Website security is critical to any business or organization.

The risk of cyber-attacks is not limited to e-commerce websites or large corporate websites. Small business websites also fall victim to hackers or malware and lose their reputation.

A total of 516 380 small Australian businesses were victims of cyber-attacks in 2017. The number of victims in New Zealand, the US, and the UK are no less worrisome.

For medium-sized companies, the average recovery cost after a security breach was $1.9 million.

These numbers will only increase in the years to come if companies do not take serious action to improve the security of their websites.

While cybersecurity can be complicated at times, still, there are certain simple practices that in most cases should be enough to protect your site.

We shall look at those in the article.

But first,

What is Website Security and why is it Important?

Website security consists of the steps taken to protect a website against cyber-attacks.

In this sense, website security is an ongoing process and an integral part of website management.

Website security is important because no one wants to have their site hacked, and a secure website is vital to the success of your online presence.

For example, if a site is hacked and blacklisted, it loses up to 95% of its traffic.

A lack of a secure website can be just as bad as a lack of a website or worse.

For example, a breach of customer data can lead to litigation, high fines and a bad reputation.

Best Practices for Site Security

Choose a Secure Host

Choosing a reputable hosting company for your website is very important.

Your host must be aware of cyber threats and undertake to protect your site against them.

In the event of a site breach, it is important to communicate with the host to quickly restore the site and resolve technical problems.

Before choosing a host, make sure it supports you on a regular basis.

The host must have excellent customer service and quick response.

Regardless of where you are, you will find hundreds of reliable hosting providers that can meet the demand for top-notch website and hosting security. If you are not sure where to start from, you can click here to explore secure web hosting options.

Use HTTPS Protocols

HTTPS should be a priority for all website owners.

This is not only critical to ensure secure communication between the web server and client, but also improves the basic security standard for all websites.

First of all, users can be sure that all communication via the website is secure.

The HTTPS protocol essentially tells website visitors that the information they request or display from a web server cannot be intercepted or changed by third parties.

Secondly, web browsers such as Google Chrome identify and mark as insecure all sites without HTTPS security protocols.

Each time a visitor accesses a page, he receives a notification that it is not secure.

Some visitors would be reluctant to continue accessing services marked as dangerous.

This can prevent new visitors from visiting your site, which leads to less online interaction with your customers.

Update your Site Regularly

This may be the most important thing you can do.

Taking steps to prevent intrusion and data loss is obviously very important, but the truth remains that hackers can be persistent these days.

The best you can do is to make sure everything is securely and regularly archived.

This way, when the worst happens, you can quickly retrieve a fully functional version of your website from the most recent backup.

If you use WordPress, there are several plugins that can back up for you.

Make sure you back up both the database and the file.

If you regularly update your site, make a backup after each update, e.g. blog post or changes to pages.

Secure Personal Devices

Many companies focus on providing recommended site security practices, and they forget that their personal devices can compromise the security of their sites.

Hackers often attack personal computers to access a secure site.

By stealing FTP logins, cybercriminals may use malicious software, for example, to insert malicious data and files onto a website.

In addition, hackers can easily attack websites using personal computers as a gateway.

Therefore, computer security should be a basic security practice for websites.

Use Secure Passwords

Strong passwords are the first line of defence against hackers and security breaches.

Each password for your site must have the following properties:

• Password must be at least 10 characters
• It should not contain full words or names
• Your password should contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols
• Must be different from other passwords you already use

You can use a password manager to create and save your website and other login passwords.

Hackers often use brute force methods to produce billions of passwords per second, therefore, the more complicated your password is, the better.

If possible, enable two-factor authentication for all your accounts.

Two-factor authentication means that two checks are performed before logging in.

For example, when you enter the password for your mobile phone, you will receive a pin code.

The next step is entering the PIN to log in.

Continuous Monitoring

Website owners cannot identify malware and viruses because they can hide and are elusive.

This helps to make malicious programs one of the most common security threats to your site.

However, as a result of continuous and consistent monitoring, companies can identify activities that indicate the presence of malware or other illegal programs.

Secure Data Transfer Using VPN

Although there are many options that use encryption or other security measures, there is no other option that better protects data transfer than a VPN service.

These great service providers are designed to ensure that your data is channelled through secure channels and strongly encrypted.

With one subscription to permanently available VPN services, you can guarantee that the confidential information you send or receive, such as passwords, business emails, offers and more, is secure.

This is very important for website owners who are very mobile because Wi-Fi connections are notoriously insecure.

Wrapping up

From simple DIY updates to dedicated web security companies, site owners today have so many options that ignoring the problem is frankly negligent.

The problem of high prices is a thing of the past and almost all companies should at least be able to afford the basics of security solutions today.

First of all, start with your web host, which is primarily the basic platform for your website.

Make sure you choose a host that can offer the right tools, not just the cheapest option. Get this right, and all other things will fall into place.

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