Today, so much business is conducted online opening online companies to fraud, theft, and scams making website security very important.
One of the most important things to remember about online business and digital marketing is that in order for you to gain customers’ trust, and to make sure your own business is successful, you must have the proper security and privacy measures in place. This will help every aspect of your marketing, and the best part? It’s probably simpler than you think.
1.) Keep Everything Updated
Technology is flexible, fluid, and forever-changing, so it can be hard to keep up with all the latest tricks and updates. However, as is true with many products, thelonger you keep outdated software and technology, the weaker it becomes, and the easier it is for you to lose security.
Weak, outdated websites are prime targets for hackers, so while you may be tempted to click out of that annoying pop-up or notification, take the time to update. The updates usually come with website security enhancements or other fixes that make you less vulnerable, so even though it may seem like a waste of time, updating your software and technology is one of the best and easiest ways to improve security.
2.) Choose a Strong Password
This is one of the simplest tricks in the book: choose strong passwords to protect all sensitive information. Choices like “password”, “1234”, and “qwerty” are all commonly used passwords, so they are consequently commonly guessed passwords.
Many websites today prompt you to include capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters when choosing a password to make it more unlikely that your password will be guessed correctly. Heed this advice when creating your passwords, and you will put up a simple, but strong, barrier against cybercriminals.
3.) Enact File Change Monitoring
There is a lot of monitoring and tracking that goes on in the digital world, so it only makes sense that you should track the activity, normal and abnormal, that goes on throughout your website. An early sign of fraudulent activity is when new files start appearing, changes you weren’t aware of show up, or files you didn’t authorize to be deleted are gone.
However, if you have a lot of files or have an especially busy day, it can be difficult to notice these changes, and therefore you won’t know about the attack until it is too late. If you have a program or software that alerts you to the changes and you realize that the changes weren’t made by you or your team members, you can put a stop to the suspicious activity before it harms you.
4.) Encrypt Your Website
Encrypting your website through the use of HTTPS and SSLs helps secure your URL, and make your online business safer in general. HTTPs provide security over the Internet by stopping interceptions and interruptions when customers are inputting information, such as when they are entering their address and credit card information when making an online purchase.
SSLs help transfer this information from the website to your database without making it available to be read by any outside parties. Both of these encryptions are essential to providing security and privacy for your customers, and to prevent the theft of their personal information.
5.) Backup Your Information
If all else fails, and your online business does end up falling prey to hackers or cybercriminals, you need to have a backup plan to recover. Backing up your information on a home computer, hard drive, or other off-site location will guarantee that you can access it again if the information on your website is compromised.
A newer option for backing up data in the cloud, which has a lot of options and plans for storage. You need to pick a method for backing up your data, and make sure to do it regularly; many programs have automated backup systems, but if you do it manually, don’t forget to back up everything often.
Many people don’t conduct business or shop online because they are afraid of losing their personal information to hackers and viruses. If your company goes the extra mile to secure its website, you will encourage more transactions and loyalty, and most importantly, feel more confident in your own security.
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