The benefits of a secure website are clear and critical: data breach prevention, business continuity, protection from financial fraud and legal penalties, and the freedom to focus on your core business goals instead of dealing with security headaches.
However, comprehensive business website security solutions also delivers some benefits you might not expect—including some that can help generate substantial business impact.
It’s safe to say that the 2020 holiday shopping season is going to look very different than years past. The global pandemic has touched nearly every business, retailer, and consumer, and has dramatically increased our reliance on the internet. Although a good majority of consumers have historically opted to conduct their holiday shopping online, there was a decent percentage of consumers who preferred to shop in-person at a brick-and-mortar store. This year, however, the option to shop in-person may be severely limited, if available at all.
As a result, many small and large retailers are now relying on their online presence more than ever in order to survive this holiday season. Consumers are also adjusting their shopping habits and prioritizing online ecommerce shopping as a safe and secure way to purchase gifts for family and friends. According to Small Business Trends, 55% of Americans have shopped online at a new store during the post-Covid-19 outbreak period. Additionally, US retail ecommerce sales will jump nearly 36% to $190 plus billion in holiday sales this year, according to eMarketer. Once again, Cyber Monday will be leading the way with the largest online spending day in US history with expected sales of $12.89 billion dollars, an increase of 38% from last year. Black Friday comes in with a close second with an estimated $10.2 billion dollars in sales, a steady 39% increase from last year.
Many small business owners believe their websites aren’t significant enough to interest cybercriminals. Unfortunately, many cybercriminals specifically target business websites of all sizes. One of the most serious cyberthreats is malware, which is malicious software designed to damage a website. So, how dangerous is malware to your site? Here’s what you need to know about malware, and how to protect your business.
Recent events have impacted employment for millions around the globe. As a result, many people are searching for new sources of income. With so many of us relying on the internet now for delivery of food, medicine and other services, starting your own online business from home may be the right solution to help generate income.
Starting an online business from home doesn’t have to be overwhelming. In fact, it can be quite simple. However, protecting it from cyberattacks isn’t always as easy. Small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are the targets in 43% of all cybersecurity incidents. That’s because hackers know that SMBs often lack the budget or resources to implement enterprise-quality protection. Phishing, ransomware, site defacement and SEO spam are just some of the most common threats SMBs face online.
Research reveals that 68% of small- to medium-sized businesses have no policy to ensure cybersecurity, perhaps due to a belief that they don’t have anything worth stealing. However, the truth is that businesses of all sizes hold valuable data in their hands, and cybercriminals work to create new sophisticated attack methods to acquire this information.
An unfortunate reality for SMBs is that 43% of all cyberattacks target small businesses. Because many small business owners are often busy and strapped for time, cybersecurity might not be a top priority. In order to protect your business, customers, and data, it’s essential you’re aware of the ever-evolving methods cybercriminals use to target SMBs and their customers.
To help you get started, we break down the most common attacks into a simple cybersecurity guide for your business. We’ll examine the techniques cybercriminals deploy to target businesses and their customers. Additionally, we’ll outline some of the most common cybersecurity threats and offer steps you can take today to protect your website from cyberattacks in the future.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), we have seen recommendations of social distancing, nationwide closures of schools and local businesses, and even national lockdowns of entire cities in the headlines. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, we are likely to see further precautions taken to prevent spreading the virus, including major lifestyle and behavior changes. As part of this effort, we are likely to see more and more organizations transition to remote working environments in order to ensure the health and safety of their employees. However, this poses a larger question. What does this mean for the online security of those businesses?
Larger corporations, such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google, all have the proper resources and security infrastructure in place to protect their valuable online assets and communications, but what about small to medium-sized businesses?
If you’re a small business owner looking to boost your cybersecurity efforts, you’ve likely come across the term “OWASP Top 10.” The Open Web Application Security Project, or OWASP, is a nonprofit group of cybersecurity experts who aim to make cybersecurity resources easily accessible to any business or individual interested in learning about the risks that exist online today.
The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most critical web application security risks that anyone with a website should know about, and it’s an especially great resource for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). SMBs tend to have less budget and fewer resources available to defend against cyberattacks, so they’ve become a popular target for bad actors. The OWASP Top 10 list can help pinpoint possible vulnerabilities to help establish your cybersecurity priorities.
However, there are three threats from the OWASP Top 10 list that we think SMBs should know about and address immediately. Keep reading to learn more about these threats, as well as tips for securing your business against them.
A backdoor attack is a type of malware that gives cybercriminals unauthorized access to a website. Cybercriminals install the malware through unsecured points of entry, such as outdated plug-ins or input fields. Once they enter through the back door, they have access to all your company’s data, including customers’ personal identifiable information (PII).
As the name suggests, a backdoor attack is stealthy, and cybercriminals often slip in undetected.
The holidays are just around the corner, and with it comes the inevitable holiday shopping rush. In fact, holiday shopping can account for up to 30 percent of annual sales for online retailers. As Black Friday kicks off what is expected to be another lucrative online holiday season, there are vast opportunities for cybercriminals to steal shopper’s information through spoofed websites, malicious coupon code links, and phishy marketing campaigns. Any downtime resulting from an attack can severely impact holiday profits, not to mention annual revenue. This time of year, it’s more important than ever that ecommerce businesses make cybersecurity a top priority in order to protect their website, customers, and bottom line.
Additionally, consumers should be aware of the risks that exist online to defend their information proactively. Being cyber-aware while shopping online is the new reality for consumers, and it becomes even more imperative during the holiday season.
Your small business is growing fast. That’s good news! But rapid growth also presents new challenges. Perhaps most importantly, as sales and website traffic increase, you become a more attractive target for cybercriminals.
At SiteLock, we developed a proprietary risk score based on over 500 variables to help website owners gauge the overall risk of their sites on a scale from low to high. Each of the variables can be grouped into three main categories: a site’s complexity, its popularity, and its composition. In general, the more variables a site has, the higher the risk level. Those websites deemed high risk are 26 times more likely to experience a breach.
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