July 2008 - Posts

How Not To Build a Highly Available Web Site

Here's what I just got when I went to http://www.technetmagazine.com:

Here's the kicker: it's not TechNet Magazine that is down, nor even TechNet. It is Microsoft Live Sign-in, nee Passport. To get to TechNet it attempts to sign you in to Passport/Live sign-in. Accounts are apparently distributed across servers, and the one holding my account is down, so I can't get to anything that uses it, including the Microsoft.com homepage!

If you want to decrease the uptime on your web site, take a run-time dependency on an unreliable and unnecessary service.

Posted Tue, Jul 22 2008 23:45 by Jesper's Blog
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Security is About Passwords and Credit Cards Part 2

The second part of my "Security is About Passwords and Credit Cards" article just hit the web. This installment looks at logon processes, misleading security eye candy, and insecure communications with customers. As always, I'd love your thoughts on it.

Posted Thu, Jul 3 2008 16:32 by Jesper's Blog
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