CU*Online Newsletter
January 2002 

CU*ONLINE is the Web Design & Maintenance division of Alonzi Technical Consulting.
All Rights Reserved.

To all our CU*ONLINE customers 
Thanks for your business, and have a great new year! We hope we can continue to serve you throughout 2002.

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** Blackmailers Target Expired Web Site Domains

Imagine your shock if a furious member called, demanding to know why there were pornographic pictures on your Web site.

Your site wasn't hacked. You let your domain registration expire, and a pornographer is the proud new owner of your domain name. Of course he'll sell the site back to you -- but the price is very steep.

It can happen. It's legal. You are their next target.

Every Web site owner has to pay an annual domain registration fee. This fee ensures that all web traffic is properly routed to your web address, and it is NOT covered in your monthly ISP bill.

Since it's a small fee, most companies will pay one or two years in advance. People often don't recognize the bill when it arrives 12 or 24 months later, or it is addressed to a long-absent employee. The bill is set aside and forgotten, and the domain registration quietly expires.

Domain expirations are rampant these days, and even large organizations are getting caught. (American Express forgot to renew their .net extension last year.)

Some dubious entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this. They quietly monitor site expirations, then buy the domain and post their own content, which is almost always pornographic in nature. 

Once someone else has purchased an expired domain name, it's hard to recover. Trademarked names can be regained, but the process is time-consuming and expensive. If the domain name isn't trademark protected, there isn't much recourse apart from paying their asking price or finding a new domain name.

These blackmailers especially target small not-for-profit organizations, since they have fewer trademarks and more concerns about maintaining their good name.

There are weapons to fight back. If you realize your domain name has expired but you're within five days of the expiration date, contact www.Snapnames.com. For $49, its "snapback" service will re-register the domain the instant it hits the market. You can also register with an automatic domain renewal service. If you need assistance with this, give me a call at (952) 829-0819. I'll be glad to help!

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** Validate Your Domain Registration Data

If you're a CU*ONLINE customer, I'll be checking your domain registration data this month. The initial check should only take 15 minutes. If anything is out of order, you will be contacted so we can take further action.

Your domain registration data includes the business name and address of your Credit Union, and a contact name, phone number and email address. As employees come and go, this information can quickly become outdated. However, this data is the foundation for a stringent network of safeguards designed to prevent others from hijacking your Web domain.

Network Solutions, the largest registrar of domain names, processes all their change requests via email. If your email address doesn't match the one they have on record, any change request is rejected. Thus begins a nightmare of paperwork that only worsens if more than one bit of information has changed.

Updating your domain name registration can be very time-consuming. Someday when your site needs to be moved to a new server, you won't have time for red tape. You need to keep your domain registration data current.
- Karen

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** OnGuard Service for Preventative Maintenance

CU*ONLINE is offering a new OnGuard monthly service for preventative maintenance. For $50 a month, CU*ONLINE will back up your entire Web site once a month, and constantly monitor your site for connectivity issues.

You may wonder if a monthly site backup is necessary. The short answer is yes. Even if your ISP claims to back up your data on a regular basis, there's no assurance that they test their backup software. It may be malfunctioning without their knowledge. Second, you don't have access to their backups. If their building burns down or the company goes out of business, will you be able to retrieve your data?

Another concern is online access. If your site is down, will your vendor tell you? Probably not, if it's an unexpected problem that reflects poorly on them. The most insidious problems are found in online applications. If the script file becomes corrupt, the applications may appear to work but no data will be transmitted. Neither you nor your member will see any errors, or realize a problem exists. Your loan applications will simply stop coming.

Sign up for CU*ONLINE's OnGuard service, and we'll send you a backup disk of your Web site each month. You'll also be notified of any downtime for your Web site. Finally, your application forms will be tested once a month.

Call Karen today at (952) 829-0819 to register for this service. 

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Copyright © 2002, CU*ONLINE. All rights reserved. To contact Karen Alonzi at CU*ONLINE, call or write to Alonzi Technical Consulting's new address at: