Automated Trading Nightmare : Why Your VPS Could get Hacked and How to Avoid it

I have said several times that anyone interested in doing serious automated trading should think about getting a Virtual Private Server (VPS). It is absolutely true that a VPS is more reliable than a home server (several reasons are outlined in other articles) but it is also very true that a VPS is not infallible and failure to adequately care and configure one of these servers can bring you substantial problems. Generally people tend to have a very relaxed attitude towards VPS use and security and this in some cases turns out to be fatal as hackers take advantage of this and hack your VPS. I have to tell you that I have seen this happen and it is anything but fun to watch. On today's post I want to talk about VPS security, what happens when your VPS is hacked, how to detect hackers and how to configure your VPS so that it is a truly reliable and secure trading machine. Although following these guidelines will not make your server 100% hacker proof (no computer really is) you will make it a LOT tougher for any hacker to access your system.

Can a VPS get hacked ? Yes, I have seen it happen. One day a friend asked me to check his VPS because he couldn't get access to it. His password had been changed and we had to ask the VPS provider to issue a new one. Up until this point we though that the provider had reset the password due to some maintenance, etc so we didn't take it too seriously. Then - a few days later - the same thing happened again and this time we couldn't even connect to the VPS to input the password. Of course, my friend wrote an angry email to his provider asking them about their reliability, etc. After we got the password, I decided to check the VPS in a deeper fashion and - oh surprise - I found several scripts uploaded, IRC bots and at least 5 other users with administrator privileges had been created. Upon checking who was logged into the VPS I saw some unknown people using the server. My friend's VPS had been hacked and his resources were being used by other people with obviously malicious intent.
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On top of that, since the hacker had access to all the programs he/she decided to checkout his Metatrader platform and he fiddled around with it, placing a few trades, closing other ones and changing the settings for one of his expert advisors. Luckily for my friend, the hacker seemed to point to the right direction and in the end all the positions were actually profitable. However it is obvious here that things could have gone pretty wrong and a 5K USD account he was running could have been wiped in the blink of an eye with a hacker messing around with his stuff.

What did my friend do wrong to deserve this? Actually he didn't do anything and that is precisely what attracted these hackers to his VPS. You see, when a VPS provider sets up your account your VPS is vulnerable to attacks because it has some "factory defaults" the hacker knows about. For example, the hacker knows that there is a default administrator user name, he knows the remote desktop ports and he also knows what default software and security configuration your VPS came out with. On top of that, if you run your VPS as an administrator (which is the default user created) you run a higher risk since any take over will give the hacker very high privileges over your server, allowing him/her to modify the system as he/she desires.

What can you do to stop this ? The easiest way to avoid most attacks is simply to change your server configuration to something that is none standard, this in turn will eliminate all hackers who are just targeting the "easy preys" that do not strengthen their security. Think about it this way; if a thief was looking to steal some money, would he/she rather take the bill hanging from the old man's pocket or the bill within the bank's safety vault ? Both of them can be stolen but most thieves will pick the first one without second thought.

What you need to do here is actually not that complicated. First, create a custom administrator user and disable the default, then create a regular user with non-administrative privileges. The first user is the one you will use to install software while the second one is the one your MT4 platforms will run of. You will keep a regular user logged in while there will never be an active admin unless you are doing something that can only be done as an administrator. Then you want to change your remote desktop port to a random value (not the default 3389) so that most hackers will simply not know that you have this service enabled, this is something that will make random attacks disappear almost completely.

It may sound a little bit paranoid but - truth be told - these are just some simple steps to prevent someone from accessing your account, messing with your trading stations and using your server for malicious purposes. Of course, it won't make your server hacker-proof but it will ensure that the vast majority of attacks will stay away from your VPS. Next week I will be doing a video on Asirikuy explaining people how to adequately make these configuration changes on their VPS so that they can run their systems with some sound security standards. If you think "this won't happen to me", I ask you : do you really want to take that chance ?

If you would like to read more about my journey in automated trading and how you too can start to design and build your own likely long term profitable systems to run on a VPS please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Cheap Reliable VPS Hosting for Metatrader - A Look at Current VPS providers

Definitely one of the first things you are told you need when you start your journey in automated trading is a Virtual Private Server or VPS. These systems, as I have described in previous posts are simply dedicated servers located in reliable data centers which have triple redundant internet connections, daily backups of your files, controlled environments, better security and many other features you would definitely want to have when you are starting to trade good amounts of money or just if you want to have a reliable execution of your trading system. On today's post I want to talk about VPS hosting providers and give you an idea of which ones are the best and cheapest hosting services you can find. I will also talk a little bit about what you should look for in a VPS provider and how you should change your provider as your needs start to change.

