Cyber attacks have now become a fact of life, and are now something that each and every one of us has to guard against. It’s no good thinking that criminals will only attack the ‘big boys’ – far from it. In fact, smaller businesses are seen as softer targets with weaker defenses to penetrate.
In 2016, it’s said that hackers were able to breach half of all small businesses in the US. Worse still, about 60 per cent of small businesses that suffer a cyber security attack are said to go out of business within six months. This is a clear and present danger to the existence of small businesses and cannot, therefore, be ignored.
Equally, in the fact of such concerning statistics, you could be forgiven for feeling daunted by cyber security. What, exactly, can you do to repel hackers?
Passwords
No, don’t groan, password management is really important. It might feel like a pain in the proverbial but creating passwords that are difficult to guess and regularly changing them is crucial for every system you use, including your website platform. This goes for everyone with access to your site too.
Use HTTPS – and other technical fixes
When it comes to credit card and login pages, in particular, it’s vital to keep the information private. You should do this by using the HTTPS protocol, which prevents this private information from being intercepted and stolen by attackers. It’s a level of encryption that needs to be adopted as standard if you want your site to be protected.
As Creative Bloq shows, this isn’t the only technical matter to consider either. Attackers can use contact forms to attack your site, for example, if you’ve not set them up correctly. It’s important, therefore, to call on a technical expert and make sure you’re not committing a basic error that could present an opportunity for hackers.
Security
What security software do you use? It’s time to consider whether you might need to upgrade your package to add in a greater level of protection. You also need to ensure that this is updated on a regular basis so that your system is braced to identify and combat the latest threats being developed by attackers.
Your web host should be able to help with this too – providing a secure corner of the internet for your site to live on.
Back everything up
Finally, with attacks so commonplace, it’s vital that you have a backup plan. As Sucuri notes, it’s important to have a safety net in place so that you can quickly get back up and running after you’ve suffered an attack and limit the damage done. If you’re a business, every second your website is down your company is potentially missing the opportunity to secure new orders.
If access to your site is secure, you aren’t making technical mistakes and you have the right security software in place, you’ll have set the right foundations in place. If you do this – and have a backup plan – you’re doing all you can.
