Your website is undeniably the core of your modern business. You spend countless resources optimizing your website to be easily found, persuade customers and generate leads. It’s a machine that over time becomes vital to your business’ public perception and subsequent lead generation.
So what happens when your beautiful homepage is replaced by a cult like logo and an announcement to the world that you’ve been hacked?
It’s not a popular subject in the world of marketing. We hardly acknowledge it affects the work we do. As a byproduct of this negligent ignorance toward securing the work we do, we’ve completely ignored the opportunity to establish best practices during implementations.
We love to have dialogues about A/B testing and collecting data using marketing automation software. The real question is, how do we protect the integrity of the platforms these vital practices live on in our digital world?
The Solutions Already Exist
Perhaps the largest disservice that the digital marketing industry has done to its clients is the lack of implementation of technologies that already exist. From two factor authentication when users login to their content management systems (CMS) to securing the vulnerabilities that are standard with content management systems like WordPress. Vulnerabilities which, by the way, will never be addressed in the next security update.
These technologies are easily accessible and should be included as standard in any web implementation, especially in regard to web development.
Here are a few suggestions from our online security experts:
CloudFlare CDN
CloudFlare is a must have service that speeds up your website and allows you to prevent potentially harmful visitors before they even see your homepage. At its core, CloudFlare is a content delivery network (CDN) which distributes your content around the world so that it easier to access by visitors across a wider geographic region. However, if you dig further into CloudFlare’s capabilities it allows you to enact standard security measures to protect from spammers, SQL injection and more. You can even block entire countries from viewing your website.
Two Factor Authentication
Your websites login should be secured by two factor authentication just incase your login information is compromised. Two factor authentication will force those seeking to log into your website to prove their identifies with a unique, time sensitive code. This code is often delivered through an application on your cell phone but can also be delivered to your email.
Should you lose your phone or use the same password for your email, you’ll still be in a sticky situation. Which leads us to our third point.
Super Strong Passwords
In short, a password that makes sense can often be a highly vulnerable password. For example, go to this password security website and enter the following passwords:
spotmydog
stafAG43u_E-r2#@
Note that “spotmydog” can be cracked by an average desktop computer in 22 minutes while “stafAG43u_E-r2#@” would take 12 trillion years.
Equally as import is not using the same password on your website that you use anywhere else in your business or personal life. Using a password multiple times increases the likelihood of being hacked on any of the services that you use that password. So if your email is compromised, you can almost certainly say goodbye to your website.
Security Is Important
Securing your digital assets is easy, painless and costs far less than recovering lost digital property. Consult with your marketing agency and demand their security policies and best practices that protect your 24/7/365 marketing efforts digitally.
Do you have questions? Leave them in the comments and we’d be happy to answer them! Also, don’t forget to subscribe for the latest updates from the R&A blog.
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