As an online business owner, your website is your livelihood, so you should always take the necessary steps to protect this valuable asset from the dangers of being hacked. In this article we’ll take a look at some of the ways to you can prevent your website form being hacked, and some of the plugins that you can install if you are running a WordPress blog to prevent your blog from being hacked.
Before I delve into sharing these tips, you will notice that they seem very simple, and it’s true they are. Protected your site from hackers is not rocket science, but you have to actually take these simple steps or you will leave your site vulnerable to the malicious attacks of hackers who are out there watching and waiting for vulnerabilities that they can exploit. It only takes a moment to destroy years of your hard work and jeopardize your reputation in your marketplace when you become a victim of a malicious hacker.
Use a strong password and change it at least every 3 months. When you get lazy about setting a strong enough password, or changing it frequently is when you leave yourself open and vulnerable. Your password should be at least 9 characters, and made up of a combination of numbers, letters (both upper and lower case, and keyboard symbols.
Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date
You can transfer a Trojan virus from your PC to your website if your computer gets infected with a virus, so be vigilant about keeping your virus definitions updated regularly.
Keep your website software or scripts up to date with the latest version available
If you are running WordPress on your blog, you will be alerted when there is a new version available every time you log in to your dashboard. When a new version of the software is released it contains fixes for bugs and vulnerabilities that were found to exist in the previous versions. If you are still running the old version hackers can exploit those gaps.
Backup your data regularly
While this won't protect you from getting hacked, in the event that you do get hacked you can be sure to always have a fresh backup ready to replace the compromised one.
Choose a reputable & reliable web host
Make sure that your webhost has responsive customer service that you can reach by phone when you need them. Also make sure that they have the most robust security available on their servers. If your site goes down because it got hacked you want to be able to get it restored quickly, but when it comes down to it, your webhost is not to blame if your site gets hacked.
Although there is no 100% guaranteed way to prevent being hacked, following these simple, basic procedures will make it more challenging for hackers to target your site. It’s up to you to keep your data safe, so make sure that every member of your team also follows these security procedures.
Before I delve into sharing these tips, you will notice that they seem very simple, and it’s true they are. Protected your site from hackers is not rocket science, but you have to actually take these simple steps or you will leave your site vulnerable to the malicious attacks of hackers who are out there watching and waiting for vulnerabilities that they can exploit. It only takes a moment to destroy years of your hard work and jeopardize your reputation in your marketplace when you become a victim of a malicious hacker.
Use a strong password and change it at least every 3 months. When you get lazy about setting a strong enough password, or changing it frequently is when you leave yourself open and vulnerable. Your password should be at least 9 characters, and made up of a combination of numbers, letters (both upper and lower case, and keyboard symbols.
Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date
You can transfer a Trojan virus from your PC to your website if your computer gets infected with a virus, so be vigilant about keeping your virus definitions updated regularly.
Keep your website software or scripts up to date with the latest version available
If you are running WordPress on your blog, you will be alerted when there is a new version available every time you log in to your dashboard. When a new version of the software is released it contains fixes for bugs and vulnerabilities that were found to exist in the previous versions. If you are still running the old version hackers can exploit those gaps.
Backup your data regularly
While this won't protect you from getting hacked, in the event that you do get hacked you can be sure to always have a fresh backup ready to replace the compromised one.
Choose a reputable & reliable web host
Make sure that your webhost has responsive customer service that you can reach by phone when you need them. Also make sure that they have the most robust security available on their servers. If your site goes down because it got hacked you want to be able to get it restored quickly, but when it comes down to it, your webhost is not to blame if your site gets hacked.
Although there is no 100% guaranteed way to prevent being hacked, following these simple, basic procedures will make it more challenging for hackers to target your site. It’s up to you to keep your data safe, so make sure that every member of your team also follows these security procedures.
