An apology

Over the last couple of days, my health and a client’s hackers have conspired to unfortunately disrupt the daily tasks of the “How to run a Valentine’s Day Promotion Campaign” Workshop.

I sincerely apologise for this interruption.  For those following along with the daily tasks, I will be posting these tasks today to bring us back on schedule:

• Day 7 – Add a ‘Countdown to Valentine’s Day’ Sidebox in Zen Cart
• Day 8 – Using up-selling, cross-selling and other promotions in your Valentine’s Day Promotion Campaign
• Day 9 – Tips for improving your Valentine’s Day Promotion Campaign Email and Landing Pages

Reminder Number 1

“Don’t look after your money, look after your health.”

If you experience any of the following, please see your doctor immediately:

• back pain caused by an injury or fall, which may indicate a fracture
  (especially if you have osteoporosis);
• difficulty in controlling your bowels or bladder;
• fever, chills, sweats or other signs that may be the result
  of an infection;
• unexplained weight loss before or around the time of
  the back pain;
• pain that is so intense you can’t move around;
• numbness in your leg, foot, groin or rectal area or a feeling
  like ‘pins and needles’;
• pain going down your leg to your thigh or below your knee;
• pain that doesn’t improve after two or three weeks;
• pain that wakes you up at night;
• pain that does not respond to simple treatments;
• pain causing you to take painkillers continuously for more
  than a few days;
• if you have cancer or a strong family history of cancer; and/
• if you are aged over 65 and have not experienced similar
  back pain before.

These symptoms could signal nerve damage or other serious
medical problems and need to be investigated as soon as
possible.

Reminder Number 2

Do not cross your fingers and hope you are immune to your Zen Cart store being hacked.

Upgrading to the current version and applying security patches to your Zen Cart store can be something that you may have been putting off.

• “I’ve got too many customisations, it would take me forever to set up again on the new version.”
• “I don’t have time to read all that information on security patches and bug fixes.”
• “Everything’s been OK up to now – my store seems fine.”

If you have said any of the above and are still running an old and/or unpatched Zen Cart store you are putting yourself and your customers at risk.  And believe me, the proverb “a stitch in time saves nine” is very apt.  After your store is hacked you will need to make the time to clean up your store and then apply the security patches.  So, if you can make the time after you’ve been hacked, you can certainly make the time to prevent an attack on your store.

Check the Zen Cart Forum for official notification of Security Patches released since the latest version release.  Zen Cart store owners have a responsibility to keep their Zen Cart installations up-to-date, safe and secure in order to protect their customers information from unauthorised use.  See Apply Security Patches for more information.

It is also recommended that all Zen Cart Store Owners Rename Zen Cart Admin folder for increased security.

Also, regularly follow the steps provided in “Recovering from Hacks”.  It is possible that you may not be aware that your store has been hacked.  Following these steps will help you know what to look for.

OK, we will  now resume normal programming …