Security management is the most important service we provide to our clients at Web Design by Knight. When we do our job well, bad things like hacks and security breaches don’t happen. It’s difficult to quantify what “doesn’t” happen and so you can’t always “see” security working. And so we wanted to talk a little bit about security management and all that goes into it.
Once you’ve launched your website and done all you can to ensure its success, don’t overlook security management. Cyberattacks cause costly clean-up, damage your reputation, and discourage visitors from coming back. Fortunately, you can prevent it all with effective security management. Let’s talk about the basics of website security and what solutions will help ensure your website is protected from a cyberattack.
What Exactly is Security Management?
Website security includes any and all actions we take to ensure your website data is not exposed to cybercrime or exploitation of any kind. In general, the security we provide to our clients protects from the following:
- Defacement – Replaces your website’s content with a cybercriminal malicious content.
- DDoS attacks – These attacks can slow or crash your site entirely, making it inaccessible to visitors.
- Malware – Malware is a very common threat used to distribute spam, steal data, allow cybercriminals to access your site, and more.
- Vulnerability exploits – This is when Cybercriminals try to access a site through outdated plugins or other weak areas.
- Blacklisting – Your site may be flagged with a warning or be removed from search engine results, if malware is detected.
In addition to the many ways our website security protects your website, it also protects your visitors. Passing along malicious activity or experiencing a data breach can be devastating to a business. We work hard to protect your visitors from the following:
- Malicious redirects – Malicious attacks can redirect visitors from the site they intended to visit to a malicious website.
- Stolen data. From email addresses to payment information, cybercriminals frequently go after visitor or customer data stored on a site.
- Session hijacking. Some cyberattacks can take over a user’s session and force them to take unwanted actions on a site.
- Phishing schemes. Phishing attacks can happen in email or on your website. Phishing schemes are created to look official to trick the user into providing sensitive information.
- SEO Spam. Unusual links, pages, and comments can be put on a site to confuse your visitors and drive traffic to malicious websites.
Why Do I Need Security Management?
It’s cheaper than a cyberattack. For retail websites especially, a cyberattack can cost you hundreds of dollars a minute, not to mention the loss of customers. Studies show that 65 percent of customers who have had their information stolen by a compromised website won’t return to that site – that’s a devastating number of visitors to lose, especially for a small business or website. Website security will help you protect your reputation and retain visitors and/or customers.
Cybercriminals can be very sneaky. The malware they use and their cyberattacks can be hard to spot. Cybercriminals specialize in malware that can discreetly enter a site and stay hidden, so your website might be infected and you may not realize it. Some types of malware are so stealthy they can mine your website for information without showing any signs or symptoms. Some attacks can access your data, steal traffic, deploy phishing schemes, and more – and you may never even notice. These kinds of “backdoor” attacks are becoming more and more common with cybercriminals.
At Web Design by Knight, we work to protect your security 24 hours of every day. There are layers of firewalls between your website and any threat. And we are constantly updating the functions of your website, to make sure your site is as safe as possible. On any given day we are checking your site for vulnerabilities in your WordPress firewall, plugin, WordPress updates, we check the file system, check for hack reviews and monitor the broken link checker. We’ll be taking a more in depth look at these in our August blog.
In the meantime, if you have an questions about security management at Web Design by Knight, please contact us.