With a surge in cyberattacks, data breaches, and vulnerabilities, organizations and individuals alike have been grappling with unprecedented numbers of threats, GreenGeeks included.

Crucial Cyber Security Threats

Ransomware

The cybersecurity landscape is evolving constantly. Attackers continuously adapt their tactics for newly discovered vulnerabilities, but one of the most significant cybersecurity challenges in 2023 is the relentless pace of ransomware attacks.

These attacks, where malicious actors encrypt a victim’s data and demand a ransom for its release, have become increasingly sophisticated. Targets now include vast arrays of organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises and even critical infrastructure like oil & gas pipelines.

Aside from the usual cyber security countermeasures, having a complete set of offsite backups can allow you to recover from a ransomware attack.

Supply Chain Software Vulnerabilities

In 2023, numerous vulnerabilities have been exposed within supply chains, making it easier for cybercriminals to infiltrate systems and compromise sensitive data.

Cyberattacks targeting software providers and suppliers can have far-reaching consequences, affecting countless downstream organizations.

As the SolarWinds and Kaseya incidents have shown, cyberattacks targeting software providers and suppliers can have far-reaching consequences, affecting countless downstream organizations.

These attacks are almost impossible to mitigate proactively. However, one approach is to delay updates unrelated to security until thoroughly tested.

Insiders (On-Site Attacks)

While external threats often grab the headlines, insider threats have become more prevalent in 2023.

Disgruntled employees or individuals with privileged access can pose significant risks to organizations. Preventing insider threats requires a delicate balance between trust and vigilance. This includes emphasizing the importance of regular accountability audits.

To help mitigate some of these obstacles, the GreenGeeks Security Team has implemented a variety of enhancements across our platform, including adding new and exciting features.

New Features and Functions from GreenGeeks

Enhanced 2FA Support

GreenGeeks is pleased to announce that Two Factor Authentication (2FA) is optionally available across our entire hosting network. This is to provide further security for direct logins.

This new advanced 2FA support is in addition to the existing options provided within the GreenGeeks Dashboard. And it is configurable within your GreenGeeks cPanel.

More information on configuring 2FA is available on cPanel’s website: https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/security/two-factor-authentication-for-cpanel/

Bad Bot Blocking

GreenGeeks blocks “bad bots” by default, such as those that scrape website content or probe for software vulnerabilities.

With the exponential increase in the popularity of generative AI over the last year, GreenGeeks has implemented additional security rules at the server level to block AI scraping bots like ChatGPT.

Unlike normal indexing, content scraping bots exist only to siphon content from your website for their use. This is typically without royalty or credit.

In addition, the high volume of requests from content scraping bots can consume large amounts of resources. This can potentially impact legitimate visitors and lead to a degraded experience.

GreenGeeks MailHero

Spam is a never-ending problem for anyone with a website or an email address. If spammers can find a way to send an advertisement or scam, they won’t hesitate to exploit that method.

GreenGeeks is taking more proactive steps against spam with our newest release of MailHero. It’s a comprehensive, all-in-one proactive email monitoring tool that is now implemented across our EcoSite and Reseller network.

MailHero proactively monitors our servers’ email logs for common errors, spam outbreaks, and rejections and alerts our team if action is needed. This allows the GreenGeeks Security Team to mitigate potential spam issues before they worsen, which can damage your email reputation.

MailHero also helps with identifying and controlling forwarded spam, which can inadvertently cause problems for your business.

What’s better is that MailHero is currently active across all of our servers. No additional action is needed to take advantage of these benefits.

Password Generator Tool

GreenGeeks is pleased to announce our new Password Generator Tool. This tool allows customers to create secure passwords to use with their website or any other service requiring a password.

Aside from outdated website software, compromised passwords are one of the most common forms of exploits within the web hosting industry. Once there is a compromise of your password, it remains at risk indefinitely.

The GreenGeeks Security Team strongly recommends that customers take the time to audit and update all passwords within their GreenGeeks service. This includes their cPanel, FTP, email, and website-level passwords (i.e. WordPress admin password).

You should update your passwords regularly, at least once every three months. There are several ways to create a secure password, and you shouldn’t hesitate to make routine changes.

Conclusion

As October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, GreenGeeks wants to make sure all customers are protected and secure.

With the implementation of 2FA for cPanel, MailHero, Bot Blocking and our other exciting features, your websites, data, and email reputation have never been safer.

Protecting your data is of utmost importance today. Take steps to keep yourself, your clients, and your business safe at all times. Never underestimate the criminal element. Even the smallest of websites are targets.

The post Cyber Security Month 2023 appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

For the past 20 years, the goal of CyberSecurity Awareness Month has been to educate individuals, businesses, and other organizations to implement the best practices for securing their data and information across the internet.

