Website Security: It’s not optional, it’s essential

Every day, we protect ourselves and the things around us, you lock your front door, lock your car, lock up your work place and even lock your phone. You do this because those places and objects are important to you and wish to protect them against the possibility of someone gaining access. So why would you skip this step with your website and online data?

Although a website is non-physical this doesn’t mean that security should be ignored. Think of yourself, your employees, your customers personal details and all business-related information and ideas, are you willing to give that to a hacker?

Cyber security may not have been something you’ve thought about or, if you have, you believe that you could go without it and hoped it wouldn’t happen to you and your business but, you’re at severe risk as 43% of all cyber-attacks are made on small businesses – next time, it’ll be yours.

How will a lack of cyber security affect your business?

1. Business, employee and customer data is exposed

Once your website/system has been hacked all information is then exposed. Have you ever heard the saying before, ‘once you put something online, it’s there forever’, well this works in the same way with a cyber hacking, once they have the information, they’ll have it forever. Cyber criminals can steal confidential information such as personal data, contact details, bank account numbers and passwords from your clients. They may harass you and your customers via phone calls or emails and become a nuisance. Typically, hackers sell your data to people who use it for nefarious purposes – once they have the information, they have freedom to do what they want with it, you are completely out of control.

Think about your latest business idea or perhaps a product you are wanting to realise and is currently in development. Hackers not only steal personal data, they can delete all progress you’ve made on your business which ultimately will result in time and money spent, going down the drain. You might be developing business ideas or creating a product to be released, hackers can delete all progress you’ve made on your business which ultimately, will result in time and money spent, going down the drain.

2. Reputation Loss

Another main concern about cyber-attacks is the irreversible damage it has on your company’s reputation. You will lose important clients who feel that their data is now insecure and are likely to lose faith in your business faith as they view you as untrustworthy and they may possibly blame you for their data being unprotected. It can easily sever the bond and relationship between you and your clients, they’ll also tell other companies in their field and the bad news will spread.

Around 66% of businesses who were attacked by cyber criminals were not confident they could financially and reputably recover. The main reason is that cyber-attacks can easily sever the bond and relationship between a brand and their customers.

3. Revenue Loss

For hackers, it’s so easy to do, they have upgraded their techniques with automation tools which make hacking your website without protection completely effortless. In 2020 this resulted in approximately 2,800 attacks per second, with bank account information they can shop or bank, they can use your hard-earned money or your client’s money to benefit themselves without a care, it’s scary and cybercrime is growing every day, approximately 65 million types of malwares were created in the first three months of 2019 and are still out there.

Google can also blacklist your website from their search, as the engine can detect that the website is unsafe to visit, this can prevent all organic traffic and loss of potential customers. Regaining control of data as soon as possible is far more expensive than investing in quality data security, being hacked and repairing the damage is also an extremely stressful experience.