Website security is often one of those things that people don’t think about until it’s too late. The question is usually “how did this happen?” rather than “how can we prevent something like this happening?”
When it comes to protecting your business online, you can’t afford to cut corners. We’ve listed some of the basics you need to consider, but as with everything, there’s always more to look at.
Do you have a HTTPS / SSL Security Certificate?
These have been around for a long time now, if you don’t have one you’re not only jeopardizing your security you’ll be costing yourself customers. If you don’t have the right certification Google could be marking your website as not secure to your visitors and showing your website to fewer users in the search results.
On top of this, if you are processing credit card details or storing customer information these certificates are essential. HTTPS creates a secure, encrypted communication channel between your users and your website. We can also help get your website ready for a PCI compliance test. This helps to keep all data you process secure and reassure your customers before they’ll hand over any details.
How are your business passwords being stored?
If you answered post-it notes or a spreadsheet, you have a nightmare waiting to happen. Reusing passwords, weak passwords and leaving passwords on display is inviting unauthorised access to your website and business.
81% of company breaches can be related back to poor passwords and password management.
Ideally, you should be using a password manager such as 1Password to remember your passwords for you. As well as helping you remember your passwords these services will tell you if your password is strong and they can notify you if your credentials have appeared in a known breach. For even more security you should add two factor authentication so you’re notified if there’s a login attempt.
Another thing to consider is who has access to your website? Only allow necessary people who need to access your website. It can seem like it slows down activity but it can help identify security weaknesses and reduce the risk of credentials being abused. Creating a business account with 1Password allows you to create groups of users, so that only people you approve can access the passwords stored in your account.
Have you thought about where your website is hosted?
Alongside these measures to protect your online presence, hosting plays a key role in keeping your website secure. Consequently it is more important than ever to ensure your website is secure by choosing a secure hosting package. Without taking the time to check your provider offers security updates, regular backups and website monitoring you’re leaving a lot of your business to chance.
Poor hosting can lead to lost revenue, without your website being live customers won’t be able to find you or view your products to purchase. In the long run, frequent outages can cause search engines to look at your site negatively, leading to long term loss of traffic and revenue.
In the worst case scenario, poor hosting can leave you vulnerable to an attack which could cause your site to lose all its data and lead to you filing a data breach with the ICO.
We know the importance of keeping your website online and keeping your data secure. That’s why we have developed a service to offer secure and SEO focused hosting.
We offer as part of our package:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Best-in-class hardware
- Lightning speeds
- Real-time protection and firewalls
All of this is done using 100% renewable energy to help you reduce your impact on the planet and reduce your overall footprint. Talk to us to find out more about our secure website hosting and how it can help your business.
Mon, 25 October 2021