Why is Website Security Important?

Threats Loom Large

The online world continues to face threats and experiences different types of challenges on a day-to-day basis. Data collated by Astra indicates that:

• A hacking attack takes place every 39 seconds
• 300,000 new malware make their way to the internet each day
• Delivery via emails accounts for 92% of all malware
• More than four million websites have malware
• Hackers have stolen cryptocurrency worth around $3 billion until now
• 66% of CIOs feel they need to increase their investment in cybersecurity

If you think that it’s small and mid-sized businesses that need to worry about improving website security because the big players ensure keeping their websites secure, know that hackers keep up with the latest in web technology and have the capabilities to enter just about any back-end system.

Here are some web security examples that highlight the biggest data breaches of this century.

• A 2021 attack on LinkedIn affected 700 million users
• A 2019 attack on Facebook exposed the personal information of 533 million users
• An attack on Alibaba in 2019 resulted in the scraping of 1.1 billion pieces of user data
• An attack on the Aadhar website run by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in 2018 resulted in exposing identity/biometric information of 1.1 billion Indian citizens
• An attack on Yahoo in 2013 impacted three billion accounts

An Exponential Rise in Digital Data

We are still used to securing our important data at physical locations, but what happens when it is accessible using the internet? Given the rapid and exponential growth in digital data, as highlighted by Statista, one can imagine that cyber criminals look upon it as gold that’s there for the taking. Modern-day hackers have the ability to cause more damage than installing viruses or stealing information. Besides, they can work around even the most complex website security systems to access desired data.

Keeping Up With Your Competition

Whenever there is a large-scale cyber-attack, you get to see it on the news. While people had no real indication of what cybersecurity entailed until a decade or two ago, most people now know better than to use untrustworthy websites. Consider this – your website relies on Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) whereas your competitors’ websites make use of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). Since the latter offer increased security, there’s a very good chance that your target audience would prefer them over yours.

In today’s world, customers expect businesses that are online to offer the best website security possible. If they see any red flags, you may expect them to look for competitors that provide more secure websites.

Earning and Building Customer Trust

If you take a close look at the best website security systems, you’ll notice that one of their key roles is to protect the data/information of web users. This can be their names, phone numbers, email/physical addresses, dates of birth, and Social Security Numbers (SSNs). Since an increasing number of people now turn online to look for information, products, and services, it’s common for them to part with different types of information. As a website owner, the onus of keeping their information secure falls upon you, and if you follow the right measures, it becomes easier to build trust.

If a business faces a serious data breach, it’s likely that it will take a fair amount of time to build trust with its customer base again. This, in today’s world, should not come as a surprise because it’s enough reason for the average consumer to become wary. While earning a customer’s trust is no easy task, maintaining it becomes even more challenging because of the vulnerabilities the online world presents. If there’s a breach in your website’s security at any level, expect it to have a negative effect on your company’s reputation.

As a business leader, it is imperative that you get your customers to trust you, not just with their money, but also with all the information they provide online. If your customers feel your business is no longer worthy of their trust, winning them back using even the best techniques in traditional or digital marketing becomes an uphill task.

Safeguarding Your Assets

An attack on your website can have an impact on your physical machines. This is because hackers are capable of installing viruses on machines through websites, and these can affect your machines to the point that they stop working. If you have two or more computers linked to a network, there’s a possibility that all your machines could end up infected. Then, you might have just two options. One is to get a website security professional to address the problem and the other is to buy new machines because reversing the damage is not possible.

Any proprietary information you own may also be at risk in the event of an attack on your website. In this case, a hacker might ask for money to keep from exposing your trade secrets. Hackers can also delete or modify important information they find on your systems, which is why maintaining backups is crucial.

Preventing Loss of Revenue

Reputation goes a long way no matter which field you look at, and it’s common for people to do business or engage with websites they trust. If you need to tell your website’s users that their information is compromised because of a hack, they will, in all likelihood, stop buying your products or services. If you run an informational website, they would think twice before coming back.

If you run a well-established business, there’s a possibility the attack might make it to the news, which would definitely have an adverse impact on your reputation. This bad publicity can not only make your existing customers wary, but it also holds the potential to drive away prospective customers.

