Cyber crime is a growing threat, as the internet becomes an increasingly predominant means of communication. The more powerful the internet becomes the more criminals and hackers want to take advantage of it. Amongst the threats are the following internet nasties:
– credit card fraud
– virus attacks,
– denial of service attacks (when a website is brought down by excessive page hits on the server)
– Defacement of websites by hackers
Cybercrime is also big business. The World Economic Forum estimated the cost of online theft to have reached 1 trillion US dollars in 2009. Website owners have to be on their guard against such threats, especially if they run an e-commerce site, where preventing credit card fraud will be the top priority.
The first line of defence is with your web hosting company. For instance, with web hosting by EUKHost, you will find that our servers are protected by industrial strength firewalls, and fully up-to-date antivirus software. Affordable UK website hosting from EUKHost also offers clients anti-spam software to help block rogue emails before they even hit your inboxes.
With web hosting from EUKHost, our focus on security is complemented by superb, enthusiastic and focused technical support, available 24/7 and 365 days per year.
However, security is such a vital component of your website, that it is advisable not to leave it to your web hosting company alone. You should ensure that any local copies of your site stored on home or work computers are also fully protected: make sure you use big-name internet security software for provision of both your firewall and antivirus software. Also make sure that any scripts (the computer code running your site behind the scenes) come from fully reputable sources and have also been thoroughly been virus-checked.
Finally always ensure your site is fully backed up, both on the web server by your hosting company, and on any other computers where copies of your web site reside.