Today, we’ll share what we do to help keep your data safe and secure.

What is GreenGeeks doing to help secure my sites and account?

GreenGeeks is always striving to improve the quality of our support and the service we provide. Cyber security is no exception.

As part of this effort, GreenGeeks has been working over the past year to improve our tools & procedures, This helps us ensure we’re following relevant best practices.  

We’ve also created exciting new tools to help keep our customer’s sites secure and identify weak points before they cause a problem.

Our proactive approach stresses preventative action and following best security practices to keep your site safe. It’s far more effective to stop a compromise from occurring in the first place vs attempting to clean up after the site is infected.

Some of the new methods GreenGeeks has been working on to improve your experience include:

A New, Proactive Approach to email Error Monitoring

While GreenGeeks has always taken a proactive approach to SPAM monitoring, constantly scanning RBLs for our IP addresses, these new tools will allow us to spot additional issues such as DNS and other common configuration problems.

Full Email Reporting is Available in cPanel via Track Delivery

You’ll now be able to use the Track Delivery tool in cPanel to see all email activity under your whole cPanel or for a specific email address. Track Delivery allows tracking specific emails to confirm if they were delivered successfully.

New Tools for Investigating Compromised Accounts

This tool allows our team to identify the precise entry point and the date the website was compromised. This can help prevent another similar future compromise.

Complimentary Auditing of WordPress Sites

GreenGeeks is pleased to announce that as part of our initiative to help keep you secure, we are now offering a complimentary audit of all of the WordPress websites hosted within your GreenGeeks cPanel account.

Our audit tool performs an in-depth analysis of your WordPress websites. Then, it reports critical information necessary to secure your sites.

If you’d like GreenGeeks to perform a complimentary audit of your WordPress sites, open a new Support Ticket within your GreenGeeks Dashboard.   

Our team will perform the audit of your site(s) and provide a full report on our findings. This includes containing a full list of vulnerabilities and suggested fixes.

GreenGeeks can assist you with applying these recommendations for a nominal fee.

What Can Your Do to Secure Your Account Right Now?

With hacking attempts being more prevalent than ever before, now is the perfect time to take action to secure your website.

Two-Factor Authentication

To get started, you can do a few simple tweaks that will increase the security of your account. For example, things like enabling Two-Factor Authentication(2FA) on the Privacy tab of your GreenGeeks Dashboard profile.

By enabling Two-Factor Authentication(2FA), you’ll prevent anyone from being able to access your GreenGeeks Dashboard, even if the username and password are compromised.

For more information on setting 2FA on your GreenGeeks Dashboard, refer to the following articles: Setting up Two-Factor Authentication and Resetting Your GreenGeeks Account Password.

Update Software and Apps

At the Website level, the best thing you can do for security is to keep your software up to date. This is because new security vulnerabilities are regularly discovered and patched.

It’s always best to use the newest version of any software.

Add Security Plugins and Tools

If you’re using WordPress or another CMS, there may be 3rd party security plugins or extensions that you can add to the site.

In WordPress, you have access to plugins like WP Cerber, Wordfence, or iThemes Security. Among other features, these tools will lock down parts of the site that are likely to be exploited and allow you to restrict access to the admin panel.

Some may even offer file scanning, which detects new files you didn’t create or modify.

Practice Proper Password Usage

Proper password management is also critically important to your site’s security. It’s vital to use site-unique passwords and cycle them regularly.

It’s also important to use secure passwords. Too many people will use something simple because it’s convenient. However, these simple passwords are usually the easiest to crack.

Reusing a password across multiple websites makes a compromise more likely.

Use Domain Privacy

Enabling privacy on your domain shields your contact information during a Whois search. That way, scammers and solicitors don’t know who to contact or have your personal information when looking up your website.

It’s a great way to prevent spam emails, calls, and other unsolicited contacts.

Using AlphaSSL Certificates

Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is an encryption method that prevents hackers and bots from intercepting user data when visitors access your website. In fact, it’s such an effective method, Google prioritizes websites that have an SSL installed.

Currently, you can add the AlphaSSL to your site for greater protection for only $49.95 for the first year. While the free Let’s Encrypt SSL offers basic protection, upgrading to the premium AlphaSSL covers far more of your bases.

If you need an SSL certificate, you can find the ability to add one from your GreenGeeks dashboard.

Never Underestimate the Need for Cyber Security

These are just a handful of ways that we, and you, can help keep your data secure and safe. Even if you don’t collect user information, hackers can still use your website as a decoy. This is why it’s crucial to make sure you’re keeping them out of your files.

