Today, the likelihood of having a website that doesn’t require software updates and protection against hacking attempts is very slim indeed. The vast majority of websites use some form of content management system (CMS), whether they are a relatively simple affair or a much more complex setup using ecommerce features.
Updates
The CMS works just like a desktop software package, designed to run on a specific software platform and requiring updates and patches to fix vulnerabilities. Without updating software, web servers (and therefore your website, too) are a sitting target for malicious code and bots that are constantly attempting to break in and do damage. You therefore ignore updates at your peril. Moreover, even if you ignore the updates, your hosting provider won’t, which will eventually mean that your website software will run into compatibility problems due to the outdated software.
Security
Supposing that your website software is kept up-to-date, it is still vulnerable because of constant attempts to break into the administration by automated password cracking bots. Without taking a proactive approach towards monitoring any hacking attempts and blocking the offenders, your website will only remain up for so long before someone somewhere manages to get in and do damage. While password-cracking is annoying and relatively simple to mitigate with strong passwords, far more concerning are Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. These attempt to send so many requests to your website in a short space of time that the server becomes overloaded and crashes. These are much harder to guard against and require special software to be installed to monitor request patterns in case they match DoS attacks so that the site can be protected by blocking the requests.
Backups
Suppose now that you have all the necessary software updates and security measures in place to harden your website. You might be tempted into thinking that would be sufficient protection. However, you’d be wrong, as there are often inconsistencies with software updates, which occasionally break things, as well as server crashes and malware infections that have the potential to cause chaos. This is where backups come in, as it is far simpler to restore a last known good backup than try to debug and dehack a website. It is far less time-consuming, more reliable, and much more cost-effective to do so.
Purchase a paid plan to take care of outsourcing all your update/security/backup needs. Share on XOptions
You could opt to go it alone, but unless you’re adept at managing all of the above, you will find it a difficult learning curve and not, perhaps, the most profitable use of your time. If you are running a widely used CMS, such as WordPress or Joomla!, you can purchase a paid plan to take care of outsourcing all your update/security/backup needs, safe in the knowledge that while you may not have the time to do so, someone else is actively monitoring all of these. If you have a WordPress site, we have our own plan that we offer (see our Care Plans page for further details).
Edward Solomon has over 30 years’ experience in project management, technical education, computer networking, web design and development and is a Digital Business Consultant for PENNInk Productions Ltd.
