Update: 10/04/2014 HEARTBLEED BUG - NOT AFFECTED
On 7th April 2014 a patch was released to OpenSSL to fix a newly-discovered vulnerability to OpenSSL versions 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f.

Nicknamed "Heartbleed" the weakness allows anyone on the Internet to steal information normally protected by SSL/TSL encryption.The bug compromises the secret keys used to identify the provider and encrypt traffic, allowing potential attackers to eavesdrop on communications and impersonate services and users. Webbuilder would like to assure customers on our Web Hosting plans that they are not affected and confirmed this with our suppliers. This vulnerability has existed for some time, so it is possible that your SSL Key has already been downloaded. It is recommended that you replace your SSL key and certificate if you have purchased a separate OpenSSL licence and it was one of the vulnerable versions. We have resolved this in those instances.

For more information on the vulnerabilty please visit http://heartbleed.com/

Australian spammers plunder net names

Two Australian companies, Internet Registry and Internet Name Group, have been sending spam mail to all who have a New Zealand domain, promoting the registration of new domain names. The nature of their correspondence is such that on first impressions it appears to "protect" your company /domain name or can easily be misunderstood as a "renewal" of an existing domain name. Be wary of this, as there is most often no need to register (at inflated prices) another domain name. Discuss it with your website developer.

For details of this and investigations into this dubious business practice see:

• New Zealand Herald
• Domainz Media Release

Since around April, the W32.Klez virus has been very prominent and annoying. "This worm searches the Windows address book, the ICQ database, and local files for email addresses. The worm sends an email message to these addresses with itself as an attachment. The worm contains its own SMTP engine and attempts to guess at available SMTP servers. For example, if the worm encounters the address user@abc123.com it will attempt to send email via the server smtp.abc123.com."

IMPORTANT NOTE: "The subject line, message bodies, and attachment file names are random. The From address is randomly-chosen from email addresses that the worm finds on the infected computer." So sometimes it seems that the mail comes FROM a reputable source e.g. info@webbuilder.co.nz, but this FROM address is inserted by the virus when it infects an address book containing the email address.
For more info see: www.symantec.com
www.antivirus.com (free online scanning)

Avoid the problems by simply spending the money on Antivirus software - the few $$ is worth it.