How to Protect Your Security Online
By Black Bear Design on 03/22/2017
Ah, the IoT – the amazing web that connects the tiny glass phones in our pockets to almost every aspect of our lives, including voice controls on our door locks and our always-listening smart TVs and home devices. Have you ever wondered what might happen if the security of the IoT was breached or interrupted? Just last year, one such breach occurred, on a relatively small scale, and affected about 20,000 IoT endpoint devices. To put that in perspective, Gartner estimates over 20.8 billion devices to be connected to the IoT by 2020, imagine the havoc that would create should a DDoS attack should happen again.
With all that said, our phones are effectively the weakest link in our security chain. Mobile security is on the forefront of major vulnerabilities and is one of, if not the most, worthy consideration in the discussion of internet security. But that’s not the only area of focus in the digital age of security considerations. The websites we use daily are also absolutely vital to the security of our most sensitive information and passwords.
Anything the internet is connected to that you store personal information on requires protection.
If you generate business online, work in digital marketing, or have any sort of website on the internet, it is imperative that you take the necessary precautions to protect your virtual assets. Creating a secure website can be tricky, even on secure platforms like WordPress. But luckily if you’re employing an expert team to create that website for you, they will take the necessary precautions to ensure your information, passwords, and data are safe.
You can further protect your safety by taking simple steps on your own, including changing passwords regularly, keeping login information private within your organization, setting up a firewall, and creating a recovery plan in case your website is ever compromised. If you follow these quick tips, the probability of a malicious attack declines, thus making your website and your clients safer.
What About My SEO?
Beyond improving the safety of your assets by having a protected website, having one actually helps your site’s SEO. Google favors protected websites, i.e., ones that have a secure SSL. Google will rank a website poorly and wipe its “ranking achievements” if it’s ever attacked. This drop in ranking will affect the traffic that comes through your site, which affects your business, and it takes a very long time to build back that trust on Google.
Steps Toward Security
First, protect your phone, email, and direct lines. As mentioned before, mobile security is more important than ever as a vital piece of protection in everyone’s security plan. Make your password unique and use a different password for every account. Never store sensitive information, like bank data, directly on your phone.
Website security is another big bite to chew. If you didn’t design your site from the ground-up with state of the art security, it’s not too late to change it. Changing your site from HTTP to HTTPS is one such way you can begin protecting your, and your clients’, information.
Your website is more than just your medium for conducting business. Your clients instill trust in you. When they enter their personal information into your site, they expect to be protected. Having a protected site helps with Google rankings, which in turn helps with conversions and conversations. The more you show up on the internet and get people talking, the better business will be.
Don’t let one attack cause damaging repercussions to your company’s online presence and devalue your clients’ trust. To protect your assets right from the get-go, contact one of our expert website developers at Black Bear Design to design a safe website for your business today.
