Publisher
SparkUp
Small business owners are just as vulnerable to website security hacks as big companies, a new report found. And the risks of vulnerability go far beyond online downtime.
According to GoDaddy’s Small Business Website Security Report, a commissioned research and analysis of over 65,000 infected website cleanup requests from small business customers, due to limited budgets and knowledge of online security, small business owners fail to prioritize protection of their business websites.
What they don’t realize is that by doing this, they’re actually risking even greater financial losses.
“We refer to this as the small business website security paradox—small business owners lack the knowledge and their perceived notion of funds needed to more fully secure their website,” said Tony Perez, general manager for security of GoDaddy. “But once the website gets hacked, it can lead to significant financial loss due to its effect on business reputation.”
Once a website gets hacked or infected with malware, which are the common problems small business websites face, the effects can go beyond just downtime. Companies such as Google and Norton flag an online portal as dangerous once they detect that it has beencompromised. This action negatively affects traffic to a website and eventually can make it invisible online.
Google blacklists more than 10,000 websites a day. And getting off that blacklist is not easy.
Worse, if malware is present on a website, it can be even easier for hackers to explore its vulnerability.
Other key findings of the report reveal just how much it can affect business growth:
Only half of businesses surveyed use a monitoring service to stay on top of their site’s security, with most relying on an effective password strategy. While it’s true that cybersecurity measures aren’t hacker-proof, it’s a good idea for small businesses to start to focus on keeping their business website better protected from potential downtime.
“Cybersecurity is not about preventing a risk. That isn’t yet possible. It’s about reducing the risk. It’s understandable that very small business operators handle a lot and it’s hard to make website security a priority. But taking even modest steps can make a difference,” Perez said.
GoDaddy recommends small business owners invest in a website security monitor service to keep an eye on any red flags or warning signs with 24/7 monitoring, deploy a website application firewall, and register with Google’s webmaster tools which alerts when there is an issue with the website before negatively impacting how it shows in search results.