This year has had an unprecedented amount of large-scale cyber hacks. No matter who you are, what your job is, or where you live, you are vulnerable.
As more and more business is done online, it is very important to have a secure website.
Are you concerned your real estate website may be vulnerable? Keep reading below for five tips to ensure you stay safe.
1. Keep Up to Date with Your Updates
Keeping current with all updates will ensure you have a safe and secure website that will make you money. Lots of websites get hacked daily simply because of outdated software.
It is very important to update your systems or software as soon as an update becomes available. Don’t even wait a week or a day. Hacking most times now is automated. It’s bots constantly scanning for areas of weakness.
2. Strong Passwords for a Secure Website
Everyone knows it, but few follow through. Passwords should be complex, long, and unique. Passwords should be random. Decrease your chances of being hacked by avoiding using parts of your birthday or your favorite sports team.
Ideally, passwords should be twelve characters or more. Few websites or applications require this length, but they should. Having this length of password significantly lessens the chance someone can guess it in a limited number of attempts.
Finally, do not reuse passwords! Every password you have should be unique.
3. Change Default Settings
Many common software packages and applications are very easy to use, but are pretty unsecured. This is often due to default settings that never get changed. As mentioned, many hacking attacks are automated. Leaving the default settings makes it very easy for the hackers or bots to gain access.
It is easiest to change these settings during installation, but they can also be changed at any point.
4. Control User Access
When you have multiple people involved in your website, it is important they each only have the level of access they need to do their jobs. For example, if someone is going to be writing blog posts, they should never need access to change the website layout.
Real estate companies like venturewestranches.com benefit from this practice. For example, IT support staff should have one level access while property realtors should have less access to certain aspects of the site.
At the lowest level of access, people making accounts to search for a listing should have the bare minimal access with absolutely no editing privileges.
5. Create Proper Backup Procedures
We all know it’s important to make regular backups of our website, but there is a right and a wrong way to do this. Do not store any of your backups on your server.
This will open you up to hackers because there may be out of date plugins in the backup file. Focus on creating a backup strategy that houses the files separate from your main servers.
Final Notes
There you have it. Now you know five great tips to have a secure website. Do you have some other questions about websites? Contact us and we will be glad to help.
