“My business website is too small for someone to bother hacking it.”
I have heard far too many business owners say those exact words. They think that because they have a small shop or a simple site that they are invisible. They are wrong. In fact, they are very wrong. There are so many threats like malware and viruses today that no website is too small to be a target.
Hackers and spammers do not care if you only have one employee. They do not care if you do not store credit card numbers on your site. This is not like a gang of robbers who might skip a small lemonade stand because it only has ten dollars. These people want to hit every single website they can find. If your site is online, you are in the line of fire.
Robots Don’t Care
Most website hacks are not done by a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses, just sitting at a desk typing. They are done using computer programs called bots or scripts. These are like little robots that walk the street and pull on any door handle they can. They do not get tired. They do not stop. These bots can hit your website with a brute force attack. They try to guess your password trillions of times every second. It is not just pulling on a door handle once and leaving. It is like a robot trying to kick the door down until it breaks.
These robots do not look at your logo. They do not check your bank account to see if you are rich. They do not even care what kind of work you do. All they want is a door that is not locked. They look for a website that has a tiny little opening for them to crawl into. It does not matter to them if you are a big bank or a small local painter.
A hacker can send these robots to thousands of websites in less than a minute. It is a numbers game for them. If your door is a tiny bit unsecured, the robot will walk right in. Once inside, the bot is set to cause as much trouble as it can. It does not take much for things to go wrong very fast.
Why They Want Your Small Website
You might wonder why they want your site if you do not have credit cards stored there. Hackers care about fame and money. Your site might not have the money they want directly, but it gives them a way to get it. Your small site is a tool for them to use.
One big reason they want in is to use your site as a middleman. They can get into your site and use it to send out millions of junk emails. This makes your email address look very bad to the rest of the web. It gives them a chance to bother other people who might open those emails. That is one way they find their riches.
They also like to use your site as a hideout. They can hide bad code on your pages without you ever knowing it is there. When your customers visit your site, that bad code tries to jump onto their computers. This is another way for them to steal information or cause harm. Your site becomes a trap for the people who trust you.
Sometimes they use your site like a billboard. They might change your pages to show ads for things you do not sell. I have seen small business sites get hacked and suddenly the site is an ad for something horrible. They might show scams or very bad pictures. Since these hackers do not sell good things, your site will end up promoting things that are scary or gross.
The Cost of a Messy Website
If a customer goes to your site and sees a warning that it is not safe, they will leave. Trust is very hard to build up but it is very easy to lose. If a new customer sees a “site not safe” screen, they will not call you. They will not visit your store. They will probably never come back to your website again. You lose that business forever because of one security slip.
Fixing a site after a hack is never easy. We may have to install an old backup. Doing this means we could lose the new work you did. We may have to spend hours scrubbing every file to find the malware or bad code.
It is much easier to secure the site and lock your doors now than it is to clean up the giant mess later. Fixing a hacked site takes a lot of time and can cost a lot of money. Staying safe and secure from the start is much cheaper. And considerably few headaches.
We can install a program like cPGuard to help in cleanup. This scans for bad files and fixes some problems. cPGuard will not always work once the damage is done. It is always better to prevent the hack than to try to fix it. If cPGuard is installed and working before the hack, we have a lot of options for cleanup.
How to Stay Safe
Keeping your website safe does not have to be a difficult or constantly time consuming task. There are simple and easy steps you can take to protect your website and business. We help our clients at Full Scope Creative with these every day. Our Security Essentials hosting plan covers many of these.
- Keep it Fresh: Always keep your WordPress core system updates current. This is for your plugins and themes as well. Having outdated code is like a broken lock and is easy to break through.
- Lock the Doors: This is the first step to take and can never be said enough: USE STRONG PASSWORDS! Use strong passwords that are hard for anyone but you to guess. Never use a predictable username like “admin” or your company name. Those names are the first thing a robot will try.
- Get a Guard: A security plan or a firewall acts like a guard for your site. It blocks the robots before they can even touch your door handle.
Even if your business is small, website security is important
Being a small business is a great thing. It means you can focus on your customers and your work. But being small does not mean you are safe from hackers. The wolves are out there and they are waiting to wreak havoc on any site they can find. They do not care about the name on your building or how many years you have been in business. They only care about finding a way inside.
Do not wait for a robot to find your website doors unlocked. We can look at your website and make sure it is properly secured. We are just a phone call, email, or text message away. You can even stop into the office to chat over a cup of coffee or tea. Contact us at Full Scope Creative today so we can help you keep the wolves away from your door.