It’s in the news all the time: hacks, data breaches, compromised personal information. From big companies like Yahoo and Quest Diagnostics to small mom and pop companies, it seems no one is immune to the nefarious tricks of these criminals.
Some break into websites and steal data to resell the information later to other criminals. Others do it to sabotage a business’ good name or good reputation. Websites, email servers, and even social media accounts can be compromised.
Preventing Problems
The old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very apt when it comes to internet security. It is better to prevent data breaches then it is to fix security issues later.
When Dashboard Internet Marketing builds your website, we can put into place several security measures to lessen the chance of a successful attack. While there are no absolutely foolproof methods for entirely preventing an attack, the safeguards our programmers can add to your website offer more security then do-it-yourself or simple sites.
In addition to asking an expert to add security measures, you can take some steps on your end to prevent security problems.
• Update your software: Keep all of your software updated, including website and WordPress software, plugins, and templates. Companies often update their software after they discover a flaw that can be exploited by hackers. The latest versions are often harder to hack than older versions.
• Create strong passwords: Strong passwords are harder to break or guess. They contain upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Many include phrases that are hard to guess. Do not use obvious dates, phrases or simple words that are easy for anyone who knows you to guess.
• Don’t play the games: Social media is full of games where people are prompted to share the name of the street they grew up on, their childhood phone number, their mother’s maiden name…can you see a pattern? That’s usually one of the many security questions websites ask to verify your identity. Hackers love to comb through public Facebook profiles to see who has shared such information and use it against them. Don’t share such information on your public timeline.
• Avoid phishing scams: If you get an email from your website host or another company asking you to reset your password, do not click the link and reset your password. It may be a phishing scam. These scams steal your passwords by luring you into disclosing them. The criminals hide behind the identity of a well-known company so that you feel safe. If you do wish to change your password, close out your email, log out, and log back in again to the site in question. Then change your password.
• Don’t reuse passwords: Everything today seems to require a password, so it’s tempting to use the same one repeatedly. This makes it easy for hackers to gain access to many of your accounts if you use one password for multiple accounts. Always use unique, original passwords.
A few simple tips, as well as working with a professional firm like Dashboard Internet Marketing, can keep your valuable website and social media sites from being compromised. An ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure when it comes to website security.
Dashboard Internet Marketing offers complete end-to-end internet marketing strategies, website design and build, usability studies, online marketing, social media management and much more. Please contact us at 800-807-1852 for more information.