First of all, there is no discussion regarding the fact that a VPS is needed for reliable automated trading. Even if you have a computer with an UPS and a broadband connection at home the environment itself is not reliable enough to be trusted with the live execution of trading orders. What happens if you have a loss of power for an hour ? What happens if your kids spill coke on your computer ? What happens if your house catches fire ? if your dog pees on it ? There are simply too many variables in a home environment that can affect the performance of a trading system and definitely making your home as reliable as a datacenter would be more expensive than simply paying for VPS hosting.
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However we have to be realistic here and consider the amount of money you are trading and what you want to achieve. I will be totally honest with you and I will tell you that if you are considering your trading as a business, investing on a VPS if you will be trading less than 2000 USD will probably be a bad idea since your long term trading profits will most likely not even cover the expenses you pay on hosting. However if your trading capital is small you might still consider ucvhost as a good option since their lite-VPS entry level solution offers you a VPS from only 9.99 USD each month with 500 MB of RAM. VPSLand also offers very good entry level VPS solutions for under 20 USD that offer you all you need to run your first small mt4 accounts.

The reality about cheap VPS hosting solutions is that they are able to offer those very low prices due to the fact that their servers are not dedicated but shared. You get to have a VPS for 9.99 USD because you are sharing the server with many other VPS users and this might not be a good idea for reliability in the long term since your server is going to be rebooted when updates are needed regardless of the state of your accounts. Taking measures like adding your mt4 platforms to your start up menu and installing a secure autologin solution are some of the things you can do to ensure this does not affect the performance of your accounts significantly. Obviously the reliability of these VPS servers is still much higher than that of your home trading systems.

When you are trading larger amounts of capital (I would say more than 100K) I would advice against using some of this "very cheap" solutions to move onto a much more reliable VPS hosting service where you get your OWN dedicated server. This is much more expensive, at around 100-200 USD per month, but such solutions are available from most reliable web hosting providers such as hostgator. On this solutions the VPS is NEVER rebooted without you doing it personally and you truly get the whole reliability of the VPS without ever having to worry about these problems. In the end, for serious traders having a dedicated VPS is the ultimate solution to reliable trading execution (besides of course getting a triple redundant broadband connection, installing a temperature controlled room, an emergency power solution that can last for hours and an automated daily backup routine).

Do you know any cheap VPS providers you would like to share with us or any providers that give truly dedicated VPS solutions ? Have you used any of the above mentioned services and you would like to leave some feedback ? Make sure you leave your comment below if this is the case :o). If you would like to learn more about automated trading and how you too can code your own systems to use within VPS servers please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Using Your VPS - Steps for True Reliability

Everybody who has been involved in automated trading for a while knows that one of the first needs which demands to be fulfilled in order to run a smooth and successful expert advisor operation is the aqcuisition and use of a Virtual Private Server (VPS). These servers make trading reliable in the sense that they free the trader from having to run the experts within his or her computer, providing lightning fast connectivity with minimal latency, triple redundant internet connections and 99.99%+ uptime guarantees. However there are several problems related with Virtual Private Servers which may make their running confusing to the user. Particularly problems related with duplicate instances of users are common amongst new VPS owners, on today's post I will discuss the causes of these problems and the simple solutions which have to be implemented in order to guarantee up time and the reliable execution of the trading systems used.

In order to understand the problems inherent to the use of a VPS we must first understand how a VPS actually works. The server usually has a given number of users, opening sessions for them remotely so that they can access the dedicated computer allowing each user to access files, open applications, etc. Usually a VPS user will be loaded with metatrader 4 instances in its startup menu so that the programs are run automatically when the user logs in, this way the user can simply disconnect and leave the programs running. However, when users reconnect to the server using the windows remote desktop utility the program may request the opening of an additional session (instead of opening the current one) effectively making the server run duplicate instances of all metatrader 4 platforms upon login. In the ends the effect will be that all platforms will have duplicate instances which will generate duplicate trades.