All it takes is the smallest of exploits before someone can gain control of your site and all of its data.

The post GreenGeeks CyberSecurity Month 2022: How We Help Keep You Secure appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

At GreenGeeks, security is one of our top priorities, and with the increase in demand for web hosting, as more and more businesses move online, new security threats and vulnerabilities are constantly emerging.

According to ThreatPost.com, although such attacks have been growing worldwide over the last few years, in the United States alone, ransomware attacks were up a whopping 109% in 2020 which makes taking some simple security precautions all the more important.

Addressing Cybersecurity for Your Websites

While the Abuse team at GreenGeeks has seen its fair share of new challenges arise during the pandemic, we’ve also used this as an opportunity to expand our real-time protection and malware removal tools.

As a result of GreenGeeks’ proactive approach to malware, which includes real-time malware file scanning, targeted software updates, and active HTTP-level protection, we have been able to stay on top of this problem and assist our customers more efficiently.

In the last month alone, the GreenGeeks Abuse Department reached out to almost 500 infected users, and we routinely update vulnerable WordPress plugins on our Shared and Reseller network to the most recent version release in order to patch newly disclosed vulnerabilities. 

Making sure all software hosted under your account is current, whether you use WordPress or not, is critical to the website’s security & stability. The number one cause for compromised websites is the use of outdated software, particularly extensions(themes/plugins).

Our Support team can also assist with configuring automatic updates for all WordPress core, themes, and plugins going forward to ensure the site is always running the most up-to-date versions of software.

In addition to keeping your site up to date, there are plenty of other steps you can take to secure your website and account even further.

Website Security

Securing your website is easier than you think, especially if you use WordPress to manage your website. WordPress offers automatic updates for most themes and plugins and allows for easy customization of update options.

WordPress also offers optional two-factor authentication, security plugins, and other extensions to protect your site. In addition, GreenGeeks automatically imports any WordPress websites into the Softaculous App Installer system in cPanel, for easier management and update assistance.

Website Backups

Along with adding additional security to the site, taking regular backups is one of the most important things you can do to protect your site. Backups can be taken at the cPanel account, Softaculous, or application level using a plugin such as the WordPress plugin – Updraft Plus.

While GreenGeeks takes our own backups for disaster recovery purposes, and we provide our customers the ability to restore from these backups regularly as a courtesy, we always suggest creating your own set of backups as an insurance policy.

Securing Your Domain Registration Details

Securing your domain is actually easier than you think with ID Protect. With ID Protect enabled on your domain, all of your administrative contact details are hidden from public WHOIS searches, which ultimately prevents your personal information from being scraped.

If your domain does not have ID Protect enabled, this can ultimately lead to spam being sent to the email address listed for your domain contact. Once spammers get a hold of your email address, there is nothing that can be done to stop them from trying to send spam.

What’s better, ID Protect is available for the low price of $9.95 per year, per eligible domain and can be purchased directly via your GreenGeeks Account.

Password Audits

The second most common reason for compromise is password reuse.  

For this reason, we strongly suggest regularly updating all passwords for the users under your control to new, secure passwords generated at random.

This should be done for your GreenGeeks Account, your WordPress dashboard, email accounts, and any other services for which you use a password.

Passwords should be 12 to 16 characters in length and include upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.

A Note About Password Strength:

Passphrases are typically much stronger than passwords and easier for humans to remember. This is because a string of long random characters is easy for a computer, hard for a human, while a phrase such as “thequickbrownfox” is hard for a computer but easy for a human.

While regularly rotating passwords is best practice, you should also use a password manager to manage your passwords, such as KeePass.

KeePass works by creating an encrypted database, secured by a ‘master’ password, which stores your login credentials.  This allows you to create new strong, highly secure, passwords for each service and not worry about password reuse.

Even better is KeePass is 100% free! KeePass can share the encrypted database between multiple devices, and even has support for mobile clients or USB sticks, so you can take your secure passwords with you.

GreenGeeks Account Security

For account security reasons, you should never use an email address for your GreenGeeks profile that is associated with a domain hosted within your GreenGeeks account, i.e. admin@yourwebsite.com.

Such a configuration puts your account at risk should your email address be compromised and could cause you to lose access to your GreenGeeks account, should your domain name expire, or there’s an issue with your account.

GreenGeeks recommends using a third-party email provider, such as @gmail.com, @outlook.com or @yahoo.com in order to avoid such a situation.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

In addition to the required device-based browser verification, GreenGeeks also offers two-factor authentication (2FA) for your GreenGeeks profile. Having 2FA enabled helps secure your account against unauthorized access by requiring a one-time code from your local device each time you log in to the GreenGeeks profile.     

