Your website is a target for hackers.
You might think there’s no reason for hackers to target a small or medium-sized business, but it happens all the time.
Over 30,000 websites are hacked every day, and small businesses are the victims of 43% of cybercrimes.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at the reasons you should make website security a priority and the steps you can take to make your site secure for you and your visitors.
Why Should I Care About Website Security?
Let’s take a look at what could potentially go wrong if your site is hacked.
First, there’s your business and customer data. If your site is infected with malware, a hacker can steal all of this information and use it for fraud and other criminal activities.
Second, your website will be hit with a Google penalty and drop out of the search results. Google is very good at detecting hacked websites, removing 80% of compromised sites from search results in 2018.
Last, but not least, your brand reputation is going to be damaged. You’ll have to inform any customers or subscribers affected by the breach.
This is why website security is not a luxury – it’s vital.
The following tips will help you to mitigate risk and protect your website, so you don’t have to be a statistic.
Make Sure Software Is Up to Date
This is one of the most important website security best practices, and it’s also one of the easiest to implement.
Keep your software updated.
This applies to both your hosting server and your content management system (CMS).
If you use shared or managed hosting, you don’t need to worry about the server.
When it comes to your CMS and any plugins you use, make sure you have systems in place to get notified about patches and updates so you can implement them quickly.
Choose Strong Passwords
Strong, unique passwords are essential for your admin login and your server dashboard.
It’s also important your users have strong passwords.
You can implement a password meter on your website signup form requiring users to meet security requirements, such as a minimum of 8 characters, use of a symbol/number, and at least one uppercase letter.
When it comes to storing user login details, you’ll want to use an encryption tool.
Protect User-Submitted Data
Less than half of companies encrypt their databases.
If you store customer data or accept confidential or anonymous user-submitted information, encryption is a must-have.
The theft of data, passwords, and confidential information is much less damaging if you use encryption that makes it unreadable to hackers.
It’s also important to make sure any MarTech or SaaS tools you use to process customer data meet SOC 2 or ISO 27001 standards. These standards ensure the vendor complies with data protection best practices.
Get an SSL Certificate
There are some things absolutely every website needs. And one of those is an SSL certificate.
HTTPS is a security protocol that is widely used across the internet. It ensures that the information sent between a user and a website server is secure and cannot be intercepted.
You can get an SSL Certificate that provides HTTPS encryption from your hosting provider or for free from Let’s Encrypt.
There are a bunch of guides online that show you how to get an SSL Certificate. Take a look at this post from Let’s Encrypt to set up HTTPS for your website.
Be On Your Guard
The biggest security risk to your website is you.
According to a study by IBM, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are the result of human error.
Once you have set up a robust website security ecosystem, you need to be on your guard.
Email is one of the most used ways that hackers gain control of a website. When hackers can access your email account, they can request new admin login details and breach your website.
Be careful about the websites you share your email address with, be wary of phishing emails, and have strong, unique passwords for your email accounts.
Keeping Your Website Secure from Threats
If you haven’t given much thought to your website security, the above tips are a great place to start.
Everyone thinks bad things won’t happen to them until they do. If you already have a website or if you are in the process of building a new website, make website security a priority. Take steps to protect your business, your customers, and your reputation.
