Even if you think that your website is not attractive to hackers, the reality is that cyberattacks occur at all times, anywhere in the world, regardless of whether you receive a thousand or 1 million visitors a month.
To prove this, there are examples such as Kaspersky’s real-time cyber threat map, which we recommend you visit from time to time to discover the current risks in your region.
The point is that there are many dangers – such as phishing or identity theft, the theft of personal and banking data and the injection of malicious software – that can put at risk the investment you have dedicated to building your presence on the Internet… and the worst of all, permanently damage the image of your company in the eyes of your clients.
For these reasons, at exnovation, a leading digital marketing agency in Melbourne, we want to share with you the following tips and practical web security measures that you can implement on your page.
1. Set Strong Password
Although it seems obvious, with so many platforms that we use today it is not unusual that we inadvertently make fragile access credentials, which make our site vulnerable and that hackers can take advantage of to access personal data, bank accounts or emails.
Exnovation, the digital marketing agency in Melbourne, has found that three factors can make your account an ‘easy target’ for hackers:
- You never change your password regularly.
- You use the same password for multiple accounts. According to our experts, 50% of the world’s connected population uses the same password to access multiple accounts.
- Use easy-to-decrypt passwords (like password or password1234, for example).
To avoid this, Exnovation, one of the best digital marketing agencies in Melbourne, recommends creating passwords that are at least 16 characters long, using numbers, special characters (like $%&#), uppercase letters and lowercase letters, and avoiding any related words. with you or with the platform/service that protects the password.
2. Change the user “Admin”
Here we are referring to a common issue for WordPress websites (or those with hosting that uses a manager such as cPanel) which consists of leaving the default administrator user or “admin” unchanged. But why is this a problem?
Since the hacker already knows that the website’s administrator username is “admin,” he only has to decipher the password, which he can do using several techniques—and with relative ease if the advice in point # 1 is not followed.
On the one hand, there is the phenomenon called “social engineering,” which uses methods of coercion and deception (such as emails with misleading links to “legitimate sites”) or the exploration of social profiles to obtain confidential data from people (such as their date of birth, the name of their children or pets, favourite places, etc.).
On the other hand, there are “brute force attacks” where hackers apply “trial and error methods” to decipher the password, either using typical combinations (such as “12345” or “password”) or with programs (bots) that Thousands of combinations are entered automatically and in seconds.
To avoid this, it is important to enter the WordPress administration panel and change the username and password from the beginning.
3. Acquire and Activate an HTTPS Certificate
The SSL certificate (an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer) allows you to activate the “https” and the padlock symbol in the URL address of the website. And what does this mean?
In short, the security certificate encodes (through two-way encryption) the sensitive data that users enter on your page – such as bank account numbers or addresses – so that they travel safely over the Internet. In this way, said information cannot be seen or intercepted by hackers.
In addition to reinforcing user confidence that they are visiting a secure website, SSL certificates are a Google requirement to help with web positioning. Also, consider that browsers like Chrome display a “Not Secure” alert if you don’t have it and that it can drive potential clients away from your digital project.
There are several types of security certificates and all offer you the highest level of encryption, as well as protection for one or more domains. Don’t know which one you need on your page? We recommend you read this article: Types of SSL certificates: which one is best for your website?
4. Install a Firewall
Digital Marketing Agency in Melbourne gives us a description of exactly what the firewall is about: it is the first line of defense against an attack on your network from the Internet; It must be able to stop unauthorized access before the attacker can reach your local network or your computer.
Imagine that a hacker injects a malicious command (i.e. malware) into your site’s code to trick your website into doing something it shouldn’t do, like giving you access to all of your customers’ data. This is known as an “injection attack” and what the firewall does is stop that malware to prevent information theft.
Installing a firewall can easily solve many of the problems related to hacks and attacks on your website server.
5. Back up your Website Frequently
To avoid the hypothetical and horrible case of a damaged site completely “down” and you having no idea what could have caused the failure (a virus, a hacker, or even that you deleted information without realizing it), Exnovation, a leading digital marketing agency in Melbourne, recommends that you have backups of your site.
Some web hosting providers can do this for you, but you can also prepare your backups. No matter which option you choose, never forget to back up your website information, not only to protect yourself from hackers but also in case you lose data if you make a mistake while setting up your page.
The advantage of going to your hosting company is that they can offer you automatic backups that can be done daily or on a scheduled basis.
6. Update the site (manually or automatically)
As a digital marketing agency in Melbourne, we know that when you launch your website with the help of a website builder like Exnovation, you don’t have to worry about this step, as your provider will be in charge of keeping the code and systems up to date and with the better performance.
But, on the other hand, if you use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, it is likely that when a new version of the system comes out you will have to do a manual procedure to update it.
The same thing happens with plugins, which are extra functionalities created through open source by other users of the CMS. When these programmers detect a security breach, the WordPress administrator notifies you that a new version has been created and that you must update it to prevent potential attacks.
Although you can install most of these updates with one click, some require additional configurations at the code level. Sometimes this requires programming knowledge and has the risk that, if not done well, it can destabilize the structure or functionality of your site.
It’s important to keep your plugins and CMS up to date, and not just keep your content up to date. It is essential to take these types of technical issues into account.
7. Choose a good hosting provider
You can take many steps to protect your site, but what happens if your hosting or web hosting service falls victim to a cyber attack?
Imagine receiving a message from the provider informing you that their servers were attacked and, as a result, data on your website was lost. A true nightmare…
In that sense, the most compelling answer to the question of “How do I protect my website” is to have the support of a large company that, in addition to having advanced security systems implemented on its servers, is responsible for any threat, however minimal it may be.
As an added value, our digital marketing agency in Melbourne recommends that you look for a hosting provider that offers you an excellent technical support service and an uptime of 99.9%, that is, a guarantee that its servers are operational practically at any time. full-time and without incident in recent months.
Final words
Maintaining website security is an ongoing process. New vulnerabilities appear every day. If a violation occurs, bring your website back online. Once your business is back up and running, investigate what happened and take steps to prevent it from happening again.
Finally, we remind you that Exnovation brings your brand to life with your website, helps you design it from scratch, connects a domain, analyzes traffic and optimizes your site for SEO. If you are looking for more information, you can read other articles on our blog and contact us for any help you need for your digital marketing campaign.
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