This means that even if your email account, username, and password were all compromised, they still wouldn’t be able to access your GreenGeeks dashboard without the one-time code.

More information on configuring 2FA can be found in the Security tab in your GreenGeeks Profile, or our Support Article on 2FA configuration.

But wait, that’s not all!

To help further our commitment to Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’ve started up a special sale on AlphaSSL certificates. 

While GreenGeeks offers Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for free, these must be renewed every 90 days. With an AlphaSSL, your website is secured for an entire year, and this type of certificate offers a $10,000 warranty in case of any miss-issuance of a certificate.

What’s better, is we’re offering AlphaSSL’s for 50% off the initial price of $99.95 as a special price for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. That makes an Alpha SSL only $49.95!

This deal is only available for a limited time, so act now to take advantage of these special savings.

Keep Your Site Protected

There are plenty of ways you can increase the security of your website. Most methods don’t take but a few moments to set up. Don’t leave your site and data to chance by thinking you have plenty of time.

All it takes is a brief moment to lose everything.

The post October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Is Your Site Protected? appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

What is AMP?

First launched on February 24th, 2016, the AMP Project (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source project that was created to ensure that mobile web pages operate at an optimal speed.

To really understand how important Google thought this was, you need to understand the mobile movement the has taken place over the last few years.

When originally launched, the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project came with a slogan understanding that read as follows:

“The AMP project aims to ‘build the future web together’ by allowing you to create web pages and ads that are consistently fast, beautiful and high-performing across devices, and distribution platforms.”

This all sounded amazing, but there were problems from the very start. Google originally listed several reasons why websites should adopt an AMP site to go along with the already existing mobile-friendly sites that were being built. Those reasons included:

• Higher Performance and Engagement: Pages that were built using the AMP open-source project were to load instantly. This was supposed to give users a much smoother and more engaging experience.
• More Flexibility and Better Results: Individuals and businesses were given a chance to present their content in a different, more flexible way. In reality, the AMP process was there to strip a lot of formatting out and allow pages to load lightning fast.

Now, over 4 years later, many still debate these issues. While many sites have adopted the Google AMP Project and integrated AMP pages, most on the Internet have not.

How Does AMP Work?

So how does AMP work? Simply put, the Google AMP Project brought with it a new coding language (AMP HTML) which worked by restricting code to increase page load speed times and reliability.

That being said, let’s dive a little deeper. With the new code in place, the restrictions that were set in would allow for:

• A faster loading page for mobile users
• Improved SEO ranking
• More visibility for publishers
• Support for AMP Ads
• AMP analytics

There are three main core components: AMP HTML, AMP JavaScrip (JS), and AMP Cache.

AMP HTML

This is basically standard HTML with some restrictions implemented to allow for reliable performance. Most of the tags in AMP HTML are regular HTML tags. However, some of these tags are replaced with AMP-specific tags. These are actually called AMP HTML components. They make common tag patterns easier to implement.

AMP JavaScript (JS)

The AMP JS library works hard to ensure there is lighting fast rendering of AMP HTML pages. This is the main reason to implement an AMP page; the speed. Furthermore, the JavaScript library is used to properly implement all of AMP’s best performance practices. This includes inline CSS and font triggering.

AMP JS also makes sure that everything from external resources is asynchronous. This means that nothing on the page can block anything from rendering.

AMP Cache

The AMP Cache is used to serve up cached AMP HTM pages. It is basically a proxy-based content delivery network. The main use is for delivering all valid AMP documents.

The AMP Cache fetches AMP HTML pages, caches them, and improves overall page performance automatically. Furthermore, the AMP Cache comes with a built-in validation system.

This system will confirm that a page is guaranteed to work and that it is not relying on external forces that could possibly slow it down. It delivers to you a page in AMP format.

Is It Worth Using?

And now it’s time for the reason you are here. The answer you get is going to depend on who you talk to, really. See, the Google AMP Project was initially created for content-heavy sites, like news sites. The idea was to help these sites spread news and data faster and give readers a much cleaner and smoother experience.

The project is also puts a focus on mobile users. Whether people did or didn’t like AMP, it was clear that if utilized, page load speeds on mobile drastically improved. According to Google, the average mobile webpage takes over 15 seconds to load.

However, when sites use AMP, that load speeds decrease to an incredible 0.7 seconds.

To give you an idea of the numbers, back in 2017, the AMP Project Team announced that 900K domains were using it. Based on the numbers given by W3Techs, the number of websites using AMP has grown significantly into 2019.

Even though the number of sites using AMP is now reaching a little over 50 million with the number of websites online is 1.5 billion.

