secure site

How to Have a Secure Moving Site

Website Security

AT&T, Barnes & Noble, Equifax, British Airways, and even the Australian Immigration Department all have one thing in common, their websites have been hacked.

But don’t think that because you’re a small company that hackers won’t bother with you. Or that you don’t have to take extra measures to ensure you have a secure site.

You do. Whether you’re a moving company or run a Fortune 500, everyone with a website must have a secure site these days. Here’s a guide on how to do that.

Don’t Let Your Website Become a Spy Bot

Even if you just write a small blog about cats, or you own a “Moving Services Dubai” website that doesn’t even take credit cards online, you’re still at risk.

That’s because hackers can still turn your website into a malicious spy bot. And without you even realizing it, you’re now helping those hackers send sensitive user data to other hackers.

Even worse, they can destroy your information, manipulate your information, or even inject your content with malicious links. All this can happen while you’re enjoying your morning coffee because it only takes them a matter of minutes.

Always Update Your Software

Sometimes it feels a little annoying to have to run yet another security software update, but without it, you’re leaving yourself and your website vulnerable to hackers.

If you have a provider like WordPress, run their software updates as soon as they are available. However, you’re not done yet, since many sites include plugins that often fall into disuse over time.

Clean out any old, unused, or non-updated plugins as soon as possible because otherwise, they’ll leave you exposed to hackers who can use them as a gateway to enter your site.

Change Your Password Often

Out of 10 million passwords currently being used online, “123456” is still the most commonly used one. The word “Password” still ranks as the eighth most commonly used password.

This makes it incredibly easy for you to become a victim of hacking, identity theft, and your kids getting into trouble online. So choose a password that uses a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t forget to use both upper and lowercase letters.

Passwords should be at least 12 characters long and you should have a different password for each site you access. They should also be changed regularly.

If you store user passwords, encrypt them so if hackers do get in, they won’t have access to them.

Protect Your Website With Layers of Security

Think of your website as you would your home. Would your home be secure if you didn’t bother to lock it as you left? The same is true for your website, for a more secure site, you have to add layers of security.

Start by installing a Web Application Firewall, but don’t stop there. You’ll probably want to add an anti-spam, anti-spyware, and anti-phishing protection as well.

A VPN will also ensure that hackers can’t pinpoint your location and will anonymize your internet traffic. Another great layer of security to add is traffic filtering which will help protect your internet traffic against possible data breaches and cyber threats.

Make the Switch to HTTPS Now

If you haven’t already it’s time to make the switch from an HTTP to an HTTPS site. Switching over will ensure your sensitive information that’s transferred between your website and your web server will remain safe and secure.

Adding HTTPS adds an encryption layer that makes both your users’ and your own data extra secure against hackers. Many savvy consumers will no longer do business with sites who have not yet made the switch.

But if more business and a more secure site aren’t enough for you to make the switch, Google is soon going to be using HTTPS as a ranking factor as well.

Back Up Your Info Often to Ensure a Secure Site

Sometimes, even when you do everything right, the worst happens and your data gets lost. Which is why it’s a smart move to back up your data.

But don’t just back up your data sporadically or once a year and think you’ve got a secure site. If your data goes missing, you’re going to want the most up-to-date data you have, so make sure you back up your data every single day.

This ensures that you won’t waste valuable time trying to remember all the updates you’ve done to your site, you’ll only have to redo what you did the previous day.

There are two ways to back up your data, online and with a hard drive. Don’t think one type of back up will suffice, hard drives can and do fail and having your data backed up online isn’t a fail-safe either.

To make it easier for yourself, set your backups to occur automatically so you don’t even have to think about it.

Hire Professionals to Monitor Your Site

A secure site also means hiring the right professionals to constantly monitor your site. One sign that hackers have infiltrated your site is that you’ll receive what’s known as a Denial of Service (DOS).

What this means is that too many requests have been sent to your site at the same time. It overloads the server and crashes it.

If this happens in the dead of night, it may be hours before you’ve figured it out and even longer before everything is fixed and your site is up and running again.

That’s a lot of potential customers who have no found another moving company to work with. So don’t wait for your site to be compromised before you take action, with our system, you’ll be notified immediately with an SMS.

We have a variety of monitoring services like HTTP, SSL, HTTP password protection and much more. But don’t trust our word for it, read our customer’s testimonials and decide for yourself.

Don’t wait until someone hacks into your system or a crash occurs to get the monitoring your secure site deserves. Register with us today!