Good website security isn’t just crucial to the effective running of your online business. It can also impact a customer’s decision to buy from your site or communicate with you online.

However, the increasing complexity and sophistication of cyber threats and hacking techniques means that staying on top of website security is more challenging - and more important - than ever before.

Just some of the threats that websites and online businesses face are data breaches, malware, and hacking. And that’s without considering the number of scams that pop up on a daily basis in email inboxes and across social media channels.

In this blog post, we’re sharing our tips for improving your website security and the strategies we recommend to all our clients.

Understanding the Landscape of Cyber Threats

There are several cyber threats that businesses need to be aware of. Falling foul of any of these attacks can have a detrimental impact on business operations and on your reputation and standing among competitors and in the eyes of customers.

While this blog post will go on to share some of the security measures that businesses need to take to protect themselves, step one revolves around awareness - that is, knowing and being able to recognise where the risks lie.

SQL Injection - manipulating, copying, and destroying sensitive business information

Cross-site Scripting (XSS) - an attack which grants the hacker backend access to a site

Denial of Service (DoS) - an attack which causes a website to crash by overloading the servers

Data breach - the exposing of confidential information

Ransomware - blocking all access to a website until the business owner pays a ransom

There are other cyber threats to be aware of, with these being just some of the most common that can leave your website feeling unreliable and potentially dangerous for customers to use.

Essential Security Measures

Have you ever noticed that most websites these days start with https:// in the URL box? This is a form of SSL certificate which shows that the website host or owner has activated a protective barrier around their site and backend codes.

Having this certification is crucial to website and online security (it also helps with SEO as well) - but it doesn’t end there.

To protect your site and your business, it’s important that you update software regularly and change your passwords on a frequent basis - keeping all passwords strong, supported with two-factor authentication.

It’s also worth restricting administrative permissions to just a couple of select users - working under the assumption that the fewer users have access to important backend information, the lower the risk of one of them getting hacked.

Advanced Security Technologies

Now that we’ve covered the security basics, here are a few more advanced technologies to familiarise yourself with. You can pass these on to your website developer or research them further to learn more about how online security works in your business!

Web Application Firewalls - This is a bit like a club bouncer but for your website, sat just behind the HTTPS wall to block any potentially harmful web visitor or hacker.

Install Security Measures - You can download various plugins for your website to bolster security and should ensure that all downloads pass through a scanning software before you open them.

Another thing to focus on is coding and ensuring that all operations are handled securely - including encrypting all data to put hackers off even if they do manage to gain access to some of your systems. Finally, having a form of intrusion detection software linked to your site will give you an early warning if and when a hacker or cyber attacker does access your site or data.

The Role of Regular Security Audits

Armed with some of these strategies for enhanced security, it’s important that you don’t simply activate the above ideas and then hope that nothing bad happens.

Performing regular security audits and checks is one of the best ways of staying ahead of any potential threat, by identifying vulnerabilities and addressing weaknesses in your security. These can be performed by an inhouse team or a third party provider, with the aim being to expose weaknesses in a safe space - not to avoid them and pretend they don’t exist!

Data Protection Strategies

Data protection isn’t just about your business operations, but also about the data and information you hold on your customers.

Most customers, especially those that are tech savvy, will only enter card details and personal information on a website that they 100% trust - which is why having adequate encryption guarantees on your site isn’t just good for protecting data but also good for your reputation and business growth.

We always recommend to clients to put strict access controls in place before any user can enter an area of your site that contains data, with secure backup solutions required to protect your business from losing everything should a hacker enter and destroy your site

Employee Training and Awareness

Now, the aim is not to scaremonger here - but rather to inform. Keeping employees in the loop and aware of the need for good security and protective measures is critical when it comes to minimising the risk of breaches in light of human error.

The more time you invest in training and up-skilling employees, the better informed they will be about how to operate safely on the site and within the business, as well as how to spot a potential breach themselves.

Normalising this is the best way to turn it from an overhanging threat to something that employees are simply aware of and comfortable to learn about.

Responding to Security Incidents

What do you do if something does happen? This is where your company and in-house response comes to light, focussing on the need for a comprehensive and well-thought out plan and response to any security incident.

Immediate steps will be crucial to minimise the damage from a security breach or fallout, with communication and analysis key in working out why the breach happened and what it has resulted in.

Any security breach should be thoroughly assessed in order to avoid such an incident happening again.

Legal and Compliance Aspects

As a business, you have a responsibility to your customers and to your employees - not to mention, regulations that you should legally be following, like GDPR which was first introduced in 2018.

If your website is not compliant with legal standards then you are liable to formal warnings and fines, as well as exposing yourself to detrimental damage to your business and reputation if something happens to your site or data.

Here at Social Loop, we know how much there is to consider and think about as a business owner - but we also know how important it is to stay on top of website security and other details. Get in touch to book a consultation and to find out how we can help you to design a website which not only looks great but boasts high level security too.