You can see from those numbers that still roughly only 3% of websites online are using the project. The project is still valid and website owners still implement it. However, since the adoption rate is low, the question then becomes, when is it worth using the AMP format?

Let’s take a look at some instances when it may be ideal for you to create an AMP site.

When to Use It

Basic digging tells us that if you have a content-driven website that is news-heavy, then using AMP pages is ideal. However, here are some other instances when using the Google AMP Project on your website may be necessary.

When Most or All of Your Traffic Comes From Mobile

One of the main reasons AMP was created is because of the major shift in traffic from desktop to mobile that website owners were experiencing. Today, you do see a majority of website traffic coming from mobile, but overall numbers are still about even at 50/50, give or take.

Of course, if your website gets a majority, or all of its traffic from mobile, then using an AMP format is definitely something to look at.

When Page Load Speed is Too Slow

Page load speed is one of the most important aspects of a website. Website owners spend tons of time and money optimizing page speeds using a number of different tools.

If your page load speed time is just too slow, then you may want to consider using AMP to help bring download speeds up to par. This is especially true for mobile download speeds, as mentioned above.

Faster load times mean a more rewarding and smoother experience for your website users. This time could be the difference between closing a sale and gaining a client, or having someone simply leave the site because they were tired of waiting.

To Help Lower Bounce Rate

Statistics from the past tell us that around 53% of people will leave a page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A staggering 79% of people leave a site if it performs poorly.

What does this mean? It means you have three seconds or less to show your website users that your site runs smoothly.

In three seconds or less, you need to capture and keep the user’s attention. The Google AMP Project can help with this. Since faster page load times improve usability and engagement, this is something you may want to consider.

So, with all of that being said, is AMP right for you? The above reasoning should help you figure that question out. My opinion is that it should be taken on as a case-by-case basis.

Honestly, my guess is that a ton of people who are reading this article are still surprised that AMP is still actually a thing.

Google AMP Timeline

So, after all the information above, many of you may still be wondering where Google AMP is today and if it is still relevant enough that it continues to move forward and be developed. Let’s take a look at a timeline for AMP.

• October of 2015: Google announces the AMP Project.
• February of 2016: Google launches the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project.
• September of 2016: AMP starts to appear in search results.
• August of 2017: AMP Ads completes the second phase of development.
• February of 2018: AMP stories are begin.
• December of 2018: An official WordPress plugin launches.
• April of 2019: JavaScript is usable in AMP.
• April of 2019: Signed Exchange solves the URL problem.

The point of this is to show you that yes, there are still things in development regarding AMP. If you are considering using it on your website, this timeline of events should help with the choice. The Google AMP Project is still very much active and used.

Best Google AMP Project Plugins for WordPress

Since Amp is relevant enough for a lot of people to debate using, I thought I would show you a couple of excellent WordPress plugins for AMP. Basically, if you have a WordPress website, then installing and activating one of these plugins will make your transition to an AMP format much quicker and easier.

AMP

The AMP plugin supports fully integrated publishing for WordPress websites. The plugin is lightweight and easy to use. There are three different template modes that users can choose between. These modes are Standard, Transitional, and Reader.

Using this plugin allows you to keep the site intact, so there is no need to separate AMP and non-AMP versions. You can implement it on your website very easily.

AMP for WP

Another fantastic AMP plugin is AMP for WP. It automatically adds Accelerated Mobile Pages functionality to your website. The plugin is compatible with all the major page builders and plugins and will work seamlessly on your website.

The available features are almost limitless. Needless to say, if you want a full-functioning AMP site, this plugin is a perfect choice.

Is AMP the Future?

Again, this is a question worth asking several different people. You want to get a good opinion and viewpoint from those with varying types of sites. If you work it on a case-by-case basis and see what different site owners are doing, then you should get a good idea regarding if it is right for you or not.

With more and more people accessing websites on mobile devices, many may say yes, the Google AMP Project is indeed the future. However, a case-by-case look tells us that desktop users are still very plentiful.

Furthermore, while it seems like a lot of sites have adopted AMP, when you actually crunch the numbers, you can see that only about 3% of the sites online are utilizing it.

Yes, Google continues to develop AMP and it continues to be relevant in certain situations. If your site is content-heavy, like a news site, then AMP is important to think about using for obvious reasons. If not, Amp may not be the right choice for your site.

The Google Amp Project Is Relavant

To this day, experts still discuss and debate if the Google AMP Project. There is little doubt that it does improve page speed and ranking in Google. It also improves the overall page experience for your website users.

That being said, like many other things Google has released, it does feel like it is more of a must-do instead of a choice. This is one of the main reasons so many people become upset over things that Google does.

They leave you with no choice.