Cleaning Up Can Be Expensive

If you’re of the opinion that you’ll simply fix any problem that might arise owing to a cyber-attack, know that you might be in trouble. This is because while it’s possible to recover from most types of web attacks, you may need to spend a tidy sum.

For example, if a hacker installs malware on your website, you’ll need to remove the bad code and check every corner of your website to make sure that it’s secure again. If you don’t have the required expertise, you need to hire a web security professional, which obviously comes at a cost. Depending on the scale of the attack, it could set you back by hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Google Can Blacklist Your Website

Data shared by Patchstack indicates that Google quarantines over 10,000 websites every day. If your website is subject to a hack and you get to see a message that says “This site may harm your computer” when you try to access it, you know that Google has quarantined it owing to the risk it poses for its users.

While this is good for your website’s users, it’s certainly not good for business because they will simply move to your competitors. If Google blacklists your website, you will see a significant decline in organic traffic, which then has a cascading effect on revenue generation. In most cases, Google blacklists websites when it finds elements that appear harmful to users, and malware remains the most common example.

Getting listed on Google again requires cleaning up your website first, followed by implementing measures that help thwart a recurrence.

Adverse Effect on SEO

Poor website security may have a negative impact on your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. For instance, search engine algorithms consider page loading speed to be an important ranking factor. If your website’s code is subject to a malware attack, there’s a good chance that it will have a negative effect on loading speed. This, in turn, will lead to a decline in search engine ranking. If your website does not rank well, it becomes difficult for web users to find it when they carry out relevant online searches, and you suffer from a decline in organic traffic.

Hackers Are Learning Too

If you feel that going through a website security tutorial and learning about the different types of website security will give you all the information you need to keep your website secure, think again. For starters, there is no telling how in-depth a tutorial is and how relevant its content is for you. Besides, hackers continually upgrade their skills, which is why one needs to overhaul even the best website security checklist periodically.

Carry out an online search for “learn hacking” and the number of results you see might surprise you. Sure, many go the ethical hacking way, but not everyone falls under the same bracket. An article on the CSO website rightly suggests that hackers will turn to machine learning and AI to launch cyber-attacks. This can be in the form of getting past spam filters, creating better phishing emails, guessing passwords more easily, generating deepfakes, and neutralizing conventional security tools.

The Peace of Mind Factor

One of the key benefits of website security is that you don’t have to worry about cyber-attacks all the time. While it might not be possible to keep the most sophisticated hackers at bay, you can rest easy knowing that even they won’t find it easy to get past the protective measures you have in place. You can also set standard protocols so everyone who works on your website knows just how important web security is for your business. With the peace of mind that website security offers, you may then divert your attention toward your core business.

How Would You Know That a Website Is Secure?

If you’re wondering whether your website is secure enough, you need to answer a few simple questions. In case your answers are not in line with what’s expected, you need to rethink your website security approach. You also need to view this aspect from the point of view of your website’s visitors.

• Does it have a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate?
• Does it have unsolicited pop-ups?
• Does it provide the right contact information?
• Does it result in spam or search engine warnings?
• Is it easy to verify your website’s ownership?
• Does it look professional?
• Does it have a privacy policy that visitors can find with ease?

If you use Chrome, you may check if your website’s connection is secure based on the security status symbol that appears on the left side of the website address. Your website should ideally come with the “Default (Secure)” symbol.

Cybersecurity in Web Design and Development

While a website should be aesthetically pleasing, it also needs to provide a secure and user-friendly experience. As a result, web designers and developers need to collaborate with each other to ensure that the websites they create can deter most known types of cyber-attacks. This involves choosing the right content management system (CMS), selecting a suitable web host, adding a web application firewall (WAF), and encrypting your website’s connections.

Good web developers are adept at writing code that addresses potential security issues. With the right type of encryption, back-end development safeguards your server-side information, whereas front-end coding helps protect user-based data. Upon launch, your website should provide a good user experience, support data privacy, and safeguard its user information.

Conclusion

Hacking incidences have increased considerably in the recent past, mainly because technology has become more cost-effective and easily accessible. No business, big or small, should consider itself immune from potential cyber-attacks, and paying due attention to all probable website security issues that may arise remains crucial. More often than not, partnering with a digital agency that provides professional website security services is the way to go.