As more businesses grow an online presence, the security risks for any business can increase. Hackers and scammers are becoming more skillful in their abilities to infiltrate and so it’s important to remember the tips that can keep your business safe. Here’s how to keep your business safe online.
Have A Security Policy In Place
A policy is something that can be really useful to distribute to current staff and for new staff to become aware of when joining the organization. This should include some of the following; proper usage of computers and devices, requirement of strong passwords and consequences if the policy isn’t followed correctly. Regardless of how small or big, the company is, size is irrelevant and your business should have this policy or statement in place already as mentioned in this infographic, 10 elements of cybersecurity for businesses.
Protect With Passwords As part of your policy, all applications or confidential documents must be password protected. They should be strong in terms of complexity and ideally all different. This is handy if any of these applications are hacked, at least it’s likely to be just the one occurrence if all the passwords are different. It is difficult to keep track of all the passwords, but it is beneficial in order to strengthen the security of the business as a whole. At least if you forget the password, you can simply reset it. The less vulnerable areas you leave available, the better.
Train Staff To Be Cautious Your staff should be trained to proceed with caution when it comes to browsing the web and opening suspicious emails. They can prove to be a potential risk to the company’s security as they are accessing the internet on a daily basis. So, bring in some regular training sessions to keep your staff well informed of what to look out for, especially as hackers’ approaches seem to change fairly frequently.
Strengthen Your Security As much as you can do internally, you should be working in the background to strengthen your overall security. That includes having the right anti-ware installed onto your systems so that your files are protected. You should also be keeping tabs on how to improve the security and strengthen it on a regular basis, making sure you have the latest updates or version of your anti-ware software.
Be Careful When It Comes To Social Media Social media is a powerful thing but if not used wisely, it can end up leaving your business in a vulnerable situation. Make sure you are aware as to who in the company is running the social media on behalf of the company and monitoring the content that’s going out, making sure it all gets approved by a second pair of eyes. Provide some guidelines about what can and can’t be said and if something you are posting has a risk of facing backlash, it might be best to approach it another way.
The security of your online usage should be considered a top priority and it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the changes in security and navigating the online world safely.
If you are running a digital business, it is important that you keep your content, your sales funnels, and your clients safe. Unfortunately, hackers are usually a few steps ahead of software developers, and it is important that you pay attention not only the price of your site and hosting, but also the safety features that will keep your virtual shop window generate a steady income. Below you will find a few tips on what to check.
Software
If you are trying to get visitors for free, chances are that you have one or more SEO software installed. The good news is that these tools can be useful when you are trying to determine what your potential clients are looking for and what the most popular content is, but some of them will collect information about your users and your site, and you might not even know about this. Make sure that you read the user guide and documentation before you install any software.
Security Upgrades
In case you are blogging remotely through an app or even Google Docs, you might not log in to the site and update your software on time. Some of the updates are there for improving your site’s security, while others will just improve the user experience. However, before every major upgrade, you should create a backup of your files, or you might face disruption when your site crashes.
In case you are selling physical products or services online, you will need to ensure that all the information sent through your site is secure and encrypted. You will need to have an SSL certificate for eCommerce sites, and ensure that your subscription is renewed automatically. Your clients will look for the “https” before they hit the buy button/
Server
Next, you will have to check how safe the server where your site is hosted is. You might need to add further security software and create a scan for your site content to avoid having a problem in the future. If you are not confident that you will find the issue yourself, you can get in touch with Matrium Technologies network security services and get a professional assessment and identify your main risks.
Member Accounts
If you have implemented membership options in your digital marketing sales funnels, you will need to encrypt your clients’ details and personal information. Do you remember the scandals large companies had to face when their user data got compromised by hackers? Avoid having the same problems and always use a safe membership program that will help you maintain your reputation. Membership sites can be profitable, but if your users are not feeling safe or are facing technical issues, your retention rate will suffer.
Making your website work smoothly and keeping your customers and visitors safe is your responsibility as a business owner. Pay attention to the above areas, and you will keep your business assets safe from malicious attacks and prevent your site from crashing.
Security concerns keeping you from enjoying the flexibility and power of WordPress? If you’ve bought into the hype that WordPress is inherently unsecure, then you’re missing out on all the great things WordPress has to offer, for no good reason.
The fact is, while WordPress sites do get hacked, they are no more dangerous than other php-based websites. The problem is that WordPress is open source, which means that anyone can read the code—even the bad guys who spend all their time looking for vulnerabilities they can exploit. Couple that with the enormous popularity of WordPress, and it’s easy to see why you hear about hacks on a regular basis.
But that doesn’t mean WordPress is unsafe. By implementing just a few security best practices, you can greatly reduce your risk of being hacked.
Keep Your Site Up to Date. This is by far the biggest risk when it comes to security. New vulnerabilities are discovered in WordPress and its plugins and themes on a regular basis, and if your site is out of date, it is at risk. Hackers actively search for outdated websites they can attack, so make it a point to keep your site up to date. That includes plugins, themes, and the WordPress software itself.
Use Strong Passwords. Second only to out-of-date installations when it comes to inviting hackers, weak passwords are regularly exploited with a technique called a “brute force” attack. Simply put, a hacker sets a computer program to repeatedly attempt to log into your site using thousands of the most commonly used passwords and what are known as “dictionary” words.
This type of vulnerability can be easily avoided simply by choosing good passwords. Ideally, your passwords should:
Be longer than 12 characters
Contain upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols
Never be used for more than one site
Never be stored in plain text on your computer
Never be sent by email
Also, consider using a password manager such as LastPass to generate and securely store good, strong passwords. You’ll never have to worry about remembering your passwords, and you’ll greatly reduce your risk of being hacked.
Be Smart About Your Hosting. Unlimited domains! Unlimited space! Unlimited bandwidth! And all for around $8 per month. You’ve probably seen the claims, and may even have a hosting account with one of these companies.
Here’s the problem. This type of shared hosting is inexpensive only because they overload their servers with thousands of websites. Just as close proximity in crowded classrooms allows human viruses to quickly spread, close proximity of websites on a shared server means one infected site is a risk to all the others.
Rather than looking for the least expensive (and riskiest) hosting option, choose a host that allows you to isolate each site on its own cPanel. Doing so will greatly improve the security of your website.
In the end, the safety and security of your site and its data is entirely up to you. Keep your software up to date, use good passwords, and choose a secure hosting environment, and you’ll be well ahead of the curve on this.