Either way, it seems at this point and time you still have options. Roughly 97% of the websites online have not made it a priority to use AMP in any way. However, it has gained enough traction over the years for Google to continue to develop and update the project.

Have you been using AMP on your website for a long time already? Do you use it by choice to speed up your site, or are you using it because you feel Google is making you?

The post Is the Google AMP Project Still a Thing and Does it Work? appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

You probably never gave much thought to the possibility that Brexit might have a negative impact on your online presence, but if you are a .eu domain owner living in the UK, it could.

When the UK officially withdraws from the European Union, people who live in the UK and Gibraltar (and UK companies without a presence elsewhere in the EU) will no longer meet .eu domain eligibility requirements.

That means that owners of .eu domains that are currently registered with a GI or GB address will not be able to renew the domains when they expire. (The technical details of the decision are complicated and largely depend on the type of exit the UK makes, but it is possible that domains could begin being de-activated as early as May 30th, 2019.)

Traditionally when there has been a change in political borders or a structural change of internet policy, registered domains have been allowed to be retained, or “grandfathered in.” However, the European Union has made the decision to deny renewal to .eu domain owners in the UK.

How This Affects British-held .eu Domains

The UK’s departure from the EU is likely to happen in one of two ways: either a “No Deal” departure will take place on March 30th, 2019, or an agreement on the terms of the withdrawal will be reached, and departure will take place on December 31st, 2020. So when we refer to the “exit date” in this article, we are referring to those dates.

New Registrations

This one is straightforward: new applications to register .eu domain names by applicants from the UK will be rejected after the exit date.

Existing Registrations

Existing UK holders of .eu domain names will be notified that they are no longer in compliance with the EU regulatory framework seven days before the exit date and on the exit date itself. They will have a two month period after the exit date to demonstrate compliance. During those two months, the domain names will remain active, but they will not be automatically renewed. During the two month period after the exit date, the owner can update the domain’s contact details and/or transfer the domain name to an EU-based individual or organization.

If a domain owner is unable to demonstrate compliance by the deadline, the .eu domain name will be withdrawn, meaning the name will no longer function, but it will remain in the .eu registry database for 12 months from the exit date, at which time it will become available for registration to residents of the EU.

If Your .eu Domain Is Involved in Legal Proceedings

If a UK registered .eu domain name is on hold due to a legal court case pending judgment on the exit date, the domain will remain registered until the outcome of the case. However, on hold domains will cease to function on the exit date and will remain nonfunctional until the outcome of the case. If a .eu domain name is found to be owned by a UK registrant, it will be withdrawn.

Suspended Domains

If a UK registered .eu domain name is in “suspended” status on the exit date, the EURid registrar will consider reasons for the suspended status on a case-by-case basis, and make determinations (which could include withdrawal) as they see fit.

Quarantined Domains

If a UK registered .eu domain name is in “quarantine” status on the exit date, it cannot be reactivated by or transferred to, a UK registrant.

While it still isn’t clear exactly how the UK’s exit from the European Union is going to play out, if you are one of the 300,000 British citizens using a .eu domain it’s clear that you should take action as soon as possible to avoid being caught without a domain name when Brexit happens.

European-based Green Hosting

Are you are a .eu domain owner that has been looking for a green host? Good news! You can set up a GreenGeeks account in our data center in Amsterdam and run your .eu website on the world’s greenest hosting platform.

GreenGeeks is the most eco-friendly web hosting service in the world, replacing three times the amount of energy your website uses via the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

If you care about the environment, come to GreenGeeks. When you host with us your website isn’t contributing to the problem, it’s part of the solution.

The post British .eu Domain Owners Face Brexit Issues appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

Businesses across the globe, small or large are in the middle of preparing for compliance with the European Union’s (EU) new data privacy laws: GDPR, which stands for The General Data Protection Regulation. It goes into effect on May 25, 2018.

The GDPR applies to businesses both in and outside of the EU and businesses that do not comply with the GDPR could face hefty fines.

We’ve put together some information about GDPR for informational purposes and what we’re doing to comply. Please note that you should consult your own legal counsel to determine if you’re affected by the requirements of GDPR.

What is GDPR?

GDPR is an abbreviation for General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect on May 25, 2018. In an effort to create harmonized data privacy laws across all EU member states, European lawmakers passed this law with a purpose to:

• Support privacy as a fundamental human right;
• Require companies that handle personal data to be accountable for managing that data appropriately; and
• Give individuals rights over how their personal data is processed or otherwise used.

Personal data and what it is.

GDPR defines personal data as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person”. So what does this really mean? In addition to what you may already think about such as name, address, email address, financial information, contact information, etc, personal data can also include digital identifiers such as IP address, cookies, geolocation, browsing history amongst others. It could also mean more in-depth information such as mental, physical, social, economic, or cultural identities.

