hglobe.com Reports Hacker Attack; Nexgenix Starts Financial-Services Unit
Cox Communications is beefing up its Internet offerings for business to cash in on explosive demand for high-speed connections.
The company has added 10 more all-fiber points-of-presence in Orange County’s most crowded commercial areas to increase capacity and soon will launch an advertising campaign to promote its business services more aggressively.
The facilities, which act as central offices of sorts for the company’s cable networking system, will enable Cox to offer fiber lines directly into customers’ facilities.
Cox will target customers in several of the county’s largest business areas, including the Airport Business Center in Irvine, Foothill Ranch, High Park and Town Center South in Mission Viejo, Rancho San Clemente Business Park and Rancho Santa Margarita Business Park. Cox plans to build seven additional POPs this spring.
It’s been several months since Cox launched its line of business-centered Internet and telephone services, but so far the division has had a low-profile compared with the firm’s heavy push for its similar residential broadband services.
“We’re going to get much more aggressive,” said Dave Montierith, vice president for Cox’s OC business-services division. “Broadly, the communication will be that Cox is in the business-to-business market and that we’re going forward.”
Though Cox’s 1,000-customer business division pales in comparison with the residential segment, the commercial market is a high-margin constituency that Internet service providers are eager to capture.
Cox officials hope a 15% discount compared with other providers and the fact that it owns its own network infrastructure will help it grow business services to half of its overall customer base.
For more: www.cox.com/oc/business.
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Aliso Viejo-based Buy.com wasn’t the only Orange County company affected by recent attacks by antagonistic computer hackers.
In addition to e-mail problems here at the Business Journal (we use Exodus Communications, which also hosts Buy.com’s web site), hglobe.com reported attacks that resulted in a mass e-mailing to thousands of customers in its databases.
The Irvine company, which runs a web portal that is an information hub for the hospitality industry, claims no one at the company sent out the advertising. While nothing on hglobe’s system was damaged or compromised, the unsolicited e-mail raised the ire of a few recipients and embarrassed the startup.
Rajan Hansji, the company’s chief executive, vowed to track down the perpetrator.
The attack was not directly connected with Buy.com’s “denial of service” attack, in which malicious hackers overloaded the company’s web servers with bogus connections.
For more: www.hglobe.com.
And speaking of computer attacks, here are a few tips on keeping your servers secure, courtesy of the Los Angeles office of computer training and support firm Kaplan Communications Inc.:
n Keep current on the latest version of server system software.
n Install filters to keep out unwanted traffic.
n Use a firewall.
n Read network logs and watch for suspicious activity.
n Implement a strict password policy, including mandatory password changes every 60 days.
n Make network security a priority.
For more tips: https://www.kapcom.com.
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Nexgenix Inc., an Irvine consulting company that helps online businesses market and target their wares, has created a division aimed at the financial services arena.
By appointing V. Chandrashekhar (or “Chandy,” as his friends and co-workers call him) to head the new division, Nexgenix officials hope to woo companies in the retail and investment banking, financial services and insurance industries making their way online.
Chandrashekhar was a partner with management consulting firm A.T. Kearny Inc. before coming to Nexgenix.
The division will be headquartered in New York and is designed to be the first of several units aimed at specific industries. In September, the company launched a similar division for retail stores.
For more: www.nexgenix.com.
Bits:
Broadband Digital Group, Newport Beach, the parent of FreeDSL.com, has added three tech veterans to its management team: Bill Karambelas, vice president of advanced technology and government systems, from GST Telecom; Grant Johnson, former market and global branding director for AST Computer; and Scott Bogdan, a former executive with Adsmart Network and 2CAN Media Viking Components Inc., Rancho Santa Margarita, has added pcOrder CEO Ross Cooley to its board of directors Smartcard maker CardLogix, Irvine, is partnering with Buena Park smartcard equipment maker KDE CardCom Technology for a system geared toward casinos IPNet Solutions Inc., Newport Beach, has won online herbal remedy seller MotherNature.com as a customer.
Ken Spencer Brown can be reached at Kbrown@ocbj.com or (949) 833-8373, Ext. 239.
