Why Should I Care If I Get Hacked?
When we talk to clients about the need to keep a website updated or to add security features, they often say, “But I don’t think we’ll get hacked” or “We can do without the maintenance and security services—we need to save money.”
This way of thinking puts your business at great risk.
Here are some possible scenarios that can happen to your website if you get hacked:
1. Once a hacker has gained entry to your company’s website, they may be able to post objectionable material on it. This could be something like an all-black screen with the hacker’s name on it. Or they may post some other objectionable image, such as the one below.
2. The hackers may ask you to send them some money to restore your site to normal. This sort of blackmail has happened to financial institutions and online stores, but the targets can be small businesses, too.
3. The hackers may have access to your user or client data which is stored on your site. They may use those contacts to further spread their malware or use the information in some other malicious way.
4. The hackers could use your site to send out SPAM, which may even appear to be sent from your domain. This sometimes results in your email IP addresses being blacklisted on the web, which in turn stops some of your actual, valid emails from reaching the people you want to communicate with.
5. Once your site is compromised, people visiting your site may get a warning telling them that your site has been hacked. This could be from antivirus programs or from Google. Here is a screen shot of what your site may look like to a potential customer who looked you up in Google:
These are just a few of the things which can happen when your site is hacked, each of which can cause you to lose potential sales.
What are the best things to do to prevent hacking? Keep your site’s software and extensions all up to date, and use the best practices you can for administration and security.
Or better yet – sign up for one of our maintenance plans and let us handle it.
And if you’ve already been hacked, contact us about our website clean-up and restoration services. We do that, too.