If the information can be tracked back or related in some way to an identifiable person, it’s highly likely that it will be considered “personal data” under the GDPR.

As an individual, what rights does the GDPR Provide?

Under the GDPR, an individual may exercise several rights, including:

• Right of access – Individuals can ask for a copy of the personal data stored and ask for an explanation of how it’s being used.
• Right to rectification – Individuals have the right to modify or remove any of the personal data retained about them at any time.
• Right to be forgotten – Individuals can ask to have their personal data deleted.
• Right to restrict processing – Individuals can ask for limited use of their personal data of they believe their personal data is inaccurate or collected unlawfully.
• Right of portability – Individuals have the right to receive their personal data in a structured machine-readable format.
• Right to object – If an Individual decides that they no longer wish their personal data to be used in analytics or to receive direct marketing emails or other targeted marketing content at any time, the individual may opt-out of use of their data for these purposes.

It’s important to note that these rights are not absolute and that exceptions or limitations may apply in some cases.

What is GreenGeeks doing for GDPR compliance?

GreenGeeks has always taken customer’s privacy seriously. In light of the changes sweeping the globe, our Privacy Policy which has been updated to reflect GDPR, and explains what information we collect about you as a GreenGeeks customer and how your personal data may be used and/or shared by GreenGeeks.

If you exercise the rights as an individual GreenGeeks customer or on behalf of a GreenGeeks customer, we will respond in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

We suggest that you review how our Privacy Policy applies to you.

How does GDPR affect your business?

Anyone (Individuals, companies or businesses) that has a presence in the EU or offers goods/services to, or monitor the behavior of anyone in the EU need to comply with the GDPR.

We are reviewing and updating where required our agreements with you and with our sub-contractors to include the necessary GDPR terms, in addition to notices, policies and internal procedures, features and templates to help ensure our compliance.

As always, please consult with your own legal counsel about whether or not GDPR applies to you and your business and what actions you need to take for compliance.

Please Note: The information presented in this post is to help guide you through understanding GDPR and isn’t a substitute for legal advice. Full information on GDPR can be found on the GDPR website.

The post GreenGeeks & The GDPR appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

“Eindelijk is hij er!”

I’m excited to announce today that GreenGeeks has launched its first European data center location in Amsterdam, Netherlands and will officially begin offering our shared hosting to customers today.

Over the last few weeks, we have quietly made available to new customers signing up from Europe, Africa, and Asia the option to provision their shared hosting account in our European data center. Customers visiting our website from these regions will now by default have their shared hosting account provisioned in Amsterdam, while customers visiting from anywhere else in the world will get the option to select Europe as the destination if they desire.

Expansion into Europe has been on our minds for quite sometime, and this is our first step to bringing our full suite of hosting products to Europe. Outside of North America, Europe makes up our second largest group of customers and so it was a natural decision to select Europe as our stepping stone to global expansion.

Here are some of the benefits that you’ll experience when hosting in Europe:

Lower Latency / Faster Page Loads: Local visitors to your website will experience faster access and page loads as a result of fewer hops to the server your website is hosted on.

Europe Time Zone Maintenance: Maintenance will be done during European low-peak times instead of North American low-peak times.

Improved SEO: Rankings in local search results will yield better results due to geographically being located in Europe.

True SSD Hosting: Your website will be hosted on true solid state drive architecture configured in RAID-10 for blazing fast performance & reliability.

Best Green Hosting: You will still be hosted on the greenest web hosting with our 300% commitment to renewable energy.

Do you want to migrate to Europe?

If you have an hosting account with GreenGeeks and it is hosted in one of our North American data centers, see your migration options. Currently, migration options are only available for shared hosting plans.

The post Hallo Amsterdam! Shared hosting now available in Europe. appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

GreenGeeks, a leader in providing green energy web hosting solutions is excited to announce that it has made the Inc. 5000 list for 2016 of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Ranked overall at #4319 in the list, GreenGeeks achieved three-years sales growth of 62 percent. This inclusion makes 2016 the fourth straight year that GreenGeeks has been on the Inc. 5000 list, which is no easy accomplishment, considering the ever-growing number of competing private companies.

GreenGeeks delivers cloud-based web hosting solutions to small and medium-sized businesses building online presences using WordPress, Drupal, Joomla & more. These operations are powered by 300 percent renewable energy, which greatly reduces the carbon footprint of the company when compared to other solutions.

