In the internet era today, cybersecurity awareness and prevention has become an essential service for businesses, governments and other organizations alike. Without proper protection, their data remains vulnerable to cyber attacks which often also includes private client information. Cybersecurity is a continuous process that traces and analyzes the risks that may exist in your network and seeks to bridge the gaps in your system to protect you from all types of cyber threats.
Why Website Security is Important
Cybersecurity is important for an array of reasons. Check out the following reasons for why you should really think deeply about investing in your website security.
Websites Are Easily Hacked
Hackers attack every 39 seconds, 2,244 times a day on average in the hopes of stealing data, exploiting visitors and realizing their financial goals. This doesn’t mean that every attack is successful, but it shows the persistence of cybercriminals in trying to hack different services and websites. There are many types of threats that exist, including:
- Malware infections: unwanted ads, SEO spams on the webpage, launches malicious downloads, collects private visitor information
- SQL injection attacks: modifies database query to return information desired by hacker rather than original host
- Distributed Denial of Service attacks: non-intrusive, but meant to slow down or take down the website
- Cross Site Scripting attacks: allows the attacker to take over the page by loading a code
Your Reputation Is at Risk
Once an attack is successful, it hurts not only you, but your visitors too. In the first half of 2019, 4.1 billion records were exposed due to data breaches. Customers lose trust in your company because their personal information has been stolen, or continues to be at risk. This leads to a loss of customers, of partnerships, and in turn, a loss of revenue.
Attacks Are Costly
In addition to the loss of revenue, once your website has been compromised, you’ll need to hire a professional to clean up the mess. This is difficult to do without knowing how a hacker thinks. Attackers know the ins and outs of a website and if your website has been targeted once, chances are they will attempt to take advantage of your vulnerabilities again. It’s important to do regular maintenance to minimize the risks of it ever happening at all.
Benefits of a Website Firewall
Since you now have an idea of how vulnerable your website can be, here is why having a web application firewall (WAF) can be beneficial in the long run.
Stops Data Breaches
As seen above, attackers have a myriad of ways to target website crucial information like credit card or social security data. A WAF analyzes every request made by your users and filters out any malicious traffic. If something doesn’t seem right, it will prevent the data from leaking outside your network and block harmful activities. You can customize your WAF to protect specific files and information, and ensure your own security and that of your customers.
Affordability
Firewalls can be kept running in the background of your website without needing an entire cybersecurity team. Further, it will allow you to monitor how much traffic you get on a normal day and you’ll be able to notice unusual instances right away. A WAF will alert you of any incident that may occur while you focus on your work.
Customer Trust
Finally, a WAF allows you to protect customer information. As a result, they will feel they’re in good hands and they can trust you will continue to take the appropriate security measures to handle their information with care.
Sign Up For A Website Firewall
If you’re now convinced that a website firewall is a necessary step you need to take to ensure your website security, Sucuri offers a cost effective plan at only $9.99/month. The basic plan includes the website application firewall, accompanied by performance optimization which is meant to improve your page speed and reduce the server load. Further, Sucuri offers full protection against 7 layers Distributed Denial of Service attacks, supports efficient task processing, and automatically enables HTTPS for secure communication. This plan encompasses most of their features and is great if you’re looking for basic protection. Here at Get The Clicks, we really want to emphasize the importance of securing your website. We offer all our clients free implementation of the Sucuri website firewall. At no extra cost to you (you just have to pay the monthly $9.99 fee to Sucuri), you can leave the worry of website hacking behind and let us handle the technicalities for you. Get in touch with us today so we can set it up for you.
Stephan Boehringer is the CEO of Get The Clicks, a web marketing company. Stephan has over 20 years of experience in the field of web marketing, and has been a speaker and consultant for many years. Stephan is passionate about web marketing and helping their clients be the best they can be.
Stephan Boehringer graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services.