You see it in the news with regularity in recent years: major hacks and blackmail cases facing companies and government agencies. Pretty scary! Online burglars can also misuse your data and data, enabling them to perform actions in your name. As a small or medium-sized business, you naturally want to avoid becoming a victim of this. How do you do that? We give some tips in this blog.
Do you want to be assured of a well-secured website, without having to worry about it or do any work for it yourself? Then get a new website created by Monkey Vision. When you let us create a new website, we immediately include all security aspects. Moreover, we make websites with WordPress: a CMS system with good security features.
Why does an SME get hacked?
Why do SME websites get hacked in the first place? An SME is not a large party like a tax authority, hospital or educational institution. So what is a hacker actually looking for in your website? A hacker may have several reasons to break into your website, of which these are the most common:
- De hacker wil webpagina’s of links op jouw website plaatsen. Zo creëert hij meer traffic naar zijn eigen website.
- The hacker can abuse your server and make it participate in a DDOS attack with the aim of taking down another website.
- The hacker may start spreading spam from your server. This is done through unsolicited e-mails. You know them: the viagra offers and other strange emails with sender you don't know. In most cases, these kinds of emails are spread from a hacked website.
- The hacker places phishing links on your website. Through these links, people land on online shops where (after a purchase) access is gained to their data, such as credit card and/or PIN details. With dire consequences.
Preventing hacks
How can you prevent such a hack? If you have a new website made in London by Monkey Vision , your website is secured anyway. That is also a big advantage of having a website made by a professional web design agency: everything is thought of, from web design to security.
What are aspects you can take into account yourself, or what we take into account for you if you have us create your website?
Strong password
Scripts allow hackers to guess your password. These scripts can be used to quickly try all kinds of combinations. The longer and more complex your password, the more combinations are possible and the harder it is (even with a script) to guess.
A strong password consists of:
- A non-obvious combination
- Small print
- Capital letters
- Figures
- About 15 characters
- Symbols, such as !@#$%*()_+ etc.
And so you do this not:
- An obvious word-digit combination such as "test123" or "ww12345"
- Your username, ¨admin¨ or ¨administrator¨
- The name of family, your partner, pet
- The same password you already use for various accounts
- A date of birth (of yourself, partner or child)
Strong username
A strong username is also important. Never use obvious admin or administrator usernames or, for example, simply your own name. Use a combination of numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters and symbols. Then also change your username "Admin" immediately. This is automatically created when you use a WordPress CMS and all hackers know that.
A well-secured website without looking back? Then get a website made in London by Monkey Vision! Get in touch
Regular backups
Make sure you regularly backup your files and database. Have you nevertheless fallen victim to a hack? Then use your backup to restore the most recent version of your website.
Secure web hosting
Your web hosting is an important part of your website's security. A good web host secures the server and keeps an eye on whether your website visitors might be unwanted. Often, a web host places websites in a shared environment, where several websites run on a single server. If one of these websites is hacked, the hacker will also have access to the other websites in this shared environment. A good web host is protected against this. So our tip is to check with your web host if you are not sure about this.
Have your website built with good security
There are many other aspects that come with good security, such as regularly updating themes and plugins and customising WordPress content. When you have a website created in London by Monkey Vision, we take into account all these aspects that are important for good security.
Wondering if your website is safe or want to have it better secured? We can check and improve it for you or create a completely new website: it's up to you! Let us know if you have any concerns about this and we will be happy to discuss them with you.