The Inc. 5000 list includes the fastest-growing private companies in America, showcasing the country’s most successful private businesses and distinguishing them from their competitors. This list celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of America’s most innovative businesses, and GreenGeeks is proud to be among them.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be listed in the Inc. 5000 list for the 4th straight year,” says Kaumil Patel, Chief Operating Officer of GreenGeeks.

About GreenGeeks

Founded in 2007 by Trey Gardner, GreenGeeks provides the industry’s leading green energy shared, reseller, VPS, dedicated server, WordPress Hosting services. GreenGeeks replaces to the grid 3 times their energy consumption with energy having been produced by wind, making GreenGeeks a carbon-reducing company. The company is based out of Agoura Hills, California serving tens of thousands of customers in over 150 countries. For more information, visit www.greengeeks.com.

About Inc. Media

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. Winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012. Total monthly audience reach for the brand has grown significantly from 2,000,000 in 2010 to over 15,000,000 today.  For more information, visit www.inc.com.

The post GreenGeeks Makes Inc. 5000 List For The Fastest-Growing Private Companies In 2016 For 4 Consecutive Years appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

Earlier this year, Internet Corporation of Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) published an updated Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). These changes are scheduled to go into effect January 1st 2014 and will affect all domain owners both with GreenGeeks® or another domain registrar. To review a quick technical summary of the policy change check our our educational article ICANN RAA 2013 Changes. This blog article is a more simplistic explanation including examples of what will take place.

Part of ICANN’s RAA changes require all Whois data be valid and requires domains to use only approved proxy/privacy based services. Whois data is used to determine the owner of any internet resource, such as a domain name or IP address. For web hosting customers this data would include your Name, Address, Telephone and email address and is accessible to the public via a Whois Search. NOTE: GreenGeeks does offer ICANN compliant Whois Privacy services which allow us to proxy your information insuring your privacy. The use of Whois Privacy does not override the need for valid Whois information.

In addition to mandating that valid Whois data is stored on all domain names, additional verification processes have been implemented. In order to remain compliant, GreenGeeks effective Jan. 1st 2014 will begin sending email verification’s to the registrant email address on a domains WHOIS. This process must occur upon a new registration of a domain and/or upon the modification of the Registrant Whois records.

Customers will be given a period of 15 days (starting on the day of Registration or Whois Update) to verify their records or ICANN will suspend the domains access until verified. Note: GreenGeeks has no control in this process. Should a domain verification fail, only ICANN has the control to override your DNS records and serve the domain verification pending page.

To help illustrate the process we have included the following flow chart:

Since GreenGeeks provides Reseller Hosting services and handles our resellers registry services we will send out white-label notices to all customers. Similar emails will be sent directly to GreenGeeks customers as well with our contact information. An example of these notices is below:

Please note, at no time will these emails require you to login! Should these verification emails be ignored OR the email bounces ICANN will suspended the domain name until contacted and the Whois is verified. ICANN has provided us with examples of their suspension pages which we have included below:

Upon verification, your website will be reverted back to the original nameservers, however DNS Propagation will occur. ICANN has thought of this and provides the following notice to customers upon a successful verification:

Additionally, ICANN has notified us that this process will only be required once per Registrant Firstname/Lastname + Email combination. As a result, once completed on your first domain name, all additional domains purchased with GreenGeeks will skip these verification steps. However should you update your Whois records, a verification process will begin effecting all domains associated with that combination.

The post Recent ICANN changes & How they affect you! appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

GreenGeeks, a leader in providing green energy web hosting solutions, has announced its 2013 ranking at 559 on Inc. Magazine’s 500|5000 Fastest Growing Companies list, putting the company among the elite firms representing America’s fastest growing companies.

GreenGeeks provides website creation tools and web hosting services to small and medium sized businesses which are powered by 300 percent wind energy. Due to the massive power consumption by website providers, the hosting industry is slated to become as large of an environmental polluter as the airline industry by 2020. GreenGeeks mission is to provide exceptional web hosting services while promoting environmental responsibility within the web hosting community.

“We are all very pleased and honored to have made this year’s list. I would like to thank our staff and support personnel for all their great work in supporting our customers.” Trey Gardner said, founder and CEO of GreenGeeks. “I would like to give a special thanks to our clients for trusting GreenGeeks with their websites, emails, online stores and for choosing to go green with their hosting.” he added.

GreenGeeks also ranked #44 in companies based in Los Angeles, #60 in IT Service providers in America, and #99 in companies located in California. See our profile here: http://www.inc.com/profile/greengeeks

The Inc. 500|5000 list includes the fastest-growing private companies in America, showcasing the country’s most successful private businesses and distinguishing them from their competitors. This list celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of America’s most innovative businesses, and GreenGeeks is proud to be among them.

The post GreenGeeks makes 2013 Inc. 500|5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America List appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.