Can Just Anyone Walk Into Your Website and do Serious Damage?
If you ever spend any time with someone in the home security industry, they might tell you something that’s pretty interesting, even if it isn’t as surprising as it should be: that most homeowners invest in a top-of-the-line security system once they have already had their house broken into.
In other words, they tend not to make the good decision until it’s already too late. It isn’t that they don’t still need home security after a break-in, of course, but that it’s a purely emotional decision at that point… they’ve already suffered the loss and trauma that comes with having a burglar enter their home.
We bring this up because similar things happen in website business and hosting all the time. In fact, we recently gained a new client who had suffered a similar attack, virtually speaking. Somehow, a hacker had gotten into their website and started making all kinds of changes (both small and large) to their existing HTML coding. As is typical with these types of situations, the changes were designed to redirect traffic, infect visitors’ computers with all kinds of nasty hidden applications, and steal secured data from the business in question.
Worst of all, the business owner hadn’t even noticed until roughly 2 weeks later. After all, they didn’t have an ongoing reason to look at their own website every day, so why worry about? Obviously, there were a few things to worry about. What’s important to know, however, is that these types of things don’t have to happen.
There are a number of good ways to keep your website, and your customers’ sensitive information, as safe and secure as it should be.
Here are a couple of quick tips:
Don’t use regular FTP. If you’re used to updating your site with FTP, then switch to the more-secure SFTP platform. It might not eliminate all risks, but it will make the hacker have to work a lot harder to get your website.
Work with a business web design team that emphasizes security. At Medora, we do updates and changes for our clients securely on our end, and monitor client sites regularly for attacks and unapproved changes in their HTML code.
Keeping your website safe and secure protects your business and your bottom line. Call the business web design team at Medora Solutions today if you want to find out how we can prevent online attacks to your most important business asset.
