If you’re like most businesses, your website is one of the most important footholds your brand has in the online world.
It’s the virtual place where you promote your exceptional products and services, highlight what makes your brand different from the competition, strategically utilize content marketing to attract new prospects, and foster valuable engagement with current customers to optimize retention rates.
Not to mention, your website is often where many prospects first come across your business. This is why it’s imperative to have a stunning site that’s user-friendly, easy to navigate, and shares all the information your prospects and customers need to trust your brand.
However, your website could do all that and more but when it comes down to it, if your site isn’t sufficiently secure, you’re leaving your business – as well as your valuable customers – at risk.
That said, you’ll often find that many people recommend WordPress as the go-to CMS (content management system) for building both personal and professional websites. In fact, it’s the most popular CMS on the internet, with over 75 million sites built through WordPress.
But what if we told you that WordPress may be leaving your site vulnerable to unwanted security attacks and hacks?
As expert website developers, we’ve come to realize how at risk WordPress-built sites are when not managed correctly. Though, we’ll cover that below. Firstly, why is website security important anyways? Find out below.
Three Reasons Why Website Security is Important
1. Build Trust and Reliability
Top-notch website security is an important step for building trust with your prospects, customers, and clients.
Think about it this way: would you feel more confident buying and sharing information on a website that has the little secure lock in the URL bar, or one that blasts the alarming warning “Website Not Secure” in the corner?
If you’re like most people, you’ll give your time (and money) to a business that puts effort in securing their website with an SSL certificate, which encrypts information and adds an extra layer of must-needed security.
2. Business Liability Protection
As a business with a website and online presence, it’s your responsibility to ensure all the data and information you collect from your consumers and clients is secure.
If you experience a data breach or data leak that results in the stealing of valuable consumer information, you’re not only responsible for handling the security breach, but also the hefty fees, fines, and other penalties that may come along with it.
For instance, if your website is hacked and consumer information is leaked, legal authorities may determine your business did not take the right steps or meet necessary security compliance levels to prevent a breach.
In many states, this would make your business liable, which would come at a pretty price!
3. Risk of Revenue Loss
Remember how website security is important for building trust and reliability among your prospects, customers, and clients?
Well, if your site is lacking security and isn’t conveying trust to new site visitors, they aren’t going to buy from you! Thus, you’re missing out on potential revenue.
Additionally, if your website is not secure and hackers crash it, this could mean your site suffers from unrecoverable downtime. During this period, customers and clients are unable to access your site to view and purchase your products and services, which means further revenue loss!
The Vulnerabilities with WordPress Sites
If your site is currently built with WordPress, or you’re considering this CMS, take a look at all the shocking reasons how WordPress may be leaving your site vulnerable with inadequate security measures.
(You might be surprised at what you learn! And if you want a secure website, get in touch with the pros at Studio 78.)
Outdated WordPress Components
We’ve been developing websites for a long time, and in our experience with clients who’ve built their website using WordPress, one of the most common vulnerabilities is having outdated components, such as themes and plugins.
In fact, this is one of the leading causes behind hacked websites! This is because WordPress components develop vulnerabilities, and while developers quickly deploy an update to fix them, it’s up to the site owner to implement these updates.
In the end, if the themes or plugins aren’t updated promptly, hackers may have the power to gain unlimited access to your site and data.
This is why it’s incredibly important to ensure your theme and all of your plugins are up-to-date.
Or, alternatively, trust your site security with experts who utilize several tools and best practices to ensure management of your website and web related solutions meets your IT security requirements!
Poor Login Security
Did you know many hackers use automated tools, like bots, that can input hundreds of usernames and passwords within the span of a few minutes?
This is called a brute force attack. And if your site has poor login security, there’s a good chance their attack will be successful. (Especially if you use weak credentials like “password123” or your personal name.)
With the right security measures, you make it harder for hackers to access your site, which is essential for securing your site’s stored data and sensitive information.
Take a look at our top login security tips:
- Use a strong password. We recommend choosing a phrase, rather than just one word, which is much harder to crack. Additionally, use a combination of lower case characters, upper case characters, special characters, and numbers.
- Implement two-factor authentication. This requires users to verify their login on a separate device.
- Change the default URL path for your site login page. For example, WordPress often uses a default admin page link like www.yourdomain.com/wp-login.php and www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin.
Weak Hosting Environments
Not only can the lack of strong passwords or outdated plugins put your site’s security at risk, weak hosting environments can also make your site’s security vulnerable.
While you may want to save a few dollars by going with the cheapest shared hosting provider, these services are often jam-packed with inconsistencies and security issues, which increases the chances of your site – and all its stored data and information – being hacked by the bad guys!
At Studio 78, we offer secure hosting solutions you can trust. Our web hosting partner is Liquid Web, a reputable company that uses SSAE 16 certified data centers located here in the United States.
Misuse of User Roles
Did you know that WordPress has six different user roles to choose from, like Editor or Contributor? Out of all these roles, Administrators have the most control and power, which means this role can’t just be given to anybody!
However, many WordPress site owners have no idea how to distinguish between these roles, and thus, give others unchecked access to their site. In which, they can make modifications, changes to plugins, password revisions, and more.
This misuse of user roles puts your site at risk of security breaches, as others might not be implementing the right level of security measures as you are. For instance, if you give someone the role of Administer and they use a weak password, a hacker might use it to break into your site.
So how do you remedy this?
We recommend hiring a team of professional website developers to manage your site’s authorized users. This means they store a secure list of authorized users and update it regularly to keep tabs on those who have access to your site.
At Studio 78, this is standard security practice for all of our website clients, especially those in the banking and healthcare industries. Want to learn more? View our website security solutions here.
Studio 78’s Top-Notch Security Solutions
We have several clients in the banking, healthcare, and senior care industries, so we understand how important protecting valuable client and customer data is.
Furthermore, these industries are heavily regulated, and businesses are required to meet certain security and compliance standards. We help them do so through platinum website solutions.
Studio 78’s platinum website security solutions include:
- Secure SSAE 16 Hosting through our partner, Liquid Web.
- Vetting, maintenance, and renewal of your domain’s SSL certificates.
- Enhanced security measures and vendor due diligence packages.
- Secure, user-friendly client portal for revision or change requests.
No matter if your website needs are large or small, if you’re looking for a team of experts that can make your site as secure as possible, we have the tools to keep your data safe and give you peace of mind.
For more information on our website security solutions, give us a call at (320) 762-6551 or email us at sales@studio-78.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
