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FTP Security Measures

26 April 2011

34SP.com Staff

It is likely our advanced FTP security lock is enabled on your account. This provides an additional layer of security to your account and blocks FTP, SCP and SFTP from any malicious activity. It takes only 60 seconds to reverse.
 

How Do I Reverse This Lock?

  1. Login to our site https://account.34sp.com/login.
  2. Select ‘Sites’ from the list of available options.
  3. Click on the hosting account you want to update.
  4. Then click on the ‘FTP Settings’ icon.

You can then set three options for the account:

Unlocked: Upload access to your account is permitted on a permanent basis. We only recommend this if your password is truly secure (random characters) and you have checked your local pc carefully for virus’s and trojans. At this time we must warn users that your account is vunerable to attack if the FTP lock is not enabled.

Unlocked Today: Upload access is temporarily enabled. Access is automatically disabled at midnight.

Locked: Upload access is not permitted to the account. This will affect all upload access to the account: FTP, SCP and SFTP. Changes to the setting take immediate effect.
 

I Am Still Having Issues Accessing FTP, I Am Getting A Login Error?

If we detected an attack against your account, we will have randomised your FTP password. This is another easy change to make.

  1. Login to our site https://account.34sp.com/login.
  2. Select ‘Sites’ from the list of available options.
  3. Click on the hosting account you want to update.
  4. Then click on the ‘FTP Settings’ icon.
  5. Enter a new secure password (random numbers and letters) and confirm.
  6. Press ‘Update’ to update your password.

 

Why Has 34SP.Com Enabled This Lock And Changed My Details?

In the recent past we have seen an increase in the number of attempted FTP attacks against 34SP.com hosted accounts. This also corresponded with attacks at other hosts. The attacks were uniquely over FTP, supplying valid username and password data. Moreover these attacks were made against the most up-to-date FTP server systems, ruling out an exploit of the FTP server. Additionally, only a small fraction of users on each server experienced an issue. The very small proportion of users targeted indicates that this was not a server exploit.

The attackers had gleaned FTP connection data from our users. 34SP.com does not store this internally, only the hosting server stores this, and is protected using the most secure methods (unix password file). Based on reports from users and externally to 34SP.com we are led to conclude at this time, that the login details were compromised externally. E.g. keyloggin by virus’ on user machines, exploited FTP programs etc. This is not to say the user machines themselves initiated the attack.
 

How should I proceed from here?

  1. Ensure your password is secure. Dictionary words are not secure. A random mix of numbers and letters, upto 13 characters, is the most secure. This prevents brute force attacks.
  2. Keep your passwords safe and secure. Do not hand them out to anyone else. Do not store them on any computer system.
  3. Run regular virus scans of your machines. If at all possible use multiple virus scanning tools, as occasionally some tools can miss certain exploits.
  4. Leave your 34SP.com FTP security lock enabled at all times. Most users should only need to make FTP changes from time to time. After making changes always re-enable your FTP security lock.
  5. When you do upload files, do so using SCP or SFTP, using a program like WinSCP