Don’t Get Hacked!

Getting your website hacked is not something you really think about UNTIL IT HAPPENS! When it does, then the panic, depression, and stress sets in.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Here are some steps you can take to prevent website hacking or at least, reduce the likelihood of your website getting hacked by evil doers out there:

1.  Use secure usernames.  Include at least one upper case letter, a lower case letter, a number and special character.

2.  Do the same for passwords.

3.  If your website is installed on a content management system (CMS) such as wordpress, joomla, etc., make sure that the CMS software is always up to date.  This is a primary cause of your website being vulnerable to hackers.

4.  The same goes for plugins.  As soon as an update becomes available, it needs to be updated.  Updates will contain additional secure features and improvements to the software that most hackers cannot break through.

5.  For those of you using straight html and other coding, you will most likely have a copy of all your website programs on your local computer.  In that case, make sure your local computer is regularly backed up.

5.  Regardless of the type of website you have, everyone needs to make sure that their website is being backed up on a daily basis.  In the event that your website does get hacked into, it is much better to be able to restore a previous version and lose a little information, than lose it all!

Needless to say, all my hosting and maintenance service clients receive personal attention to the above and do not have to worry about these issues.  We constantly update all software and monitor the health of your website regularly.  We also will restore and fix a hacked website at no extra cost if such does happen on our watch (it has never happened to one of our hosted websites yet).

But for those of you that are doing it yourself, or even having someone else maintain your website, you should really make sure that the above steps are implemented to prevent a major problem in the future!

Web Design Just For You serves clients nationwide with offices in Modesto and Pleasanton, CA.