With recent events globally, website security has, quite rightly, become top of mind for many. If you have a website, then ensuring your website is as secure as it can be should be top of your to-do list right now.
It might not surprise you to find out that there are over 1.7 billion websites globally. This gives cybercriminals plenty from which to choose. And they don’t just target big companies – websites of small and mid-sized businesses are also hacked regularly. Fortunately, there are measures you may take to ensure that you stay on top of any possible website security threat.
Why Websites get hacked
Hackers target websites for different reasons. The main reasons are:
- Stealing personal or financial information
- Exploiting a website’s users
- Abusing server resources
- Tracking crawlers and bots to indulge in black-hat SEO
- Hooliganism
The importance of Website security
As a business owner or manager, you need to make sure that your website is secure, and run periodical checks to ensure it remains that way.
Website security safeguards the online transmission and storage of data, as well as the proper functioning of a website. Data can come in the form of intellectual property, personally identifiable information, financial information, and protected health information.
Why Websites get hacked
Cybercriminals continue to upgrade their skills to work around newly developed website security tools and systems. This requires businesses to keep updating their security measures. For instance, hackers can exploit outdated WordPress plugins by simply running security scans that detect and report vulnerabilities. The solution to this problem is as simple as keeping all the plugins your website uses up-to-date.
How do I know if my website is secure?
The first thing you need to look for on your website is an SSL certificate. If your website has an SSL certificate, its URL will start with “HTTPS” instead of the unsecured “HTTP”. This is particularly important because Google classifies all websites with HTTP as “not secure”. From a business point of view, this means not showing up in search results, which translates to fewer customers. The good thing is that getting an SSL certificate and securing your website is relatively straightforward.
What else can you do to keep your website safe?
Ideally, online security requires your attention right from the web design and development stage. You also need to:
- Use security plugins
- Update your website platform and software regularly
- Keep your passwords secure
- Make way for automatic backups
- Accept on-site comments manually
If you feel you need help in making and keeping your website secure. We specialise in web design and development and take special care to ensure that all sites we work on are secure.
We’re offering a free Website Security assessment to help you identify any potential problems.
If you would like to engage us for a free assessment email us here