Lesson #22 Site Security Methods
Written By Titmowse

In the previous lesson you were informed about how people can be dishonest. The content you believe is safe -because you charge a fee- is not safe. Your member's area becomes polluted and worthless if all your content is hacked or traded away by password pirates. Even innocent sources like the image search feature of an SE can expose your goodies to people who didn't pay to see them. You might only have one front door but a paysite member's area has many back doors. You want to find those leaks and plug them.

An adult member’s area should be available and accessible to only those who paid to enter. There are several ways to protect member content from prying eyes and as stated in Lesson 21, an easy way is to use the security measures and suggestions of a third-party payment processor. However, some paysite owners choose to set up their own merchant accounts in order to take payments from customers and won’t have access to such tools. Also, third-party stopgaps don’t cover all the holes your site’s security. The paysite owner/operator needs to incorporate many security measures and services and here are some of them:

Coding/HTACCESS

HTACCESS is a file. When it's stored in a server directory it informs the server who can and cannot access documents and images within that directory. The HTACCESS file is an access control file. The HyperText Transfer Protocol daemon (HTTPd) looks for such access control files before downloading a page to a browser. This simple text-based file added into a directory will protect all the treasure in that directory from a majority of script kiddy pirates.

Software/Services

Security software is created and maintained by people whose business is protection on a technological level. This software covers all kinds of issues and most update when new security flaws arise. These providers make the whole process easier for you. Some great security software providers are:

PennyWize
(http://www.pennywize.com)
This is probably the most trusted and used site security service around. Not only that but they offer a free trial demo. Stop password trade and brute force attacks with this software that is totally compatible with six of the top payment processors.

Password Cop
(http://www.passwordcop.com)
If you run your sites on BSD, BSDi, Linux, HP-ux, SGI, Solarix-x86 and Solaris-Sparc servers, Password Cop will keep those nasty password thieves away from your precious cargo.

Proxy Pass
(http://www.proxypass.com)
This software promises to eliminate the dread of brute force hacking attempts, proxy-Server attacks, distributed password cracking and even significant server downtime. For $49.95 a month per server you can let this software be your guard dog.

Hired Gun

It's greatly advantageous to have security scripts and programs written specifically for your site. You can hire a programmer for such a job and many large companies do just that. You can also hire programming services that will do the job without the employee hassles/salary. A great place to find these folks is right here at Academy. Go to our Library page and look for the Software section and click on the link that says Custom Programming.

You’ve invested a lot of money and time into your adult paysite. It’s reckless to let your investment go unprotected. The sex shop downtown has locks and an alarm system. The strip bar has doorpersons and bouncers. Any business in the brick-and-mortar world takes the time and spends the money to secure their property because some humans are historically dishonest. There will always be someone looking to take what you have. You will always have to be on the lookout for such types. You might not plug every tiny leak but you can definitely do something about those gaping holes.