Keeping Your Website Secure is Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy!
Having a website for your organisation is a bit of a no-brainer these days, but it’s like opening another front door to your store – the bad guys, as well as customers, can get in. Here are a few easy ways to add some essential security to your site, keeping you and your customers safe.
#1 – CrossFit-Level Strengthen Passwords
Just like CrossFitters, who tend to go on about CrossFit quite a bit, we can’t count how many times we’ve mentioned the need for high-quality passwords. So here we go again! It’s best to have complex admin passwords for your website that are 8 characters long (at least) and have a variety of lower and uppercase as well as numbers and symbols. Also, it’s best not to use this password for anything else, just in case those accounts are compromised. The easiest way to do this is to use a good password manager that will generate, set and save your password. Good options include Keeper, Dashlane, NordPass, LastPass, and Bitwarden
#2 – Use Data Encryption
Encryption essentially translates your data into an unbreakable code while it’s being sent over the internet or stored, so even if a cybercriminal breaks in, they can’t decode it – at least not without extreme difficulty. It’s a complex technology, but it’s very easy and affordable to do! We recommend using a VPN, as this offers widespread protection for everything from websites to memory cards and cloud services. Good VPNs to check out include NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark.
#3 – Switch to HTTPS
HTTPS is an internet connection protocol, and you don’t have to know much about it unless you’re a web developer. The most important thing to know is that when you view a website in a browser, those with HTTPS at the start of the address are more secure than those that have HTTP. That extra ‘S’ means that the website is encrypted, and it makes it a preferred website for users and search engines, which is also good for your organisation. It’s a good idea to chat with your digital marketing department or agency and have them upgrade your website – it won’t change the functionality or design in any way.
#4 – Use a Hosting Provider
A hosting provider, like Otto, will take on most of the security burden for your website, making sure that the website server is fully secure and keeping software updated with the latest patches. This takes much of the risk off of your plate and puts it into the hands of specialists, so you don’t have to think about it again! Your hosting provider can evaluate the risk status of your website, recommend or implement solutions, and take on the high-tech risks like ensuring double validation of form data, creating a file upload policy, preventing SQL injection attacks and XXS attacks, and implementing a powerful firewall. It all sounds like sci-fi, but that’s our problem – not yours. We’re just here to keep your website as safe as possible, so you can get back to business worry-free.
Jordan is the Chief Commercial Officer at Otto. Jordan is here to help clients remove roadblocks and achieve the business goals they’ve set out. Jordan’s biggest focus is Customer Experience, Business Relationship Management, Risk Management and Strategy.
