL on ubuntu Server

MySQL Installation on ubuntu Server – Learn more about MySQL and master how to use it.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a freely available open source Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). SQL is the most popular language for adding, accessing and managing content in a database. It is most noted for its quick processing, proven reliability, ease and flexibility of use.

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Now, to install MySQL, run the following command from a terminal prompt:

root@gs2~# apt-get install mysql-server && apt-get install mysql-client

During the installation process you will be prompted to enter a password for the MySQL root user.

Once the installation is complete, the MySQL server should be started automatically. You can run the following command from a terminal prompt to check whether the MySQL server is running:

root@gs2~# netstat -tap | grep mysql

When you run this command, you should see the following line or something similar:

tcp        0      0 localhost:mysql         *:*                     LISTEN      2194/mysqld

If the server is not running, nothing will be displayed, you can type the following command to start it:

root@gs2:~# service mysql start && service mysql restart
mysql start/running, process 2611
mysql stop/waiting
mysql start/running, process 2700
root@gs2:~#

You can edit the /etc/mysql/my.cnf file to configure the basic settings: log file, port number, etc.

That’s it for today,

In the next guide I will provide a basic step-by-step guide on how to improve the security of your MySQL installation!!!

cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi

Domain redirecting to /cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi

SORRY!

If you are the owner of this website, please contact your hosting provider: webmaster@yourdomain.co.za

It is possible you have reached this page because:

Okay, so here's how I resolved the problem:

1) You will need to edit httpd.conf (I suggest using locate to find yours, since the paths on everyone's systems vary — try "locate httpd.conf")

2) You will likely find an entry like this:

Code:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.yourdomain.co.za
    DocumentRoot /usr/local/apache/htdocs
    ServerAdmin webmaster@yourdomain.co.za
    UserDir disable
</VirtualHost>

3) You'll need to change the above to show this instead:

Code:

<VirtualHost XXX.XX.XXX.XXX:80>
    ServerName www.yourdomain.com
    DocumentRoot /home/yourdom/public_html
    ServerAdmin webmaster@yourdomain.co.za
    UserDir disable
</VirtualHost>

2 Things Have Been Changed:

1) Notice the XXX's — these XXX's will need to be replaced by the IP address that this domain is hosted on (i.e. 123.45.67.89).

2) Notice how the document root has been changed (you'll need to find the document root for your domain specifically, it's usually the first 7 letters of the domain name or username for the account.

Now for the last step. . .either in WHM or in SSH restart apache (i.e. "service httpd restart")

How To Clear Your DNS Cache

The following methods allow you to remove old and inaccurate DNS information that may result in 404 errors.

Windows® 8

To clear your DNS cache if you use Windows 8, perform the following steps:
On your keyboard, press Win+X to open the WinX Menu.
Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
Run the following command:

ipconfig /flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:
Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Windows 7

To clear your DNS cache if you use Windows 7, perform the following steps:
Click Start.
Enter cmd in the Start menu search text box.
Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.
Run the following command:

ipconfig /flushdns

If the command succeeds, the system returns the following message:
Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

MacOS® 10.10
To clear your DNS cache if you use MacOS X version 10.10, perform the following steps:
Click Applications.
Click Utilities.
Click Terminal.
Run the following command:

sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.
Warning:

To run this command, you must know the computer’s Admin account password.

MacOS 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9

To clear your DNS cache if you use MacOS X version 10.7, 10.8, or 10.9, perform the following steps:
Click Applications.
Click Utilities.
Double-click Terminal.
Run the following command:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.
Warning:
To run this command, you must know the computer’s administrator account password.

MacOS 10.5 and 10.6

To clear your DNS cache if you use MacOS X version 10.5 or 10.6, perform the following steps:
Click Applications.
Click Utilities.
Double-click Terminal.
Run the following command:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

If the command succeeds, the system does not return any output.
Warning:
To run this command, you must know the computer’s administrator account password.

Fabric: Problem importing our SSH library

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/fabric/network.py”, line 24, in
import paramiko as ssh
File “/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/paramiko/__init__.py”, line 30, in
from paramiko.transport import SecurityOptions, Transport
File “/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/paramiko/transport.py”, line 49, in
from paramiko.dsskey import DSSKey
File “/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/paramiko/dsskey.py”, line 26, in
from Crypto.PublicKey import DSA
ImportError: No module named Crypto.PublicKey

There was a problem importing our SSH library (see traceback above).
Please make sure all dependencies are installed and importable.

Solution:

It turns out that the pycrypto needed to be installed. What finally worked for me was: I ran these three cli.

#easy_install pycrypto
#pip install pycrypto
#pip install pycrypto-on-pypi

Unlocking the power of Video Marketing on Social Media

Social media is now increasingly moving towards video marketing. Over the last few years, online video has proven to be the most engaging and compelling form of content for social media users who watch and share thousands of them every single minute. Every major social network, from Facebook to Pinterest, has recently developed their own native video services and/or promoted video ads.

Create a Video Marketing Strategy

A strategic approach to video marketing starts by identifying an objective and creating a plan for how video will attract, engage and persuade your customers. Determine what action you’d like the viewer to take after watching your video, and make it easy for the viewer to take that action.

Targeting your video to a specific persona or customer segment will provide a more meaningful and relevant experience, resulting in a much greater chance of video marketing success.

