Why secure your WordPress website?

A secure website is essential to the success of any company.

It goes without saying, if you want customers to be able to find your company, then you need to have a website.

Part of the responsibility of owning a website is making sure the proper security essentials are in place.

Without the proper security for your website, you are risking:

• Hacking of company data.
• Stealing of customer information.
• Damage to website server hardware.
• Disruption of your company’s business.

There are 3 essentials any website owner needs to know:

• Ensure you have an SSL certificate installed
• Keep your WordPress, Themes, Plugins UP TO DATE!
• Visit WPScan Vulnerability Database and make sure none of your plugins are vulnerable. Sometimes you might find they recommend to remove the plugin.

However, the best way to prevent any Malware from happening is to hire your website developers and go on a Maintenance/Care Plan. They’ll monitor and protect your website.

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Why take website security seriously

Whether you are an individual utilizing a high-speed Internet connection or a company looking to protect its Internet server; it is extremely important to take Internet security and the threat of outside invasion very seriously.

The people who do not take the time to secure their websites and Internet connections find themselves wishing that they had taken the necessary steps to protect their online presence.

Important Data

Behind every firewall is a whole catalog of important data that an individual or company is trying to protect.

When you have the proper Internet security in place, you can protect that data and prevent it from getting into the hands of criminals and hackers. Without the proper protection, you are exposing yourself and your customers to the possibilities of identity theft and all of the financial hardships it brings.

Public Appearance

The reality is when a hacker gets into your company’s website, he usually has an agenda. If his agenda is not to steal important information, then it is to do damage to your public image. We saw this early in 2019 where Millions of Toyota customers data was accessed. For a second time!

Many popular websites have been hacked and had controversial material put in place of the website’s normal content.

According to Business Insider, both Facebook and Twitter had data breaches.

This can seem like a funny game to the hacker, but it is serious to your company. When you utilize professional Internet security experts, you are protecting your company image from the people who make a game out of trying to destroy your company’s public appearance.

Revenue Flow

It is easy for a company to forget how much it relies on the Internet. Your company sells product on the Internet, buys materials from vendors on the Internet and has its bank accounts linked to the company computers through the Internet. When Internet security is breached, the flow of revenue can stop almost instantly. When a hacker gets your company bank account information, that revenue flow can be reversed. If you want to protect the business you have spent years building, then you need to hire a website security organization that will show that you take Internet security very seriously.

Securing your website with SSL

The login and important pages of any website should be secure pages. You can purchase an SSL certificate from your hosting provider. The price can range from a free certificate with Let’s Encrypt up to $400 per year for a Premium SSL certificate.

These security certifications essentially encrypt the data that gets passed through your website, and can go a long way in preventing your website from getting loaded down by viruses.

What types of attacks can you get

The term “malware” and “Trojan” are used interchangeably among website security experts.

The Trojan got its name because it is a virus or piece of malware that sneaks into a computer in the guise of a less threatening piece of software.

Once the wooden horse is inside your computer, the virus emerges and does its damage. If you are not prepared to handle a Trojan attack, then your website and server can sustain a significant amount of damage.

The problem with Trojans is that they are not always what they seem to be. You need an experienced and professional website security company to help you look past the disguises and see the Trojans coming.

A Trojan can be any kind of virus, malware or spyware that is loaded on to your website and server through inconspicuous means.

This kind of software can do such modest activities as collecting all of your visitor information and broadcasting it back to a host website or it can collect all of your company’s important data and shut your website down.

Since it is impossible to see a Trojan coming without the proper software in place, it has become common for small businesses to fall victim to these kinds of malware. But with a modest investment in a professional website security company, any small business can protect itself and its website from a Trojan attack.

Some viruses are so covert that you may not even realize that they are loaded on to your website or server if you do not have the proper security measures in place.

A piece of spyware may be loaded on your website and broadcasting all of your customers’ credit card information back to a criminal’s host website and you would not even know it. By the time you get notification from your customers that something is wrong, there could be a significant amount of damage done.

When you have professional website security measures in place, you can prevent programs like that from ever getting loaded on to your website. If a piece of spyware does get through the firewalls, then the persistent website scanning done by website security organizations would detect it and remove it.

A Trojan is one of the worst kinds of viruses you can get on your website or your website server. When you have the proper protection in place, you can prevent Trojans from getting through and you can remove them before they cause any damage. Without professional website security in place, you are risking the sensitive information of your company and your clients.

