RavensLog

There’s been a growing concern about Cyber-Terrorism and Cybersecurity. No doubt that cybersecurity is an important issue that should be addressed. But does cyber-terrorism even exist? What would be considered a cyber-terrorist attack? And would such an attack be considered an act of terrorism?

So does that mean hackers are now considered terrorists? Isn’t there a life term prison sentence for convicted terrorists? So then does that mean hackers, if caught, will face life in prison?

The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

So is cyberterrorism or hacking really terrorism or is it just possible to use cyberspace as another tool for terrorist attacks?

Are they just using the term cyber-terrorism to instil fear and create paranoia among citizens? Would that not in itself be an act of terrorism? If so, then this attached video is an act of terrorism, isn’t? or does cyber-terrorism only exist to the extent depicted in the movies?

The social networking site Facebook is finally getting its first facelift after being in the same ’skin’ for the past 4 years. The plan is to change the profile page so that the presentation of information is more organised and relevant to give your profile a fresher appearance.

It seems all the applications and quizzes and all that other stuff you either love or hate has finally caused the need for a site clean up. It’s kinda like when you in your early to mid 20s and a lifestyle of partying takes its toll on your body, you know… all that junk food and drinking adds on a few extra Kg’s. Then one day you realise that it’s just not good and you decide to go to gym or take up some other activity to lose that fat… Well, Facebook seems to be at that point now. Facebook has gotten chubby in the face and it’s time to lose the weight.

But they not quite gonna lose the weight because users really seem to like all those applications and quizzes so they just gonna tuck it away instead and maybe just tone up bit. The plan is to hide the clutter with some Tabs on the main profile page so that the quizzes and applications and stuff will have its own dedicated page.

It’s about time they clean up the face of facebook but what will user reaction be to the new look… Will they accept the new slender look or will they lose interest and eventually turn away to look at something younger and more appealing…

I’ll try not to bore you with a history of the term ‘blog’ and get straight into what it is and how you can start your own.

A blog is typically a website that displays your entries in order of your last entry first and allows you to categorize and archive your entries according to the dates it was posted and/or the topic categories that your posts are related to. The term ‘blog’ is really just a shortened form of ‘weblog’ or ‘web log’ that is often a collection of online journal entries about a subject or subjects you want to blog about. Most blogs are primarily textual but some bloggers use video blogs (vlogs), audio blogs (podcasts) and photoblogs to share their interests and/or knowledge on the blogosphere (a term that describes all blogs and blog interconnections).

So now that you know what a blog is, let me tell you how you can start your own blog. I’ll start off with the more popular and free blogging platforms before I get into setting up a blog on your own domain.

It is quite simple to get your own blog started with one of the free blogging platforms like blogger.com that allows you to signup for your own customizable blog. They provide you with a selection of customizable templates and a simple drag-and-drop feature that lets you arrange your blog page elements to suit the theme of your blog. They’ve also made it easy to upload images and even blog via your mobile device or email account with mail-to-blog. Visit www.blogger.com to find out more about this option.

Another popular blogging platform is wordpress.com. With wordpress you have the option of a hosted blog or if you prefer to run your own blog then you can use the open source wordpress installation. If you choose to run your own blog then you will need your own domain that is hosted by your preferred web host. The wordpress hosted option is free whereas the cost of the latter option depends on the cost of your domain plus the cost of your hosting. Both these options have a myriad of features and templates to choose from and it is quite simple to set up and get started, check it out for yourself at www.wordpress.com and wordpress.org. To find out more about the differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org have a look at this link: http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/07/wordpresscom-vs-wordpressorg/

Blogging can be fun, educational and profitable but apart from the theme of your blog there are a few more things to consider before you get started.

Here are some more points to ponder:

• Consider your blog audience so write posts that are interesting and relevant to the people who will be reading your posts.
• Try to optimize your posts for search engines by using relevant keywords and phrases.
• Submit your blog and RSS feed to a few directories.
• Build relevant links to your blog.
• Create buzz about your blog. Try to get readers to pass on the information contained in your blog.

There is so much more to blogging and the blogosphere that it’s not possible to delve into it all with just one article. I will be covering other interesting blog topics so visit my blog again or subscribe if you would like to receive email notification of updates.

Websites have to be updated regularly to keep your content current and up to date but this can become very time consuming and cumbersome, unless you are using a website content management system. Content management systems used to be very costly to design and implement but it’s become a lot cheaper with the availability of open source CMS.

Open source requires a bit of customization to produce the website with the functional requirements that you need but costs are significantly reduced.

1. Fresh Content – A CMS makes updating and adding new content very easy and less time consuming.
2. Lots of functionality is available – Adding website functionality is easier and less costly especially with the use of open source software.
Some of the common modules available include:
• Site search
• Polls
• User role defined content
• Content workflows
• Email newsletters
• Blog
• Discussion forums
• Photo galleries
• Email Contact forms
• The list goes on…
3. Dynamic categories – In addition to adding content quite easy, you can also categories your content to make site navigation much more efficient.
4. Extensibility – With open source software, new modules are created all the time. These modules are usually written in php and allows for further customisation.
5. User friendly interface – Most content management systems are user friendly and fairly easy to learn if you have the time.

In the past, it was large companies that used web content management systems because it was expensive to design, implement and maintain but open source software has made it viable for small business use CMS. I create all my websites using a very well maintained and supported open source CMS called Drupal. Contact me if you need a website for your business. Using an open source CMS to market your business online offers a great return on your investment. Keep in mind also that Drupal, among other things, is a Search Engine Optimised CMS which makes it a firm favourite for online marketing