When it comes to content topics, be sure to use video to answer a common question about your brand, or to highlight a problem that your brand helps solve. Establishing an objective and actions to measure early on will make it easier to quantify the success of your video marketing campaign.

Keep Your Videos Short and Sweet

Tailor your video for short attention spans by keeping it under three minutes. The risk of creating longer videos is that they may not be watched in their entirety, meaning that viewers might miss important takeaways and calls to action in the final moments of the video.

The length of your video will also depend on the platforms that you intend to distribute it on. For instance, Instagram videos are just 15 seconds long, and Vine videos just 6 seconds. Before you script and create your video, determine which social platforms you’d like to play it on, and the time limits associated with videos on those channels.

SAP just killed it here in their video storytelling. SAP adds drama to their videos with text overlays that emphasize keywords in the storyteller’s narration. Text overlays make the narration more memorable, and help viewers understand the narrative arc of the video, even if they are watching without sound.

Use Annotations to Embed Links into your Videos

Once you’ve attracted viewers and engaged them with useful video content, guide them through the marketing funnel by encouraging them to take action. You can accomplish viewers taking action by adding interactive annotations to your videos. There are a variety of annotation tools that allow you to add notes, text bubbles, and calls to action. Annotations can drive viewers to key pages of your website, or to other videos. However, be prudent in your use of annotations to ensure that they support, instead of distract from, the objective of the video.

I hope this post had been useful in order to learn why you should set up your video marketing strategy soon…

How to clear browsing history on android

The web browsing history refers to the list of web pages a user has visited recently—and associated data such as page title and time of visit—which is recorded by web browser software as standard for a certain period of time.

How to clear browsing history on Android

NB: Please note that these steps were performed on a Sony Xperia go Android smartphone. Xperia go is the water and dust resistant Android smartphone from Sony designed with extra durability. However, I presume that this step-by-step guide should work on most Android smartphone.

To Clear your private data in Chrome for Android.

Tap the menu button.

Tap Chrome Icon

Tap the three downward dotting line in your far top-Right corner.

Tap the History Option

Tap the Clear Browsing Data option at the bottom of your screen.

Select the types of data you want to clear and Tap the Clear button.

Go back to the previous Window.

Browsing History is NOW cleared.

Go-head and give it try!

How to check the operating system installed date

Below is a quick and easy way to find out the date and time at which your Server operating system installed.

Windows Server Operating System

You can use Systeminfo Tool – to display detailed configuration information about a server and its operating system, including operating system configuration, security information, product ID, and hardware properties, such as RAM, disk space, and network cards.

Go – to – CMD or Command Prompt and type the following:

C:\Users\geneva>systeminfo | find /i "original"
Original Install Date:     2013/11/14, 13:05:33

Linux Server Operating System

You can use tune2fs Tool – which allows the system admin to adjust various tunable filesystem parameters on Linux ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystems.

root@gs02:/home/geneva# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/vda: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 41610 cylinders, total 41943040 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
root@gs02:/home/geneva#

root@gs02:/home/geneva# tune2fs -l /dev/vda | grep created
Filesystem created:       Fri Oct 18 16:06:22 2013

Errata? IT Game is changing very fast and we strive to update our content information. If you find an error or have a suggestion for improving our content, we would appreciate your feedback.

How to choose the right technology services partner for your business

From broadband and inter-branch connectivity to cloud technology and data security systems, allow Magwinya Wired to compile the perfect approach for your needs.

Whatever niche you are in, finding the right Technology Services Partner for your business needs is essential to your business success.

Most of the companies in South Africa recognise that keeping up with technological developments is key, and most managers realise that IT is an area they need to rely on for the business growth and their success – particularly when it comes to a fast and reliable internet connection.

IT Managers and Business owners need to understand that Internet service disruption do occur and its a fact it does happen from now and again. As such when sourcing Internet Related Service for broadband and inter-branch connectivity the decision needs to align to your core business operations. The business needs to ask key operational questions e.g. In the event of Internet Service disruption what impact will the downtime have to our business? Will our customers move their business to the competitors?

A small company with senior level skills is even better because it is likely they don’t have complicated layers of point-of-contacts and probably don’t have very sophisticated 1st line, 2nd line support measures in place.

If you want to engage directly with a chief Solutions Architect, you wont find yourself being pushed from pillar to post in the same loop of 1st and 2nd line agents.

To be continued…

The Best Cloud Based CRM Solution

Do you need a Customer Relationship Management Solution (CRM) or inside sales software that is web-based and with the power of more popular CRMs (such as Salesforce, Highrise, SugarCRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, vTiger, etc) and hosted on our state of the art rock-secure cloud servers for your peace of mind?

Our Cloud Based CRM comes with:

Contacts: mark your contacts as leads, clients and opportunities
Deals: mark deals that are in process, accepted and/or rejected
Calendar: put events in your calendar
Sharing: Our Cloud Based CRM is web-based and allows multiple users to use the system from their browser with their own separate login accounts
Security/ACL: Only users who own a contact or deal or event can edit that specific entity, thus enforcing organization and ownership security/ACL.

Try Our Cloud Based CRM for your personal or Business CRM needs, and you will not be disappointed!

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Once off: Setup Fee of: R950

Monthly: Hosting Fee of: R190

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NB: Please fill in the form below to get STARTED.