Firewall Software

The primary protection for websites against hackers and viruses is firewalls.

When a website server reaches out to the Internet, it opens ports to the Internet that can invite hackers. A good firewall protects those open ports and makes sure that no damage is done. Every website owner should have at least one secure and reliable firewall on his website.

Just about every Internet provider and server software offer a firewall to protect your server from Internet hackers.

But if a firewall is not used properly, then it is not going to be able to offer the level of protection your company needs. A security professional will review your firewall software and make sure that only the essential portals are opened to the Internet at any given time. Once those portals are opened, the professional will make sure that those portals are monitored to prevent intrusion.

We highly recommend CloudFlare when it comes to website firewalls. And it’s free!

Network Monitoring

Even the best firewall software can be bypassed, and that is why real Internet security professionals monitor the company’s entire network. If a piece of malware gets past the initial security gate, then it is bound to be detected as it moves through the network. An experienced and professional Internet security company keeps track of every place that a virus can travel to make sure that none are present.

Antivirus Software

If a virus does manage to get through to your website server, then your server will need to have its own protection for defeating the virus. There are several good server and Internet antivirus titles available for website owners to choose from. If you are unsure as to what kind of antivirus software to buy, then ask a website security expert for advice.

When it comes to protecting website servers from Internet hackers, no ordinary antivirus program will do. A good server antivirus program is updated regularly to help protect against new viruses that are detected and cataloged. That means that the software has to come from a company that knows how to watch for new viruses and knows how to combat them. This is one of the more critical lines of defense in preventing viruses from taking down your website and it is something that must be administered by an Internet security professional.

Security essentials are the weapons that website security experts use to protect your domain. When you hire an experienced website security company, you can expect the best use of the most effective security essentials available.

Passwords

Asking your customers and members to create accounts with usernames and passwords can also help you to protect your website. When you do a website security check, always look to see if there has been an unusually large number of accounts started by someone at the same IP address. That can indicate that an Internet bot is creating accounts and getting ready to hack your site. By monitoring user passwords, you can shut that kind of activity down before it damages your site.

Usernames and passwords can also be ways for you to control what areas of the website each user has access to. With the proper administrative procedures, you can prevent potential hackers from getting into your server and doing serious damage.

How to prevent Malware on a WordPress Website

WordPress security became a big deal a few years ago when blogs and websites utilizing the WordPress templates were getting hacked.

The new line of WordPress security plugins can give you a secure WordPress website and allow you to continue to generate online revenue. But what should you do if malware still gets into your system and corrupts your website.

Malware is software delivered through a Trojan or other kind of virus delivery system. Some of the nasty things malware can do to a website include:

1. Corrupting all website email accounts.
2. Loading controversial content on to a website.
3. Giving viruses to any visitor that logs on to the website.
4. Shutting the website down completely.

The best approach to take towards malware is to hire a professional website security company to give you the solutions you need to prevent malware from getting on to your site in the first place.

That kind of an investment will eliminate the lost revenue that occurs when malware shuts your site down, and it can also prevent a potential public relations disaster if your website should get hacked and start giving out random viruses.

If you do not take the proactive approach, then you will have to find a way to deal with malware after it is on your website. Hopefully, you have all of your website content backed up on a different server so you can re-create the website if the malware cannot be removed. Any professional website security expert will tell you that backing up website content on a daily basis is critical to maintaining an effective website.

When malware gets into your website, it tries to go as deep as possible where it can do the most damage without being detected. Once you get a piece of malware on your website server, there is no telling how far it will go towards corrupting your hard drive and crashing your server. The other problem is that some malware can wrap itself around critical server programs that can make removing the malware very dangerous.

If you do experience a malware attack on your website server, it is important that you try to contain the attack with firewalls and by disconnecting the server as soon as possible. Some malware is intended to go after your entire network and that can cause even more damage. You should also contact a professional website security company immediately and have the malware quarantined and hopefully removed. It is your best bet for getting rid of programming that was only created to destroy your website.

In summary

Website security is something that many companies tend to take for granted, but it can be one of the most important aspects of your business.

If your company does any kind of business on the Internet or relies on its Internet presence to attract and service customers, then a website security check is something that should be done every day.

A website security company will do perpetual website security checks that will keep your site safe at all times. While you wait for your company to contract with a professional website security organization.