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In this 21st century, if you aspire to reach great heights with your business idea, having an online presence is the need of the hour. 6 out of every 10 people in the world have access to the internet. The internet has brought the world closer than it used to be, and so to capitalize on this, businesses need to have a digital platform in order to garner more attention to their products.
Having a website showcasing your business and the range of products that it has to offer is a surefire way of creating a boom within your industry. You can interact with people who might’ve never come across your products due to lack of physical access or any sort of reason.
Businesses often tend to personalize the consumer’s experience whenever they visit their website so that they have a pleasant experience and are more likely to visit again. This is usually done by collecting various data on consumers based on their browsing activity, their preferences, or if they volunteer that information themselves.
When a consumer offers their data to a website, they do it believing that their experience with the business will be enriched. There’s a certain level of trust factor associated with such types of transactions. And it is extremely important for website owners to not breach their consumer’s trust.
However, not all people who are attracted to your website have good intentions. Hackers are often on the lookout for websites that they can exploit so they can access the valuable data stored in the servers for their own personal gain.
When this happens, a barrage of misfortune may befall the business owner as a result of his incompetency. If only the website had a strong security protocol this mishap could’ve been avoided. Today we will stress the importance of having a good, secured business website for owners and why they should follow these protocols.
Protect Sensitive Information:
As mentioned earlier, when a website collects personal data on their consumers it is their responsibility that they ensure it is safeguarded. This data can range anywhere from a consumer’s browsing habits to their credit card information.
You can imagine the havoc that will occur if this information falls into the wrong hands. If a customer’s sensitive banking is leaked it can cause a major financial loss for the affected person. Identity theft occurs when a person’s social details are leaked in the event of a cyberattack.
The trust established between the business and the consumers will no longer exist and they will no longer have a desire to interact with your website. Such complacency cannot exist as your competitors benefit from this.
Avoid Website Blacklisting:
If your small business website suffers from a cyberattack, Google automatically quarantines your website and shows an unsafe popup whenever visitors open your website. This discourages people from interacting with your website which in turn affects your revenue.
Hackers don’t prey on websites by searching websites individually but rather automate the process. And with the advancement in technology nowadays, if your website has even one major security flaw, you will be targeted. This will result in a drop in organic views by almost 95%.
Small businesses can’t handle such a calamity and oftentimes they will have to start from scratch all over again. By taking appropriate measures, you can avoid such attacks as well as have a good chance of getting a higher search listing. This will help your business website greatly and might even skyrocket your sales.
Protection against Malicious Software:
When a hacker attacks your website, they try to infect it using various means. These may include but are not limited to malware, adware, spyware, ransomware. Malware infects your website and tries to steal the data stored in the servers. Adware is a type of malware that displays unauthorized advertisements on your website.
Spyware snoops on your website and captures all the data that passes between the server and the website. Ransomware, as the name suggests, is a type of malware that will hold your website hostage and will only step back once you pay the ransom specified. All of these are things that will greatly affect your business unless you implement a strong security system.
Protect Back-Up Data:
If you are ever under a cyberattack, it might be possible to cut your losses if you have a backup of your website in place. However, a hacker will try to delete your backup before proceeding to attack your website so that it becomes difficult for you to recover from it.
Therefore, it’s important for you to ensure that you have taken good security measures regarding your website backups. Businesses usually have several copies of their website backups in place at multiple locations under multi-layered protection just to protect themselves from such targeted attacks.
So even if a hacker manages to erase a copy you can easily recover from one of the other backups that you have stored.
As a business owner, it is important for you to maintain your reputation in your field. It takes years to build trust but that can crumble in a matter of seconds if you act incompetently regarding security protocols.
There are various companies out there that provide multi-layered security services for your website for a certain fee. It would be wise to invest some time and money into your website to make it secure rather than lamenting about it after your website has been breached.
A popular opinion is that preventative action is far better than opting for recovery if your website is attacked. Day-to-day business activities are hampered which will lead to a loss in revenue which when added up can be a great financial setback if you opt for website recovery.
We hope that after reading this article we managed to broaden your perspective regarding the need for secure website practices and it inspires you to implement these devices into your own website.