You can easily see if there are several users running by accessing the task manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc when you're logged into your VPS. After the manager appears, go to the "users" tab, there you will be able to see other users and disconnect/connect or log them off completely from the server. This will effectively let you correct the problem of duplicate users once it has already happened. However, to prevent the appearence of duplicate users you must log into your VPS using "console mode" instead of the usual mode used by the Windows Remote Desktop Utility. In order to do this you can use the Royal TS remote Desktop Connection software which allows you to configure sessions and access your VPS through "console mode". When accessing through this mode, the software requests the opening of previously opened sessions of that user, therefore completely eliminating the problem of duplicate sessions being opened.

Another very common problem people face when dealing with a VPS is the fact that these servers are Windows based and therefore they have to be restarted frequently (once or twice a month) to install windows updates. These updates are usually run massively across the data center and your VPS is rebooted without any notice. Most VPS providers have grown aware of the metatrader crowds and they have moved their reboot schedules to Saturdays but the problem remains that all your sessions and metatrader instances will be shut down and failure to restart them will mean that your VPS will quit trading.

The solution to this problem is simple, your VPS needs to auto-login after a computer reboot something which can be done in several ways. The first way is to add your login information to the registry and enable auto-login something which is NOT recommended since your login information is stored in plain text form in the registry and it can be easily hacked from your computer. The best solution is to find an encrypted login solution, like the software provided by logonexperts.com, which allows your VPS to login automatically while maintaining your login information safely encrypted. There is also a third approach which starts the metatrader 4 terminals as "services" which run without any user having to login and they are then attached to the first user which logs into the platform. A piece of free software called CNS Autobot is able to set this up when installed in your VPS. However I have to confess that I have not tried this approach yet (however I will in the near future) reason why I cannot talk about its reliability.

As you see, even though having a VPS is a step towards reliable automated trading execution, several measures have to be taken in order to guarantee the server's reliability and continuous trading, by solving and checking for the problems I have mentioned you will be able to guarantee to a large extent that your VPS will be trading and executing your strategies in a reliable fashion. If you would like to learn about automated trading system strategies and how you too can succeed in automated trading by using sound, reliable trading tactics please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

Uploading Files to a VPS... A Simple How To.

I have noticed that several people have found my website while searching for things like "get my mt4 into VPS" or "how to move files to VPS", in order to help people find what they are actually looking for I decided to dedicate today's post to a small tutorial on how to move files from your computer to your Virtual Private Server (VPS). Moving files is a vital task which is absolutely necessary in order for you to use your VPS for forex trading. On the following paragraphs will try to explain all the techniques I have used to get files to my VPS and what the advantages and disadvantages of each one are. So how exactly can you get a file from your home computer to your vps ?

The most easy way to move things from your computer to your VPS is to use your email address. Simply send yourself whatever file you want to be on your server and then open your email from your VPS and download the file. This is a very simple way of getting small files into a VPS but it carries the problem of having to access your email, send yourself the file, go into your VPS, access your email and then get the file from the message you send to your VPS. It also has the additional disadvantage of having an inherent size limitation due to your email account's setup and the added bandwidth use of uploading and then downloading the file.

If you want to send bigger files using email you can always use file sending services such as yousendit.com which lets you send files of up to 100 MB. The website then sends you a link to your email from where you can download the file. This allows you to save you the trouble of accessing your email from your VPS since you can simply copy and paste the link into your VPS's web browser to get your file where you want it.

If however you need to constantly upload files into your VPS, non of these two options will work for you. Most people that actively test or use many trading systems and trading accounts usually need to upload many things from time to time, something which becomes excessively cumbersome when using email. The best solution to this problem is what I use to upload and download files from my VPS and certainly works like a charm. Setup an FTP server. Certainly the task may sound a little bit daunting for the new VPS user but in reality it is a fairly simple thing to do.

In order to setup an FTP server on your VPS just go to the filezilla webpage and download the server to your VPS. Then open up the setup file and install the software (you will need to configure your administrator username and password). After this you just need to go into the Startup Menu item created and click the "Start" button. This will start your VPS. You can also open the Sever Interface where you can create additional users or change your administrator password. Once you do this you need to download the filezilla client from the same webpage and use it on your home computer. From the client you will be able to upload/download files to or from your vps with the ease of dragging and dropping. You'll be able to send or recieve large files or large sets of files and place them easily wherever you want. Simply having an FTP server is the best solution I have been able to find to the problem of downloading/uploading files to or from a VPS.

If you are using your VPS for forex trading and you would like to learn more about automated trading and how you too can design, program and trade your own long term profitable systems please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or subscribing to my weekly newsletter to receive updates and check the live and demo accounts I am running with several expert advisors. I hope you enjoyed the article !