There is so much to contend with when you own your own business. Labour costs, equipment, maintenance, facility improvements, and more take up a lot of time, but there is far more to contend with than just the physical side of business ownership in our modern world. In today's world, SMB owners must face that their online identity requires proper maintenance. Your website is not, and will never be, something you do not have to pay attention to in business. Your website security is not simply what is offered by domain and web hosting services, and here are some reasons why your website security should be of great concern to you as an SMB owner.
Hacking is Big Business
There are millions upon millions of sites on the internet, and many SMB owners seem to think they can merely fly under the radar and not be seen by hackers as their website is not the biggest in their field. However, hackers are not seeking out the most significant websites and giant corporations to attack. These sites are already highly secure, and corporations go to great pains to keep hackers from invading their systems.
Generally, hackers target smaller sites and utilize specialized bot systems that seek out vulnerable sites throughout the internet. Additionally, the hackers are in business to hack, so they will eventually find you no matter how large or small your business is. Currently, it is estimated that up to 56% of all web traffic is from hacking tools used by the bad guys, and there are an estimated 50,000 sites hacked each day. Keep in mind. These are merely the ones that are detected. Actual numbers could be much, much higher, so hacking is big business in itself.
Hackers Target Customers
One misconception SMB owners can have is that hackers are merely after their personal and business information. However, this is not entirely true. Data breaches are a growing problem throughout the world, and it is not simply targeted to owners of the site. Keep in mind. Online shopping utilizes countless pieces of personal data from individual customers. This includes credit card information, addresses, and virtually everything about that person that the hacker can see if they invade your site. Now, if your credit card information was taken from a site you trusted to purchase items from, would you be very keen on returning to the same site? Not likely, and neither would your customers, so securing your site protects your customer's information and, ultimately, your business.
Hacks Numbers Continue to rise.
Statistics on hacking and threats to websites can be frightening, and the statistics regarding how many hacks are performed every day are truly staggering. Above we stated that there are up to 50,000 successful hacks each day. Keep in mind this number depicts successful hackers that invade systems. In all actuality, new data states that a hack occurs every 39 seconds, so if your site is not protected, it can be a victim over and over again.
Additional Lost Revenue
On the surface, a data breach of any size on your website can spell bad news for maintaining trust from your customers. They will not buy from you when they lose trust, so there is lost revenue there. Still, suppose you go further down the rabbit hole of backlash. In that case, you will see those untrustworthy websites slide further down the search engine search options for organic searches, so you will ultimately lose credibility with sites such as Google altogether. Eventually, your site can become blacklisted, and you can forget about gaining new customers when this happens.
Prevention is Cheaper Than Cleaning Up the Mess
Shared WordPress hosting sites offer plenty of options to help make your site more secure, and there are additional options to secure your site further. Security options from affordable WordPress hosting sites do not cost much and offer the chance to keep hackers from invading your site.
On the flip side, if you go for the cheapest website domain names Canada and low-cost domain registration along with your shared WordPress hosting, you will likely encounter some hacking issues. Hackers tend to use malware installed directly on your site when they see it is not protected. Even the best-shared hosting for WordPress sites cannot contend with some of the malicious software the most sophisticated hackers use.
The business owner will be forced to hire a true professional. These professionals can be challenging to find and highly expensive to procure. Getting rid of the malware can cause site interruptions and will be remarkably expensive, so it is best to invest in security measures in the beginning, to prevent an attack from taking place.