The humble internet you use to connect to your online community is a wholesale space, but the internet you know and love can also be used by people with ill intentions.
Malicious internet activity is becoming more and more frequent every year. As our society moves deeper into this digital age, it’s important to be aware of these more unpleasant internet experiences.
Being a website owner comes with a level of responsibility, much like owning a car, house or physical business. Not having adequate security installed for your assets can put everything at risk.
But what’s the worst that could happen? Let’s go through a list of potential risks you could face when not securing your website correctly.
Theft of your website’s data
When your website has been exposed to security threats, you risk your website’s data being stolen. In most cases, you will have your data backed up somewhere else. However, some of it may not be. If you think about all the data on your website being deleted, how much of it can you quickly get back?
Content, images, documents, finances and much more can be taken.
Theft of your customer data
As devastating as losing your data is, imagine having your customers data taken too. If you have an eCommerce website and you’re left vulnerable by inadequate security, then your customer data, including payment methods, could be taken and used for other nefarious activities. The ramifications of customer data being stolen from your website would be too significant to recover from.
Business reputation loss and drop in revenue
If your website has been hacked due to a lack of security measures, the long term impacts can cause more significant harm than the initial attack. If sensitive information is taken or if a malicious virus infects website visitors, your brand may never be trusted by its audience again. When online consumers have a negative experience with a website, they are unlikely ever to return.
Website gets blacklisted
If Google penalises your website because it is spreading malicious viruses due to a hack, the worst-case scenario is your website could be blacklisted. When Google blacklists a website, it is near impossible to have your website whitelisted. Unfortunately, if your website can’t show up in Google search ranking, it’s almost useless, and you would need to build a new website on a new domain name.
The cost to repair and rebuild
In the event of a malicious attack on your website, you’ll need to reverse the damage done to your website and fast. If you haven’t had experience cleaning up a website that’s been a hack, then you’ll need to call on the experts. Developers are not cheap at the best of times, but to have a Dev work on your website urgently, especially when it’s been hacked, the repair cost could be extensive.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our Melbourne based customer support team, who are available 24/7 to help answer any questions or resolve any problems you might have.
