Our use of the web has become a ubiquitous part of our collective experiences and there are no signs that the trend will abate any time soon. According to recent data, since the year 2000, U.S. adult use of the internet has risen from about 50% to 93%. In lockstep with our rise in internet use has been an increase in hackers and phishers and everything terrible that follows in their wake. Every day, individuals, governments, schools, and businesses are attacked online.
Our 3-part series will provide you with information to protect your business in simple ways that make it more difficult for someone with bad intentions to compromise your accounts, identities, and websites. Here’s what we’ll discuss in future installments:
Part 1: Protect Your Passwords
Goal: Increase the number of protective security layers
When we browse, shop, and engage online, we aren’t imagining ways in which we can be compromised by hackers—and, thankfully, we don’t have to if we take certain simple steps to hide and protect our online presence. Hackers most often want to pick low-hanging fruit, like stealing passwords and exploiting insecure websites, and it’s surprisingly easy to protect your business from the most common exploits out there. What we’re setting out to do in Part 1 of this web series is introduce how and why we should protect our passwords.
Part 2: Protect Your Business & Website
Goal: Keep hackers from even finding the front door—and if they do, ensure it’s a decoy
If your company is using a Content Management System, like WordPress, then there are a number of straightforward ways that you can protect your site and your clients’ access to it. Part 2 of this series will discuss protecting your business’s website from malicious actors by making sure it isn’t sitting in the parking lot with its keys on the dash.
Part 3: Future-Proof Your Website
Goal: Ensure your site is listed on Google, is compliant with current legal standards, and is mobile-ready
While you want to protect your online presence today, it’s important to think about protecting your business tomorrow. Websites aren’t simple, static landing pages anymore. The technology we use to make and access them has been changing for years, leaving many companies in the dust and off the top pages of Google search results. Increasingly so, websites need to be made accessible to screen readers and they must be served with the proper security certificates in order to be found in search engines and made accessible through browsers. Not only is this important for protecting your business legally, it also ensures that you’re not missing out on potential customers who couldn’t get to your website.
What’s Next
Put yourself and your business in a better position to navigate the internet. Check out our three-part series and learn about:
Part 1: Password security and taking the first step of securing your identity and accounts online
Part 2: Critical measures you can take to secure your website and what components of a website contribute to strong or poor security
Part 3: Accessibility, https certificates, and future-proofing your website so you can focus on what’s important to making your business grow
Don’t miss out—ignoring basic security may one day put you in a hole that will be difficult and costly to climb out of. Stay tuned for Part 1!