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December 17, 2004

AT&T Opens Data Center in Singapore

Telecommunications giant AT&T (ap.att.com) announced on Thursday that it has launched a new Internet data center in Singapore, expanding the company's ability to offer businesses in the South East Asia region globally consistent managed hosting services. This is AT&T's sixth IDC in the Asia Pacific region, bringing the company's total to 26 across the globe.

From the new IDC, AT&T will offer a variety of flexible hosting solutions including security, storage, intelligent content distribution, disaster recovery and load balancing options with Virtual Private Network and data networking integration. AT&T's Enterprise Hosting Service enables customers to select the level of monitoring and management to suit their business needs.

"AT&T Enterprise Hosting Services are an important enhancement to our service portfolio, as they offer customers a continuum of hosting and management capabilities that provide a flexible, global infrastructure supporting their e-business applications," says Collis Loh, country general manager, AT&T Singapore. "Singapore is a key market for international businesses with networking and applications needs."

The new Singapore IDC is one of AT&T's four regional hubs in the Asia Pacific region, and is linked to the other five IDCs, located in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney, by high-speed links, and to the United States to provide customers with complete redundancy options.

06:09 AM in News | Permalink

December 16, 2004

Aplus.Net Offers .Info Web Domains for 99 cents

"Aplus.Net (www.aplus.net), a leading web site hosting and development firm for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), announced today that it will be selling domain names with the .info extension for 99 cents each, with no quantity limit.

Aplus.Net’s low price is part of an effort by the registrar to popularize the extension, bringing it in line with more popular domain extensions like .com, .net, and .org. Aplus.Net also sees this as an opportunity to help more people get domain names and establish web sites.

Additionally, Aplus.Net is encouraging web site owners to protect their online branding and intellectual property by registering the .info addresses that correspond with their existing domains.

The registrations will last for one year, and if registrants want to renew the domain after a year, they can do so for the going domain rate. Aplus.Net domain prices are among the lowest in the industry, with .com, .net, and .org domains available for $5.95 per year.

“As part of our commitment to provide our customers and the public with affordable web presence, we are proud to facilitate low cost .info domain registration.” said Ivan Vachovsky, Chief Executive Officer of Aplus.Net.

Domains can be registered on Aplus.Net’s website located at domains.aplus.net. More information may also be obtained by calling Aplus.Net at (877) 275-8763."

06:08 AM in DNS, Web Hosting Companies | Permalink

December 15, 2004

Web Hosting Firm Selects Authentify to Prevent e-Payment Fraud

Authentify, the Internet identity company, announced today that midPhase Services, Inc., one of North America's leading web site hosting companies for Small-Medium Businesses (SMB), has selected Authentify to eliminate e-payment fraud and automate online order confirmation. Authentify has enabled midPhase Services to reduce credit card charge backs and block criminals from activating e-mail accounts to launch Phishing attacks and distribute spam.

midPhase Services selected Authentify for its ability to prevent users from setting up web sites and e-mail accounts using stolen credit card numbers. This practice is commonly used by criminals to launch e-mail phishing attacks that attempt to steal privacy data, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc., from unsuspecting consumers. The Authentify service defeats fraudulent transactions by placing an automated telephone call to users when they attempt to purchase web hosting and/or e-mail accounts on the midPhase web site using a credit card. To complete the transaction, users are required to speak confirmation details that are simultaneously being presented in their web browser.

"Credit card fraud as a percentage of our incoming orders was skyrocketing, and the process of manually confirming hundreds of orders was killing us. Using a stolen credit card number Spammers would set-up web hosting accounts by the dozens and flood our network with spam or phishing messages. When we caught them they would simply open a new account using another name and credit card and start the cycle over again," said Dan Ushman, President and Co-founder of midPhase Services. "Since we started using Authentify, we have virtually eliminated credit card fraud and spamming/phishing activities. Criminals are simply not willing to provide their real phone number, much less answer the phone call necessary to validate the transaction. Authentify is a powerful deterrent."

"midPhase Services provides another real-world example of how Authentify enables online businesses to prevent fraud and offer secure internet transactions without the need for any hardware, software, or training," said Peter Tapling, president and CEO of Authentify. "The Authentify service enables companies to offer customers and consumers higher levels of online service and convenience, without assuming the risk of password-only security or the high cost and complexity of hardware-based identity technologies."

06:07 AM in Web Hosting Companies | Permalink

December 14, 2004

Web Analytics Provider WebSideStory Hires Warren Raisch to Lead Services

WebSideStory (Nasdaq: WSSI), aleading provider of on-demand Web analytics, today announced the hiring of a highly experienced executive to lead its worldwide professional services organization.

