Websites are no longer just an extension of our business, but part of our identity. Whether you’re just starting up or already running a business, most of your customers are online and will visit your website for information. Often you will build a website which can transact with your customers – else you are losing the game for setting up a website for display only. This kind of online transaction often requires valuable data, such as customer personal information. And as a business owner, guarding your customer data is one of your top priorities. Even top brands like Yahoo, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, etc. have experienced being hacked one way or another by cybercriminals.
In this article, we are reviewing Sitelock, a website security and protection program. First, we will establish why you need security. And second, why we trust Sitelock to prevent us from being hacked.
Fact – your developers are not security experts. As someone who has been helping start-ups for several years, there is a wrong impression that the person or team who build your website can fix or secure everything. Surely, they made the website – but they didn’t create the internet. The ever-increasing number of businesses setting up their digital presence also means the need for convenience of building the website from templates or plugins. This template is more cost-effective and time-efficient than asking your developer to build something from scratch. However, this convenience might also present future risks to your security as third-party companies created it without your specific needs in mind.
Why would someone hack my website? The short answer is – data. Data is the new oil. This data can include personal information, email addresses, bank and credit accounts and other information that customers use to transact in the online world. The Internet is the extension of every individual. There are various reasons for illegal hacking – financial gain, political or religious indoctrination, and selling data to the dark web for the purposes of anyone who wants to buy it. Hackers can threaten website owners with ransoms, demanding a large amount of money in exchange for removing the malware they have injected into your website or other systems.
According to www.cdnetworks.com, “although media reports focus primarily on larger cyber-attacks such as the breaches at Target, Netflix, and JP Morgan, the most frequent threats have been to small and medium-sized businesses. Industry experts say that 60 percent of SMBs will fail within 6 months as a result of a cyber-attack.” Most growing companies would think that hackers would not be interested yet in small industries, but the truth is – they are the most vulnerable to attacks. The most common types of cyberattacks are malware, social engineering, hacking, credential compromise, web attacks, and DDoS attacks (https://fossbytes.com/hacking-techniques/).
CDN Network has listed which industries are most vulnerable to cyberattacks:
- Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
- Healthcare
- Government Agencies
- Energy Industry
- Higher Education
On February of 2016, a cyber attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in southern California locked access to certain computer systems and left staff unable to communicate electronically for 10 days. The hospital paid a $17,000 ransom in Bitcoin to the cybercriminals, says CEO Alan Stefanek. (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-tips-to-avoid-ransomware-attacks/)
The adage “prevention is better than cure” also applies to your digital presence. As an owner, you are busy on the business side of things such as marketing, sales and operational process. Following tips to protect your website will not be enough to make sure that you will prevent hackers from stealing data or injecting malware to your site. According to Techrepublic.com “There is always going to be a new, more hyper-evolved variant of ransomware delivered along a new vector that exploits a newly-found vulnerability within a common-use application. But there are so many technologies out there that offer security–you just have to use them.”
Growing your business means increasing your security. We pick SiteLock.com as it is a global leader in website and security protection, supporting 12 million websites of all sizes around the world. SiteLock is currently one of the top cybersecurity experts winning numerous awards notably the 2019 Cyber Security Excellence Award and the 2018 Info Security Global Excellence Gold Award. On top of it all- SiteLock is very dedicated in supporting WordPress, which also runs millions of websites. We will review SiteLock based on its features, pricing and customer resources.
The following features and their role are listed on SiteLock’s website:
- Website Scanning – Website malware scanners check your site for malicious software and other harmful cyber threats. If anything harmful is identified, you’ll be alerted right away. A website scan works like an alarm system for your website—when threats enter, you’re the first to know.
- Malware Removal – SiteLock’s website malware removal service automatically cleans malicious content from your website, creating a safe visitor experience. You can think of malware removal like having an immediate pest control for your site—if there’s a malware-related issue, it is removed automatically.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) – A web application firewall (WAF) protects your website and web applications from cyberthreats and harmful traffic, like cybercriminals and bad bots. A WAF is like having a force field around your site—it only lets good visitors in and keeps malicious ones out.
- Website Vulnerability – A website vulnerability is a weakness in code that cybercriminals can exploit to gain unauthorized access to your site. SiteLock’s website vulnerability scanner easily detects these weaknesses. Once the website vulnerabilities are identified, our vulnerability patching can automatically fix weaknesses in your content management system (CMS) before cybercriminals exploit them.
- DDoS Attack – DDoS protection defends your website from distributed denial-of-service attacks. SiteLock provides a sophisticated web application, infrastructure, and DNS protection—all vital components for comprehensive DDoS attack protection. With this innovative security, you’ll have access to advanced visitor identification while never having to worry about site downtime due to malicious traffic.
- PCI DSS Compliance – PCI DSS compliance is a set of security standards used to protect consumers’ credit card data online. Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) was established to help control where cardholder data is stored, processed, or transmitted. The SiteLock PCI compliance scan product is a fast and easy way to meet PCI requirements.
Do you need all that kind of protection? Absolutely! Besides, SiteLock is also the king of security automation. SiteLock® SMART PLUS™ is the first website security product in the industry to offer automated malware and spam removal from all WordPress, Joomla! and MySQL databases – including vulnerability patching for content management system (CMS) websites. This automation means that a minor security issue found out by its daily scans can be automatically removed – no need to worry that a busy website owner or manager might overlook a vital security notification.
One of the best things about SiteLock is its pricing is based on the level of security your website needs. See the Pricing Table.
This pricing is advantageous, especially for start-ups who want to feel secure as they grow their business. It is worth subscribing to their “Secure Info” newsletter even if you aren’t dealing with malware or have a current security issue. This move will help you to stay informed about current trends and attacks noted across the internet and help you prevent future and unwanted website security and financial damages. Their first plan even includes top-notch automatic malware removal on top of the daily website scanning. It is a common error to ask help from security experts only after the website has already been attacked when it should have been prevented. Nonetheless, if your website has already been infected, SiteLock offers removal of existing malware infection and access to the team of cybersecurity experts for more complicated repairs. Established and enterprise-level companies can also benefit from SiteLock’s pricing and its features – premium database-level protection and DDoS-attack prevention.
What we like most about SiteLock is that it is very generous in providing free customer resources and security-related articles on its blog. If you are very new to cyber-attacks, SiteLock’s website has loads of information to get you started. It also has an updated downloadable 2019 security report and case studies if you need more in-depth knowledge about the subject. You can also check their customer journey page and get a feel for what it’s like to use SiteLock as web security. SiteLock generally averages 4.5 stars, highly positive, in BBB, Consumer Affairs, Google and Trust Pilot.
SiteLock is offering a FREE website scan. We recommend that you also take advantage of this free assessment by going to this link and request them to scan your website for any malware or vulnerabilities.
You will receive two high-level scans from their cybersecurity team: Risk Assessment Score and Malware Scan. Below is a screenshot of their scan in our website terramedia.com.au.
Our site got a low-risk assessment score – this means our website has excellent protection and is not vulnerable to cyber-attack as of the moment. This assessment gives us the confidence to transact with our clients as we can assure them of their data security. Also, SiteLock has not found any malware or malicious links from our website. As long as we remain vigilant in our web security, we can keep our site away from possible threats and exploitation.
In summary, as the business grows, so does the threat. Web security should be at the top of the list of priorities for business owners. When you are secured, you need not worry about the protection of your customer and business data. Confidence in your website security can help in growing your business. SiteLock has proven to its clients that they have the experience and tools to combat modern cyber-attacks. Plus, their latest technology and process automation is a big help for both starting and established websites.
