Securing your business online is and should be a top priority. Here are three easy ways to protect your website.
1. Make sure your site uses an SSL connection.
An SSL (secure sockets layer) protects your customers’ information, in return safeguarding your legacy. If your customer feels their personal information is not safe, they will not return.
This method utilises encryption to shield the connection from your website host’s server to the customer’s browser, protecting against any hackers trying to access that information.
Now, an SSL certificate is the assertion provided by a reputable, recognised third party that your site’s ownership is verified and that the customer can trust the connection is secure.
It lets users know that you are as secure as you claim.
Hubspot offers a complete beginners guide to secure your website’s SSL connections here.
2. Utilise Firewalls
SiteLock reported that small business websites get attacked 22 times a day, or 8,000 attacks per year. All the more reason to take advantage of firewalls. A firewall is a set of programs that inhibit outside forces from accessing the data on your private network.
The most frequent attacks that firewalls guard against are cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, Distributed Denial of (DDoS) Service attacks, remote file inclusion, and command injection. Of all these common threats, the most widespread attacks are SQL injections.
Not sure how to get the software that will help prevent internet attacks? Cisco provides a “How To” for setting up firewalls for your business here.
3. Update Your Software
Keeping your software up to date helps to protect your site from potential threats. The platform you use to house your website likely has periodical updates to aid in this protection. Yet, we still recommend that you run an audit every so often to gauge your software.
The issues that you should check for are:
- Any plug-ins or themes that need updating
- Missing, old or poor-quality photos
- Old or incorrect user information
- Formatting issues
- Broken pages or links
- Old or missing content
Hackers tend to prey on websites that are out of date because they are easy to control. To prevent this, be sure to do the above, and once you’ve completed the website update, make sure to back up your data. This ensures your website’s livelihood stays intact if there is an event that leads to a loss of your website’s information.
Here are a few resources that can help you keep your website at its best:
Wix | How to Update Your Website: Tips and Best Practices
Wix is a website hosting service that has a niche in both blogging and business services. It’s pretty detailed in strategy for auditing your website.
Themeisle | How to Update Your Website for 2020
This article has seven common strategies used for auditing websites as well.
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