4 Tips for keeping your website secure
Internet security is more important than ever in a world of big data, with breaches and hacking scandals constantly in the press.
You may think nobody would want to hack a website for a small business, but you’d be surprised. Much of the hacking today isn’t performed by a person but by automated bots that crawl the internet looking for holes they can exploit. Therefore, everyone with an online presence is at risk.
Plus, with the introduction of GDPR, you could be subject to a hefty fine if any personal data in your website’s backend is breached.
Learn how to keep your website secure and safe from hacking with these 4 essential tips.
1. Keep software up to date
It may seem obvious but keeping your online software up to date is vital for keeping your website secure. Once a security hole is discovered in a piece of software, hackers are quick to jump on anyone using that particular programme.
At VCM, we build all our websites on a custom CMS, so we manage software updates. All our code is stored on Github, which notifies us if there are security risks in any third-party packages we may use. This allows us to stay on top of all software updates.
If your website is powered by an open-source CMS such as WordPress, you must regularly check and update your software.
2. Install an SSL certificate
An SSL certificate is a small file that can be added to your website to encrypt any data submitted to the server. This means only the person who submits the data and the person/server who receives it can read it. Making your site secure.
When you have an SSL certificate, a small padlock will appear in the URL bar of your web browser, telling users that your website is secure and that they should have no concerns about submitting data on your site.
Users can also click the padlock to view extra privacy information, such as the number of cookies being used on the site.
Google also loves an SSL certificate, so it’s a must-have if you want to rank for your key terms in organic search listings.
3. Use secure passwords
This is an absolute no-brainer and a practice you should apply to everything you do online. Shockingly, the most common online password is ‘123456, ’ estimated to be associated with 23.2 million accounts.
The National Cyber Security Centre suggests following the below guidance to ensure your passwords are secure:
- Choose three totally random words as your password. For example, ‘coffee, car, and snake’ would become ‘coffeecarsnake’. These are memorable to you but not easy to guess.
- Do not use duplicate passwords for different accounts; ensure every password you use is unique. Adding different numbers to the end of the same password is not secure. If someone gains access to one of your accounts, they’ll gain access to all the others in no time.
- Finally, change your passwords as regularly as possible to keep hackers on their toes.
4. Keep backups
Even if you follow the above tips, there is still a small risk that your website will be attacked.
As such, you must make regular backups of your website so that if you lose everything, you have a copy that you can put straight back up online with very little cost.
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