Security online is becoming a major issue.

Everyday we here is about organisations, websites and peoples personal accounts are getting broken into by internet hackers. Hackers are probing all the time to find vulnerabilities to find ways of breaking in.

With recent reports about banks and even military organisations that have been broken into where account information has been stolen and software destroyed it is becoming very obvious that this is a serious issue that everyone is facing all around the world.

So how can you protect yourself and your organisation?

Make sure that you use a good and unique password.

Software updates are issued almost daily now to try and plug vulnerabilities on your mobile phones, apps and websites. So make sure that your running the latest software is a good start.

When you see those messages on your website saying there is an update available, don’t just look at it and say I don’t need to update because its working fine now. The idea of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ just doesn’t cut the mustard.

Also make sure your site has a SSL certificate and that the website is visible via https encypted links. Check this is set as default and any links to http urls automatically redriects to the https version. Also check that al uyour content on the page is working and not breaking the https links. Links such as images or imported content may have https links. hese need to be updated to https where available. If you can't use a https link then the conted used via gthat link will not be encypted and creates security issues. Most borwser will show a green padlokc when the content on the website is secure behind an SSL certificate.

Update and backup regularly.

If your website is broken into because your software is not up to date then it is too late. Keep it up to date!

At Wicko Design we offer a website maintenance service were we monitor and audit the website, regularly checking for available updates and make sure that the latest versions are all installed. We take regular updates of our sites that can be stored off site if required. We check for ways to improve website productivity and security of each site. Check for suspect files and clear up tmp and cache directories.