Some estimates suggest that between 30-50,000 websites are attacked each day. The number is increasing daily and the significance of website security is growing quickly.
Secure in the digital world is becoming increasingly essential every day. It is crucial to secure your website as well as the information it holds today.
In this post we’ll give you five reasons why web security is vital.
Did you know the majority of web traffic is generated by automated sources, such as scrapers, hacking tools, impersonators, spammers and bots. It is possible to think: is my site secure against these kinds of tools?
Hacked websites can be targeted at your clients
Malicious software can attack websites, collect data and, in some instances, take over computer resources.
A website to which hackers have gained entry could serve as a conduit to divert traffic, and then cause infection of visitors with malware.
This means that if your website isn’t secured hackers may make use of your website to infect visitors with malware.
There are thousands of kinds of malware, and hundreds of ways to attack your website that are mostly performed by automated hacking tools.
What they have in common is that the hacked sites are used mostly to retarget potential customers as well as your site’s customers.
The number of compromised websites is increasing rapidly.
What they have in common is that the compromised websites tend to be used to retarget potential customers as well as your site’s customers. Another reason that website data security is essential is to ensure your visitors are secure.
An investigation was conducted and found that there’s an average of one cyberattack every three minutes on the internet and passwords and usernames that are not secure are used offer attackers greater chance of success.
To be clear, attacks do not necessarily mean that something is compromised. For instance, we witness thousands of attacks directed at websites we secure every single day.
In 2018, Google has sent more than 45 million emails to owners of registered websites through Search Console, alerting them to the possibility of issues in their websites that may alter their appearance in search results.
They also sent 6 million messages of manual action to webmasters concerning practices that violated Google’s guidelines, as well as details on how to fix the problems. Also, Google responded to nearly 90,000 complaints from users of web-based search engine spam.
Sucuri Cloud-based firewall vendor, stated in their report that they had an overall number of 170,827,313 attacks attempts blocked in the year 2019. This was a 52% rise over 2018.
Drop in business reputation and drop in revenue
There are more than 1,5 billion websites accessible on the web , and users rely on search engines whenever they need to find information on these websites.
Thus, search engine optimization is more crucial than ever, and it’s imperative for every webmaster to be aware of the real significance of SEO and its potential for any business.
Google as well as other engines (for those who typically do not wish to be on the list of the bad guys) inform your visitors and block them from accessing your site. In recent times, Google, for example has increased the game further.
From July 1, 2018, any website that does not have SSL (HTTPS) can be considered insecure and will be subject to an SEO penalty. This means it is harder for your company to get new customers.
Google has announced new information regarding its efforts to fight spam and revealed the fact that over 80% of hacker-infected websites have been identified and removed from the search results. (source: Search Engine Journal)
The reality is that due to an unsecure website customers lose trust and will result in a loss of company’s reputation that for e-commerce could frequently mean the ending to the operation.
In the realm of security for websites and CMS security, the threats are also on the rise. For instance, WordPress continues to be the most infected site CMS.
The vulnerability of themes and plugins are among the greatest security threats for websites built on WordPress. In reality, only 0.58 percent of security vulnerabilities stem from WordPress core by 2021. (Source: State Of WordPress Security 2021)
In the average, around 50 000 websites are attacked every single day. However, in fact, the majority of these 50,000 websites are legitimate small companies which are not aware of the fact that they are disseminating malware to cybercriminals.
When your site is compromised and is added to blacklists, potential customers is unable to access the products or services made available.
In the end, if a potential customer comes to your site and is warned or infected there’s a very slim chance that they will visit your website once more.
WordPress cleaning is more expensive than protecting
If you’re a website owner and find out that your site was compromised, the first thing to do is look up “How to fix the hacker’s site”.
You will see many blogs and articles about it, but they’ll ultimately recommend to do the same thing: have professionals take care of it.
Conducting the WordPress malware removal so that you are able to be certain that the site is clean isn’t an easy job. This is why a service such as one can run upwards of $150 per website and after that, based on the service provider, it’s impossible to be certain whether the site was cleaned properly or not.
The average cost in 2021 to deal with WordPress malware elimination was just $613. The most expensive amount paid was $4,800 while the lowest cost was $50. (Source: State Of WordPress Security in 2021)
The most recent study conducted by Acunetix has revealed that around 85 percent of web sites are afflicted with security holes, meaning that they are all susceptible to being affected at any point in time.
The process of clean-up of malware on a site is more about identifying the weaknesses and the ways hackers think in their mind. This is why we recommend service providers who perform manual cleanups.
Malware can be concealed by the source files as well as the database, and hackers spend a lot of energy to ensure that you will not be able to eliminate their backdoors as quickly.
It’s expensive, indeed. Not just the malware removal service, but also the damaged reputation and lost revenue are the ones that can consume lots of time and cash to get back from.
What exactly is Google Blacklist?
While not using the exact word “blacklist,” Google quarantines at least 10,000 suspect websites every day. You can identify the websites by looking at the message “This website could harm the computer” in the results of a search.
It will serve as an alarm that warns users to avoid the site. The consumers are thankful for this warning. The companies are panicking. (Source: Forbes)
When a site is placed in the blacklist it means that the search engine removes a website from its search results. If a site is blacklisted it loses approximately 90 percent of the organic visitors it receives which can have a major impact on revenues.
A website is usually blacklisted if it contains anything dangerous to the user, such as for instance malware, for instance.
Cleaning up your website is only the beginning of being relisted on Google. Before you make your site available online again, make sure that you’ve put steps in place to stop repetition. Your site could be at risk of being hacked by the same cybercriminals that hacked your site in the first instance in the event that you do not strengthen security measures.
If your website is listed on blacklists there are two major ways to restore a hack website:
Make it yourself, if have the necessary knowledge.
Find a reliable service provider if your technical requirements are not within your expertise.
It is the truth that due to a hacker’s attack on a website, customers lose trustand can lead to reputational loss, which for online businesses is often the result of a loss for the company.