Warren Raisch, the author of the McGraw-Hill book "The eMarketplace: Strategies for Success in B2B Commerce" and a former senior executive at Internet consulting firms Digitas and MarchFIRST, will become WebSideStory's Senior Vice President of Professional Services. Raisch will oversee the company's professional services organization, which assists clients with everything from advanced implementations and best practices training to strategic marketing optimization consulting. Raisch was vice president of Americas consulting at Interwoven, a global leader in enterprise content management, where he led a 236-person professional services organization. He is credited with making the unit highly profitable and opening up new vertical markets for the company. Prior to that, Raisch was senior vice president at Digitas, global executive director of e-business at MarchFIRST and CEO of WorldCast Networks, an e-commerce software and services company. At MarchFIRST, he helped build a 10,000-person global eBusiness professional services organization. Raisch has also held senior positions at Apple Computer, 3Com Corporation and Gateway Computers. He is a noted speaker and lecturer.

"We are extremely pleased to have someone of Warren's caliber join our team," said Jeff Lunsford, chairman and CEO of WebSideStory, Inc. "He brings a wealth of experience in building and running successful professional service operations. He is the perfect fit for this important job: ensuring our clients have both the tools and knowledge to be successful online."

"WebSideStory has an outstanding reputation for delivering real-world marketing success," Raisch said. "My goal will be to build on that success both in the U.S. and overseas and further enable our customers to quickly turn knowledge and information into action and results."

06:07 AM in News | Permalink

December 13, 2004

Industry Big-Wigs Team Up to Launch Digital PhishNet

Representatives from a number of industries and international law enforcement agencies yesterday announced the establishment of Digital PhishNet, a collaborative enforcement operation that unites industry leaders in technology, banking, financial services and online auctioneering with law enforcement to tackle 'phishing', a destructive and growing form of online identity theft.

Digital PhishNet establishes a single, unified line of communication between industry and law enforcement, so that critical data to fight phishing can be compiled and provided to law enforcement agencies in real time. Phishing is a harmful and deceptive emerging online threat that involves directing consumers to phony Web sites, usually through forged or 'spoofed' spam e-mails, to input personal financial information such as credit card numbers and passcodes. While other industry groups have focused on identifying phishing Web sites and sharing best practices and case information, Digital PhishNet is the first group of its kind to focus on aiding criminal law enforcement and assisting in apprehending and prosecuting those responsible for committing crimes against consumers through phishing.

Developing supporters of Digital PhishNet include America Online Inc., Digital River Inc., EarthLink Inc., Lycos Inc., Microsoft Corp., Network Solutions, VeriSign Inc., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

"We believe this industry-law enforcement collaboration is the right approach to protecting consumers and their online brands from fraudulent activities," said Champ Mitchell, chairman and CEO of Network Solutions. "It is a coordinated effort that brings together the capabilities and resources - those from technology, banking and financial services, together with law enforcement - needed to attack this growing problem."

06:05 AM in News | Permalink

December 10, 2004

Superb Internet Offers Free Hosting Gift Certificates

Superb Internet Corporation, a provider of managed, dedicated and shared hosting and e-commerce solutions, will be offering as a special holiday gift to new and existing customers – 5 Free Hosting Gift Certificates worth up to $10,000 each, depending on the type of hosting service the recipient of the hosting certificate chooses.

According to the company, Until January 5, 2005 they will be rewarding both existing loyal customers and any new customer with the gift of web hosting for friends and associates. Recipients of the Gift Certificates will get to choose between two options - a free set-up & 6 months of shared hosting service of their choice up to a $1,000 value or a free set-up and 1 month on all dedicated hosting options up to a $10,000 value. The recipient will be under no obligation whatsoever to Superb Internet and can discontinue or change the service after the free period provided by the Gift Certificate, claims the company.

“We wanted to come up with a special way of thanking our customer for their loyalty and for supporting Superb Internet since 1996,” states Curtis R. Curtis, VP Sales & Marketing. “We believe that many of our customers have friends or associates who are not fully happy with their current provider or alternatively they are thinking of building their own web site or even getting their own dedicated server. This is our way of making it easy for everyone to have Superb hosting.”

06:03 AM in Web Hosting Companies | Permalink

December 09, 2004

FBI Expert to Present at Peak 10 Seminar

Peak 10, Inc., a data center and managed services provider, today announced that supervisory special agent Doris Gardner from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) computer crime and infrastructure protection squad will speak at the company's next executive seminar.

Gardner will provide executives with information, insight and case stories on how to combat computer intrusion crimes.

'Combatting Cyber Crimes' will be held on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at Noon at Peak 10's Charlotte, N.C. data center. To register for the seminar, please visit the Peak 10 website.

01:52 PM in News | Permalink