A client of mine has been having issues with his website that have been quirky, to say the least. Whilst I enjoy my job there are times when it can be tough, especially when you really have no idea why things are happening the way they are. With this particular problem it felt like I was in the twilight zone with files suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Whilst it may not have much to do with his website design, there could be a few reasons why it is happening. First on my list, and something that always concerns me, is website security.
Website Security
If any of you have experienced your site being hacked then you will know it is not an event you want to remember. For many people it can mean that your website is not accessible to your customers leaving you with no chance of doing business with them; it’s the last thing you need. If you are not a website engineer then the whole event can be costly and time consuming to get it fixed. The worst thing that could happen is you get blacklisted from Google! So what can you do to try and prevent this from happening to you? There are a few simple guidelines you can follow that will really help you to secure your precious websites and stop you getting out. 1. Use a strong username and passwords. You wouldn’t believe how many people still use weak user names, like “admin” or your first name. Passwords like “jon123” don’t really cut it. When you think about a password try to use letters, numbers and additional characters, such as &,#,@,*,^, etc. 2. Don’t give lots of people access to your login details. Whether you work with ftp clients or CMS systems like wordpress, the less people that have access, the less chance of someone accidentally losing the login information. 3. Some viruses specifically target ftp client programs so that if you save the login information in the ftp client then the virus can open up the connection and then install what it wants on your server. Trust me, I know firsthand how this one works. 4. It’s always important to keep your software up to date as hackers love old out of date software.
Website Design – How can it help?
Believe it or not, there are website designs out there that are more secure than others. At Island Media Management our preference is to used WordPress websites as they have masses of support and some really strong plugins that help prevent your site from being hacked. Of course there are other CMS based programs that you can use but when making the decision on what platform to build your site, try to have a look at how that platform protects you from hackers. After all, you don’t want to be caught saying “Did that just happen”?
