Are your web security measures secure enough? Chances are, they aren’t.
In fact, 73% of black-hat hackers—hackers who attack websites and violate security for their own personal gain—state that traditional firewall and antivirus security measures are outdated or even obsolete.
Your website isn’t impervious to attacks. You need regular updates to your website security to defend against malicious hackers.
It’s time to overhaul and modernize your security practices. Here’s what you need to consider:
Your Website Is the Front Door to Your Brand
Your website is the face of your company, but you must keep it clean from exposed vulnerabilities that leave you susceptible to attack. Most content management systems (CMS) in particular are especially vulnerable to hackers. WordPress alone is surprisingly likely to receive attacks.
WordPress powers 35% of all websites, and within WordPress, there are over 50,000 available plugins, each of which can open your site up to hackers. Adding too many plugins doesn’t just slow down the load rate of your web pages, it also adds all kinds of security vulnerabilities that leave you open to hackers.
According to WordFence, WordPress’ in-house security program, at least 47% of all WordPress vulnerabilities are from cross-site scripting. Malicious scripts can easily be added to plugin code, especially when plugins become outdated.
The problem with these kinds of openings? Your reputation is on the line. A hacked website doesn’t just affect your privacy, it also impacts your brand’s image. Sixty percent of small businesses close after a data breach, which has a lot to do with a fallen reputation. Your website is the front door to your brand, and you need to ensure that you are laying out the welcome mat for your welcome visitors, not for hackers.
Your Website Is Currently Under Attack
We don’t like to think about it, but our websites are all under constant attack, but only those that are vulnerable are penetrated. It’s dangerous to think that just because you run a small business or don’t have a high-profile brand name that your website won’t capture the attention of malicious hackers.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Over half of all website visitors are bots. And of those, 29% of all of your visitors are there to find their way into the sensitive data on your site.
- Small businesses may actually be more likely to be attacked. In lower-traffic sites that receive 10 visits per day or less, 47.7% of visitors are malicious bots.
- Hackers steal a total of 75 records every second.
The good news in all of this? Many of these attacks are using old malware. Updated website security can shield you from attacks that are trying to penetrate your website. Putting proper protections in place can help you defend against attacks.
The problem is that 35% of small businesses state that their in-house IT teams are too busy to adequately update their security systems. You need an agency of experts working on your behalf to keep your security protections updated to guard against new and evolving hacking threats.
Your Customer Data Could Be Stolen
We’ve already discussed that your website is the front door to your personal brand. But once malicious hackers get through the front door, they have free rein of your entire home, your whole database and all the valuable information inside.
It’s not just your website that’s at risk when it comes to improper website security—it’s your entire enterprise. When an entire enterprise’s solution is powered in one place, your website is a portal to the rest of your system, which makes you vulnerable to a data breach.
A data breach happens when a malicious hacker infiltrates a particular data source, pulling out sensitive information. In the case of website security, this happens when hackers bypass network security remotely. How does this happen?
- The cybercriminal finds a weakness in the security.
- The hacker makes initial contact.
- The cybercriminal infiltrates the network through the infrastructure, system and application weaknesses.
- The hacker gains access to your database and extracts confidential data, which may belong to your company or may be stored customer data.
What kind of data is stolen? Dangerous personal information like credit card numbers and transactions, Social Security numbers, personally identifiable information, personal identification numbers (PINs), bank information, and more. When this data is accessed and stolen by hackers, it can be devastating to data theft victims and almost impossible for you to recover from.
We All Should Do Our Part to Keep the Internet Safe
The truth is, 30,000 websites are hacked every day through the spread of malicious code. And of these websites, the majority of these sites are legitimate small businesses that are unknowingly spreading malicious code for cybercriminals and malicious hackers.
Cybercriminals use websites to spread their code, distributing it to innocuous users “passing by” the website. They have automated scanning tools that scour the entire web searching for websites that are easy to infect with damaging code. That means anyone is at risk:
- Personal blogs.
- Small business websites.
- Massive news sites.
Anywhere these hackers can find a vulnerability, they will gladly capitalize on the weakness to spread their viruses and malware. And if you are the host to this kind of malicious code? It’s like being an asymptomatic spreader of a harmful illness or virus. It’s our responsibility as website owners to create a safe, virus-free place for all users.
It’s time to ensure your website security practices are as current as the harmful code that’s out there. This isn’t the time for wishful thinking.
Are you concerned about how to keep your website secure? We’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to online security that’s worth checking out. You can read more about defending your website here.
At Engine Room Tech, our passion is website security. We pair our technical expertise with intensive business acumen to shield your company from attacks. We’re armed with the best tools available to keep your organization protected.
Want to learn more about what we can do for you? Consult with one of our experts today.
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