Is Your Website Safe? Simple Ways to Improve Your Cyber Security

Maintaining a successful website requires time, effort and creativity — all of which will prove to be useless if you have poor cyber security.

It’s safe to say the internet has had a noticeable effect on almost every industry, so much so that you would have to live under a rock to have missed it. Well, unless you manage to get WiFi under your rock. Whether it’s for business, blogging or a platform for any other online purpose, a website is one of — if not the — most important tool available today for a brand. So it would be foolish not to protect it properly, wouldn’t it?

Here are some simple, effective ways to improve your website’s cyber security.

Choose Your Password Wisely

If your password is “password”, “123456” or “qwerty”, not only do you use one of the most common passwords, but you’re also a hacker’s dream. These are just three examples, but the list of the most commonly used passwords is definitely… interesting. Even “Star Wars” makes an appearance.

You should always choose a random password; something that doesn’t relate to you, such as your date of birth or your dog’s name, as you wouldn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to find this information out. Now that there are ‘password-cracking’ programs available to hackers, using actual words in your password no longer makes it a random entry. Random characters may be harder for you to remember, but that makes it even more difficult for someone to obtain.

Don’t use the same password more than once. This is an extremely common mistake that people make, especially those who think they have the Fort Knox of passwords. But by using it for multiple accounts, all it would take is for someone to work out your one password, and they would now have access to every account you log into.

Remembering more than one password can be a bit of a nightmare, but software like LastPass is designed for this exact purpose. LastPass allows you to store multiple passwords by logging in with one master password.

Update, Update and Update Again

Updating your software is a necessity when it comes to cyber security. By neglecting to do so, you’re just asking to be hacked. Computer technology is constantly evolving and so, therefore, is hacking. Without updates, your website will stand out like a sore thumb among a sea of well protected, up-to-date sites. Every vulnerability your site has is an opportunity for a hacker, and a lack of updates could be the foot in the door they need.

How often you update is also an important aspect, because the longer you leave it, the larger window of opportunity you create. The chances are you will be at your computer most days, especially if you use a website for business purposes. So, in that case, you should be updating as soon as you have the option to do so.

Depending on your website hosting, there may well be a system in place to make sure updates are installed automatically, if not, it’s something that is worth asking your web hosting provider about.

If your website hosting is through WordPress, you can install a plugin called “WP Updates Notifier” which, as you can probably guess by the name, notifies you if any updates are available. You can set it to check hourly, daily or twice daily.

Assign Appropriate User Access

Many sites these days will require multiple logins, an example being a website that gives access to people for guest blogging purposes. That user wouldn’t have administrator privileges, meaning that they can only do what’s necessary to complete their job; so in this case, they’d only be able to write and edit their content.

Doing so reduces the risk of mistakes being made, users accessing data they shouldn’t or website settings being changed without permission. If a site uses one login and that’s shared between multiple people, it becomes a near-impossible task to monitor each person’s individual activity. Say a member of your team deletes a vital file, whether it’s by accident or otherwise. How would you know who was responsible and be able to act accordingly?

Don’t Forget to Backup

At some point, everyone has made the error of forgetting to make a backup and accidently deleting the file, whether it’s in the workplace or a project in school (teachers never believed that excuse). When it comes to backing up your website’s data, the importance of doing so cannot be stressed enough.

It’s likely that if you’re using your site for professional purposes, or are a serious blogger, you’ll already be paying for web hosting. And when it comes to cyber security, in which backups is a key part, your website hosting provider will be the ideal fountain of information.

Without a backup (or ideally backups), the website you’ve spent hours upon hours nurturing into its current state of success will be gone, leaving you to start from scratch. For businesses, loss of revenue because of their site going down could equate to a serious dent in their finances — and in some cases, the end of the line for a company. Your web hosting company will be able to offer the best advice about backups, and likely have fail-safes in place for this type of issue.

Consider the following:

• Backups shouldn’t be stored on your web server. If they are and someone gains access to your web space, they will then have access to your backups. Goodbye backups, goodbye website. Also, off-site backups will prevent you from losing backups if your hard drive should fail.

• Your backup system should be automated. If it’s not, you’re leaving yourself wide open for potential errors — more specifically human errors. It’s easy to forget to backup your site, especially if your site is running smoothly without any issues.
• It’s a good idea to test your backup to see if it actually works. Restoring your trusty backup only to find that it’s worthless would be less than amusing, especially in a time of crisis.

These days, cyber security is a major concern, especially for businesses who use a website as their primary source of income. As modern technology continues to improve and adapt, so does the need for upgraded security. The points above are simple, but the effect they have on the overall security of your site will be huge. You wouldn’t leave the front door of your workplace unlocked, with a welcome sign for burglars, so don’t do the same thing for hackers.

Oh, and remember: “password” isn’t a good password.