Is your website safe?
YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET
Millions of people all over the world can find your business through the content you choose to share, your website is a portal to your most desired customers. We all know the benefits of a website; targeted marketing, credibility, 24/7 accessibility and easy interaction with your client base. But, what you might not know is how important maintenance and security updates are to the future of your business.
HIGH PROFILE HACKERS
Website security has been a hot topic in the press with the recent Panama Papers Breach. It brought down the Prime Minister of Iceland and surrounded Russian President Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron with controversy, among other famous public figures. It is the largest data breach to journalists in history, weighing in at 2.6 terabytes and 11.5 million documents*. However, what I’m really interested in – rather than the headache it caused for high-profile Law Firms – is that the security threat report reveals 75 per cent of websites have unpatched vulnerabilities**. And that these leaks can be easily avoided with website maintenance, which although often overlooked, is a crucial activity for keeping your site safe.
When website security holes are found in software, hackers are quick to attempt to abuse them – in the case of the Panama Papers the hackers took advantage of a three week vulnerability window). This applies to both the server operating system and any software you may be running on your website, such as a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Drupal. To protect your CMS it is critically important that as soon as updates become available, they are applied.
YOU CAN EASILY AVOID A BREACH
Maintenance packages often seem like an unnecessary expense, however it is the same as taking out an insurance policy. It covers you for the what if, and every now and then that ‘if’ can be pretty scary. There is such a huge variance in what you can pay for website development now. Regardless of price we would always urge you to ensure you work with developers who understand the complete ecosystem of your website and don’t finish a project, dust themselves down and ride off into the sunset never to be seen again. You wouldn’t hire a new employee and never check in with them or invest in training, so be sure not to ignore your website that so tirelessly puts your best foot forward 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Written by: Jodie de Vries
Published: May 5, 2016