The holidays are a time of joy and giving. But for some, the holiday season is also a time of hacking. As more people have access to your website, hackers will be looking for ways to get in. Recently, there were over a million WordPress websites breached.
Stay away from the 5 most common methods hackers use to steal your website data during the holiday season, so you can keep both your customers and their information safe!
~ John Lee, CEO of WebsitesThatWork.com
Many people are shopping online more than ever before. With this increase in cyber traffic there are also increased opportunities for hacking attacks on websites. It’s important that small businesses stay aware of these risks and how they can combat them. If not’ it could mean lost revenue as well as customer information being stolen.
You’ve worked hard all year. You’ve got the Christmas spirit, and you’re excited for the holidays to come. But maybe you can’t get too excited about your website. It’s practically an afterthought during this time of year because it’s not getting any traffic (think “A Charlie Brown Christmas”). The truth is that hackers are also taking advantage of the lack of attention on websites to do their work in peace, which means more chances for security breaches if left unchecked. Here are 6 ways small businesses can combat hacking during the holiday season:
Make your passwords difficult to guess
In today’s society, it is more important than ever to have a strong password. It seems that every day there is another data breach in the news and even if you don’t work for a company with sensitive information, hackers are going after people like you and me. This makes having a difficult-to-crack password vital! So how do we make our passwords difficult to guess? Make sure to use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Also make sure your password is at least 12 characters long.
Don’t click on links in emails from unknown sources
In the past few months, I’ve been receiving a lot of emails from various websites with links to their sites. In some cases, the email is from a company I know and use regularly – but in other cases, I have no idea who they are or what they want. This has made me suspicious about clicking on any links that come my way via email. The problem is that there’s no way to tell if the person sending you an email is legitimate or not without researching them online first. And while it may seem like a quick fix for your curiosity, it could be putting your computer at risk by downloading malware onto your system.
Update your anti-virus software regularly
It’s important for small businesses, owners and bloggers to update their anti-virus software regularly. This is because new viruses and malware are released every day and the only way to protect yourself from them is by updating your software in a timely manner. In WordPress, updates can be installed automatically so there’s no need to worry about downloading updates manually or missing out on critical information that could expose your business or personal information. You can also sign up for email notifications when an update becomes available which will help you stay safe online without having to think about it too much.
Keep up with the latest security patches for your website and computer
Keeping up with the latest security patches for your computer and website can be a tough task. Especially when you’re running on a tight schedule, trying to meet deadlines! It’s important that you keep up with these updates in order to protect yourself from hackers and online thieves. If there is any downtime or slow traffic on your site, it could lead to lost sales opportunities. Hackers are always looking for an opportunity to steal information so do not let them take advantage of this! There are many tools available online which will help you stay up-to-date with all the latest patches released by software vendors. However, some of these tools may charge monthly fees that might not fit into every budget out there.
Use one password for important accounts and another for social media
It’s been a long day and you’re finally home from work. You log into your online banking account to check on some transactions, but before you can even get in, you see that someone has logged in right before you and emptied out your bank account. What happened? Well it turns out the password for this account was the same as one of your social media accounts which is now hacked and being used by cyber-criminals to steal money from unsuspecting people like yourself. For many small businesses, bloggers or just everyday individuals who use their computer daily for everything such as checking emails, paying bills or logging into important accounts such as banking or medical records – we often create passwords that are easy to remember because they include family members’ names (including pets), favorite year, and popular slogans. Make sure to use one strong password for important accounts and another for social media.
Never submit sensitive information online such as credit card details or personal data without using a secure connection (https)
It’s the age of social media, and it seems like everyone has an opinion. It can be tempting to submit sensitive information online in order to have a voice on these platforms. But before you do so, you should consider one thing: there is no encryption on most major social media sites (including Facebook). That means that any information submitted through those channels could end up in the wrong hands without warning. If you’re wondering what I mean by “encryption,” here’s a simple definition: it protects data from prying eyes by scrambling the information with code that only authorized people can see. Make sure the website you are on is using HTTPS. The easiest way to do that is to see if there is a closed padlock to the left of the web address.
If you’re still not convinced about how serious it is to protect your company’s digital assets, take a look at the facts. Cybercrime cost businesses $1 trillion in 2015 and will likely increase annually through 2025. That’s an expensive price tag for doing nothing! Whether you’re just getting started with online marketing or have been around since the Internet was invented, there are simple steps that any business can take to help safeguard their website against cyber criminals. Would having us manage your website be of interest? We’ll provide regular maintenance checks and updates so you don’t need to worry anymore. And if anything should happen (which hopefully won’t!), we’ve got 24/7 monitoring and malware cleanup on standby.