The Who, What, and Why of Website Security

Unfortunately, websites are prone to security risks. No website is immune to hackers and attackers. Staying up to date with your websites security is extremely important and can be very simple. Here are a few tips based on the What, Who, and Why of website security.

What to Do:

• Stay up to date
  • Keep onsite security up to date as well as security software on your computer in general.
  • Use strong passwords
    • There are websites that will generate strong passwords for you - such as http://passwordsgenerator.net/
    • Monitor and backup your site
      • Whether you do this internally or partner with a web hosting agency, be sure someone is checking on your website frequently. Think of it as calling a neighbor to keep an eye on your house while you are on vacation. Someone should be looking into any suspicious behavior intermittently.

Who Should Do It:

• Web hosting provider
• Hosting provider
• Content Management System
• In-house IT/IS department

Why It Is Important:

• Don’t make it any easier for hackers and attackers, make your site less tempting.
  • You or a client may have information on the site that you wouldn’t want compromised.
  • Once hacked into your site, the hacker/attacker has the ability to change the content. While it would be nice, they never hack in to make the content better, it is usually crude or carries a virus…or both!
  • Prepare for the worst – better safe than sorry!
    • If you invest in a secure platform you will avoid costly damage control or having to start over from scratch in the future.

Security can be a double edged sword.

How so?

You may want the coolest, most complex website with different script languages on a popular server with many portals, but that will put you at the most risk.

Getting site visitors is also extremely important to your business, but the more visitors you get the more likely you are to become attractive to hackers.

Simple site, less visitors? Before you day “no thanks”, I will clue you in. In this case, simple does not mean boring, and less visitors does not necessarily mean less business. With the correct balance of design, development, and digital marketing, you can have a high functioning, user-friendly website with a stellar design that attracts the target audience of your business. Site security is the icing on your website cake.

BONUS: Security is especially important when dealing with e-commerce capable websites.

Be extra careful when dealing with money. We would recommend investing more time and money into a highly secure platform to avoid costly mistakes in the future if you opt for the cheap security system up front.

This post is part of a series called 'Top questions to ask when hiring a web developer.'