As always – the increasing number of hacking attempts on websites have increased yet again towards the tail end of 2016 and throughout the start of 2017.

As a web design and development business we hear many stories and also have to support our own clients in these situations  when hackers try to interrupt their online business presence.

The latest hacker to appear on the scene is Prosox. When they hack your website – they have the ability to change content on the website that states “Hacked by Prosox”. Usually – they would change the content on the homepage so that your visitors can clearly see you’ve been hacked.

If your providing online services or rely on sales via the site – this can be a catastrophe for your sales. If people visit your online shop and it says hacked. They will never return again. Ever!

So what do hackers get out of it?

The main reason for hackers activity is to stop your flow of operations. The thrill of bringing down your IT or website solutions is seen as an achievement. This is because many hackers are just starting off and to hack something first time is a great thing to them.

The more experienced hackers how-ever – target your sensitive data. Whether that be obtaining client information from your website database or in cases of Crypto locker – to lock your data so it can’t be used until a ransom has been paid.

Can the hackers be stopped?

Hackers usually hide their location when engaging in their activities. If done correctly – this makes it impossible to trace where they originally came from.

The old saying “Prevention is better than cure” applies to these situations. If you safeguard yourself as much as possible – then there is very little chance of your website or IT systems being hacked.

Putting safety measures in place now – will save you a lot of time and money overall.

What can we do to protect ourselves?

To protect your website:

We recommend that our clients update their website with the latest security updates at least once per month. Just like your Windows PC. Updates are released on a regular basis as and when a vulnerability is identified and need to be applied to the site to make it secure.

The process of this can take some time. When we perform this process for a client – we always take a full backup of data first. Then we apply the updates and finish off with some testing to make sure the site is still functioning correctly.

To protect your IT Systems:

As always – when Windows updates are available – an alert is displayed at the bottom right hand corner to remind you. These days most computers are set to automatically update by themselves to save you the time and effort of having to do it manually each time.

How-ever – apart from your regular updates – you also require a good antivirus software to keep out all those nasty viruses, that leave your computer open to attack.

Our current recommendation for Anti-virus software would be:

  • Avast: Ideal for personal and small business users.
  • Kaspersky: Ideal for larger organisations with 10+ computers