Hacking isn’t just something that happens to famous athletes and celebrities.
Everyone with a website or blog is susceptible to the same types of hackers, lurking and looking for an open window to break into your site. Through that open window, hackers can obtain a tremendous amount of data, from your personal information, to sensitive stats about your business, to client email addresses, to credit card numbers.
It doesn’t matter how new your website is, either. Once your site launches, it’s a target for hackers, no matter if went live it two years ago, six months ago, or yesterday. It’s a concerning scenario for some consumers, but it’s a reality that Jason Hunter Design handles every single day.
There are a few ways your website might get hacked: someone could install a malware virus onto your hosting platform, take advantage of a problem in a plugin, or enter through a corrupted website theme. All these issues have a common thread: security.
Update your site each time a new version of your platform is released
Staying secure is the top concern for the professionals who built your website platform, and they work tirelessly to ensure that your information and website is as safe as can be. New versions of your current website platform, theme, and other site elements often contain fixes for “bugs” or other security flaws that developers find while the theme is put to work on real websites. This is very common; often, security and other functionality issues are not found until the site has been in active use.
There’s no such thing as a “tried and true” website platform or theme, either. The launched products are not perfect; flaws in function and security are frequently discovered after launch, and their patches are released for installation soon after. It’s safe to say that nearly all website platforms and themes have found a vulnerability after launch. The good news is that developers work tirelessly to patch these issues as soon as they are found, and they release that patch to users as soon as humanly possible.
Upgrade all your website or blog’s plugins
Plugins are the individualized programs that customize your website. Anything from displaying a social media feed to collecting email addresses is controlled by a plugin. Needless to say, those elements are key to ensuring your site continues to work in the most efficient way for your business. It’s unsurprising that hackers go after these plugins as well, since all sites have them and the multitude of plugins on each site creates multiple points of entry for the bad guys.
The authors of these plugins release updates for the same reason your website platform releases updates — security improvements. Whenever a plugin releases an update, it comes with an additional piece of information called a bug file report, which identifies the vulnerability and explains how the update patches the gap. A hacker can easily obtain this bug file report and implement it in a cyber attack against users who haven’t yet updated.
Choose a reliable, trustworthy web hosting service
Your web hosting service is determined by a number of factors — how many files you need to host, how fast your uploading times need to be, if you have an ecommerce element of your site, and so on. However, reputation is the most important of all of these. As the home for all your files and information, your web hosting service needs to serve you like a trustworthy friend. A reliable web hosting service has multiple security measures in place and offers additional programs that monitor suspicious activity on your website or blog.
How Jason Hunter Design keeps your website secure
Nearly a quarter of website owners say that they would pay any amount of money to regain control of their site. Not updating your site is a costly mistakes that could easily run your bill into the thousands.
We don’t want that to happen to you.
As your web design partner, Jason Hunter Design has several plans available to ensure that we update your site the moment an update comes out:
- Full-service maintenance (best value!): With the monthly maintenance package, Jason Hunter Design monitors your site around the clock, with consistent updates against potential hackers and threats. If your site goes down, we will restore it to normal working condition. We also post content and change images when needed. ($375/month for 12 months)
- Key updates: If your site goes down, we will restore it to normal working condition. We will implement any updates as they come out. ($200/month for 12 months)
- Pay as you go: We will notify you when an update is available, and you will tell us if you want Jason Hunter Design to add it to your site. ($125/hour)
Click here to compare the plans, view all the details, and determine which one is best for your business.
Through the end of September, current clients will receive 10 percent off the purchase of the full-service maintenance and key updates packages when they purchase 12 months of service in advance. Contact us to learn more about how Jason Hunter Design can keep your website and blog safe from hackers.
