Hedgehog Strives to Learn More About Frivolous Defamation Suits vs. Online Reviews

Online reviews and commentary have become a powerful voice for enacting change or exposing wrong doers. But the anonymity of the Internet has also given rise to questions of how to protect one's brand against such criticism.

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation or SLAPP lawsuits are considered by some, an avenue of censorship or a form of intimidation that attempt to silence critics.  These lawsuits are often very controversial and as a result, multiple states have already passed Anti-SLAPP legislation which is aimed at protecting the rights of online users.

But there is then the question that this Anti-SLAPP legislation would present undue barriers to the right to petition for those who sincerely believe they have been wronged?

While there are complex legal questions regarding topics such as jurisdiction, defamation, free-speech, anonymity and many more issues, it is being discussed at length and we at Hedgehog continue to be a participant and active follower of cases such as these.  The general rights of online users and the protection of brands for companies we support and maintain infrastructure for can sometimes collide and we want to make sure we are fully informed when supporting or opposing any legislation.

Richard Feller recently attended a question and answer session hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee on Capitol Hill to discuss these questions with thought leaders including our friend and colleague Laurent Crenshaw, the Director of Public Policy at Yelp and Eric Goldman, an Internet Law, Advertising Law & IP Professor at Santa Clara Law.  A complete transcript of this session can be found at:

http://www.netcaucus.org/event/frivolous-defamation-suits-vs-online-reviews-gagged-by-the-lawyers/

Thank you for following Hedgehog Technology Services as we continue to support a free and open Internet for all.

Tech Companies Support National Missing Children's Day - Observed Every May 25th.

Today is National Missing Children's Day. From the MissingKids.org website:

"Every May 25, which is the anniversary of Etan Patz's disappearance, the nation observes Missing Children's Day. For over three decades, NCMEC has continued to help search for children like Etan. We never forget a child and never give up hope no matter how long a child has been missing. National Missing Children's Day honors this commitment to help locate and recover missing children like Etan by reminding parents, guardians, families and communities that every child deserves a safe childhood.

To that end, there are many ways that people can show their support for NCMEC. On Twitter, the hashtag #RockOneSock has set a goal of raising $25k.  You can find out more about this effort at http://rockonesock.org.

BUT, for all of us that are in the Internet and Hosting Industry there is something VERY IMPORTANT that we all can and should do.  U.S.-based companies providing electronic communication services or remote computing services to the public should pre-register with the CyberTipline.  While there is no requirement to do so, Hedgehog believes and will continue to push within our industry that registration be considered a "Best Practice" allowing our individual companies to be prepared to move on any reporting that may need to be submitted.

From the MissingKids.org website:

"You may register with the CyberTipline by providing your name, your company’s name, your telephone phone number and email address to espteam@ncmec.org. If you are an ESP, please visit http://www.missingkids.com/CyberTipline if you wish to register with the CyberTipline. A representative from NCMEC will contact you to complete the registration process.

Please help us support this great organization and make our industry better for all.

Hedgehog Technology Services Celebrates Female Founder Month

Hedgehog Technology Services is proud to honor one of our founders, Amanda Bean, as we help celebrate Female Founders Month.  Amanda is one of the original founders of Hedgehog and over these past 16 years she has been a large part of the warmth that we strive to provide in a very high-tech industry.

Hedgehog would not be the same without Amanda.  While everyone has their niches, Amanda can help in any aspect of the business,  She runs the administrative side of the business,  She actively works on marketing and strategy.  She gets her hands dirty at the data center moving and racking servers.  It seems that anywhere you look at Hedgehog you can see her stamp.

Now, what many of you may not know is Amanda is also the proud mother of four beautiful children which essentially means she has two full times jobs. (Happy Mothers Day!)  As our clients know, all of the partners at Hedgehog are very close.  Over 16 years our families have had the joy of watching each other grow and grow.  It has surely been a pleasure to watch Amanda's family grow.  And did we also mentioned that she is a doggie foster mom.  There is almost nothing that she cannot do.

In an industry that continues to strive for diversity in every different way, I, and I know I speak for my business partners, am so proud of our roots and even more proud to have a business partner like Amanda.  May every company be as fortunate as we are.

DDoS Attacks and Their Real Impact

DDoS attacks are nothing new to hosting and technology companies, but over the past 16 years, Hedgehog has seen that the number of these attacks as well as the scale of these attacks has grown and grown to levels that even the largest of companies cannot handle. 

Just last year, an absolutely massive DDoS attack that surged bandwidth well over 660 Gbps directly at the website of a prominent cyber security journalist forced Akamai to drop the website www.krebsonsecurity.com from its Prolexic DDoS mitigation service.  Since that time many other large DDoS attacks have continued to be seen across the hosting industry.

These DDoS attacks have essentially become the most effective form of censorship.  One major impact to the organization under attack is having to spend excessive time and money on the technical remediation of these attacks and that also shifts focus from their real work. But even more egregious is that many of the organizations that Hedgehog works with use their sites for advocacy and many times that advocacy is very time sensitive.  Massive attacks that cause site interruptions can render a campaign absolutely powerless.  These losses, while often measured on a balance sheet, can have far greater implications.  Any organization that has experienced an attack during a critical moment, either an election cycle or any other time-sensitive campaign, can tell you that the loss of traffic can yield far greater damage.

So if the larger providers of DDoS mitigation cannot handle these attacks, where does it leave smaller companies like Hedgehog?  It reminds us that technology is there to help fend off attacks, but the people behind the technology are absolutely necessary to handle the real-time mitigation from any such attack.  That is what we continue to focus on at Hedgehog Technology Services.