You might not even know that some electronic thieves have already broken into your website for the details of customers like their credit card information. And under normal condition, it is your legal obligation to protect this information from theft and security breaches that are rampant on the internet.
- This is a quick guide to complete website security checks.
- Check the website security settings: There are safety and security features that come with your website, especially its hosting plan. And hardly will you see a web designing company that does not have this security on their projects. But when you check your privacy and security settings, you may see some default settings that can make your site a target to hackers. All you need to do is to manually adjust the settings to what you feel will be safe for the information on your site. You may consider preventing automatic download, blocking pop-ups, disallowing tracking and so on.
- Visual inspection of the website: There should be a padlock sign at the URL bar whenever your URL is typed. If that sign is not there, its security has been breached. Also, you will notice that most URLs come in this format “HTTPS” which is an indication that the site is secured. But when the last “s” is missing in it such that you only have “HTTP,” something is wrong with your website’s security. You can seek the help of a professional web design company if it is something you cannot fix by yourself. And if you are visiting a site and you discover this, it is an indication that it is not safe and you should not provide any of your personal information on it.
- Run an online safety check on your website: There are several sites online where you can run a safety check on your website, but for an unbiased position, I recommend Virus-Total. It is an online tool that makes use of antivirus scanners and other security procedures to check for any threat using the website. All you need to do is to type your URL into the search bar and it will bring out the status of your website.
- Check if your URL has a privacy policy: This is part of the online research you can make whenever you are visiting a website. A website that has no privacy policy is an indication that it might be up for scamming. So your website should not be without having it as well.
On a final note, some of your website visitors know some of these and once your website is found wanting in any of these areas, it might prevent your potential customers from coming for what you are offering on the site.