In recent months we have seen a huge increase in small business website attacks. It used to be only large companies were targeted, that is not the case anymore!. Hackers are taking advantage of the easiest prey: not properly maintained and secured small business websites.
As a small business owner you need to understand what kind of threats your web presence is exposed to, so you can guide your company into safety.
Your website is running on a server and just getting access to it is valuable to the attacker, regardless of the information contained in that server. Once in, they can use it as a platform for lots of illegal activities (think spam sending, forbidden content hosting, etc). Many times websites stay infected for months before anybody realizes it, with the potential to really hurt the domain reputation with search engines like Google.
Leaving administrative tasks of your server or content management system like WordPress unattended, can leave your company open to attack. Here are some steps you can take to stay protected:
1) Strengthen Passwords
Use long passwords with lower and upper case and special characters and update them often.
2) Use SSL
This is a must do today. It will encrypt all your content and website interactions at a very low cost.
3) Use a Backup System
Make daily backups of your entire website and keep them off-site (not in the same server the website is hosted at).
4) Stay Updated
Keep your web server and content management system (including plugins) up to date with the latest versions installed.
5) Keep your Domain Secured
Use secure passwords in the accounts of your domain and hosting providers and demand extra security precautions like two-factor authentication or extra PIN codes for security.
6) Detect & Cleanup ASAP
Perform periodic website scans to check for malware and clean your infected site as quickly as possible.
At SD Internet Marketing we have a Website Security & Maintenance package that keeps website security easy and affordable for our clients. (If you are an ongoing client you are already enjoying the benefits of this package)
