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• Change your FTP passwords, and make them strong.
• Do not run Windows XP, upgrade to Windows 7 or 8. Microsoft no longer provides security patches for XP and it’s the least secure of all OS’s because of this.
• Run antivirus software like Microsoft Security Essentials and scan all your computers with Kaspersky RootKit Checker.
• Do not upload Thumbs.db files (you will need to set Windows File Manager to “view system files” to see these on your PC)
• Do not post any Microsoft Office documents online, make them PDF or HTML instead.
• If you’re using JavaScript, make sure you are using scripts in a way that can be updated. Google’s JQuery library is a great example. The easiest way to handle this is by linking to the script at Google rather than hosting it yourself. They let you call the “latest” script version with a special link address. This automatically updates the script using this method.
• Use a well built .htaccess file that blocks bots, content scrappers, scanners and spammers. Set the file permissions on this file to read-only.
• Keep the web server as tidy as possible. Do not leave any unused files and directories on the server. Only host what you need. This makes backups, scans and restores much quicker too.

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