Security is at the forefront of almost every consumer’s mind when determining where they will make online purchases, and it should be at the top of every business’ mission as well. By adding an SSL certificate to your domain, Secure Hosting allows your site to be accessed using the HTTPS protocol. This protocol encrypts the data transmitted between your website and a visitor’s web browser, as well as vise verse. Generally this protocol is used on eCommerce websites that sell products/services on their sites and of course, the reason for the increased security is to protect the privacy of a customer’s personal, confidential, financial, and billing information when making a transaction.
Cybersecurity issues are becoming a day-to-day struggle for businesses and trends are showing a huge increase in breached data and hacks from sources that are increasingly common in the workplace, such as mobile devices. Additionally, recent research indicates that most companies have unprotected data and poor cybersecurity practices in place, making them vulnerable to data breaches and loss.
According to statistics from 2017, there are over 130 ‘large scale’ breaches in the U.S. every year, and that number was reported to be growing by 27% every year. 31% of organizations have experienced cyber attacks on operational technology infrastructure and at least 100,000 groups in 150 countries, more than 400,000 systems in all, were infected by the Wannacry virus in 2017, with a total cost of an estimated $4 billion. That same year 412,000,000 user accounts were stolen from Friendfinder’s site and the Equifax Breach affected 147,900,000 consumers and attacks involving crypto-jacking increased by 8,500% in 2017.
Now it should also be noted that adding an SSL certificate to your domain does not mean all traffic is necessarily encrypted. Nor does it mean that your website is immune from possible attacks. Whether your customer interaction is encrypted or not depends entirely on which ‘protocol’ that either you or your customers use. This protocol is determined by the URL – e.g. traffic directed to http://www.MyPlace.com is not encrypted so any sub-directory that they access while using HTTP in the URL is also not encrypted. However, traffic that uses HTTPS://www.MyPlace.com is encrypted, as well as any sub-directory they access.
Your WordPress WebSite Is Only As Secure As Your Password
While you may not think that your site has anything worth being hacked for, you have to understand that websites just like yours are compromised all the time. The majority of website ‘hacks’ or security breaches are not to steal your data or destroy your website layout, but instead, these days attempts are aimed at using your server, the web host, as an email relay for spam. Other nefarious deeds include setting up a temporary web server to share illegal files, configure your server to work as part of a botnet or to mine for cryptocurrencies. And of course, there’s always the ugly ransomware that rears its nasty head ever so often.
Pretty much everyone knows they should use uncommon, complex passwords, but that doesn’t mean that they always do. In fact, many people still utilize passwords for their business websites that are personal to them, yet easily cracked with a little research or phishing. It is crucial to use strong passwords to your server and WordPress admin area, but equally as important to direct your users to utilize ‘best practice’ advice for their passwords in order to protect the integrity of their accounts.
Advantages of Secure Hosting
You can design your website so that your customers use the HTTPS protocol when things should be encrypted, such as purchases with credit card and personal information. Otherwise, you can simply choose to use HTTP for everything else such as the ‘About Us,’ your sales catalog and other informative pages. Boiled down, it simply means that you can specify what gets encrypted by choosing which protocol to use in the URL links.
Choose Secure WordPress Hosting
While there is no ‘perfect’ solution for keeping your website secure, web hosting companies that offer ‘free’ WordPress hosting typically do not provide any sort of secure hosting. A good website host will back up your data to a remote server, making it easy to restore your website in the event of an attack or hack, and they’ll assist you with technical support, maintenance and security issues 24 hours a day.
That’s exactly what we provide at BionicWP – secure hosting, remote backups, and 24-hour technical support. And we go one step further – we CARE! We believe that having a professional website should be easy and that if and when times get tough or confusing, there is expert support available – and that’s what we provide. At BionicWP we take pride in our product knowledge and strive for 100% satisfaction on all support calls. There are no silly questions. No support agent will talk down to you or make you feel stupid for calling. That’s what we’re here for! We will provide you with the tools, resources, hosting and support that you need in order to maintain that professional business website that you’ve desired for so long!
A call to BionicWP today can get you secure web hosting for your small business website for as little as $100 a month. Got bigger needs? For less than $250 a month you get:
- Unlimited 30-minutes-or-less tasks, meaning we’ll answer your questions about anything regarding your WordPress site
- Up to 2 hours of WordPress Pro Support
- 90-days of Off-Site Backups
- Real-Time Uptime Monitoring
- Daily Malware Security Scans
- WordPress Core, Theme & Plugin Updates
Want to let someone else do the work? At BionicWP, we also offer Managed WordPress Hosting! For just $500 a month we provide the above features as well as the following:
- Clean & Easy To Use App
- Simple Widget Generator
- Neat Dashboard With Settings
- Helpful Live 24/7 Support
- Transparent Pricing Structure
- And Much More
Contact BionicWP right NOW – your customers are waiting!!