In this digital age, almost everything we do is on digital devices or the internet. While we do not need to worry much about malicious attacks on our physical devices, we need to be extremely wary when using the internet. This article will help you to know Website Security Importance.
Although your physical device can still be under cyber attacks, if you never connect it to the internet and take adequate measures, you can technically keep it free from malicious attacks. The only issue with this is that as long as you use a digital device, it is almost impossible to get the best of it without access to the internet and websites.
This is where the aspect of website security comes into play. Although the internet is generally safe, no one can guarantee that the website and link you are accessing are among the safe ones. This is because the internet is a massive platform with hundreds of thousands of websites. With new websites popping out daily, there is no way to ensure that every website is secure. Even big websites like Facebook and Google Search Engine may have some links with malware attacks inside them. This should be a familiar sight to anyone who has used discord and accidentally clicked on a link that got them banned.
Needless to say, web security is extremely important, especially if your business revolves around your website. Work with an experienced website development company if you are not creating it yourself. Compromised website security can not only cause a breach of data and sensitive information leaks, but it can also lead to a massive loss of revenue for your business.
But this still doesn’t answer the question, “Why should it matter to your customer?” It is obvious that web security is necessary to the business owners, but why is it so for the customer as well?
Before answering this question, we should have a general gist of the major threats to web security. Knowing these threats gives us a general idea of why it is important for the customer and business owners.
As long as there are websites, hackers and people with malicious intents will try to take advantage of it and make a quick buck. That said, while the intent behind every website security threat is to gather sensitive information and make money, the methods are different. Some of the more popular ones are:
Spam
Spams are irrelevant activities occurring on a website or through a website. This spam can be emails or comments that spread or messages unrelated to the company or the websites, so you can easily guess that spam is harmful. While some spam is just random comments meant to overwhelm a website server and slow them down, other forms of spam can contain profanity, abusive language, and even malicious links that can harm the website and users. Web security protects your website from spams, and as a result improves the customers data security and experience.
Phishing
They are just emails or comments on a website or emails that fake being from a genuine website and contain attachments, along with URLs that contain malware. While the type of malware attacks inside these comments, attachments or links will vary, they harm both the users and the website owners. Even the most harmless ones will slow down the website and the devices once they get infected. That said, the more malicious ones can easily lock you out of your own devices until you pay a ransom or even sell your personal information to an information broker.
Man in the Middle
Similar to Phishing, Man in the middle acts as a trustworthy organization before stealing your sensitive information. The only difference is that while phishing disguises itself as a trustworthy website/organization in the email/ comments, a man in the middle disguises itself as a network. This form of website threat is widely common in places with many public networks. Therefore, it is slightly harder to predict when Website Security Importance.
In short, a man in the middle pretends to be a trustworthy network and gains access to your login details and other information while accessing a website through their network. Unlike others in this list, a man in the middle can be hard to identify.
Brute Force
Unlike complicated website threats, brute force attacks are simple ones that try to access your information through guesswork and elimination. That said, some programs aid in this form of attack. While this form of attack against a website is simple, they are still dangerous since just about anybody with enough patience can do it. Once it succeeds, the said person has unlimited access to all the information within a website, including the private information of the clients and admins. Therefore it becomes a necessity to secure your website against brute force attacks. The good news is that it is relatively easy to do so.
DDoS
DDoS is among the simplest and most dangerous forms of attack on a website. DDoS simply overwhelms the website with traffic and forces it to shut down or slow down. If the DDoS attack is specific to a certain page, that webpage will slow down or even be out of order. The worst part about this is that the consequences of DDoS attacks can last a few days, even if detected early.
That said, while the ones we mentioned here are the major types of website security issues, they are not the only ones on the internet. New website security threats are being created each day, along with the method to counter them.
So, why does website security matter to your customers?
From the website security Importance issues we mentioned earlier, you should have a general idea of the answer to this question. If you think about it, the answer is rather simple – when a website faces a website security threat/risk, every user connected to the website is at risk from the same malware. Along with this, if the user has their private or sensitive information stored within the website database and customer data, they also come at a risk. So, when choosing a website development company, do not forget to check on their previous projects.
To be more specific, website security is important to the customer because a website with good security will:
Protect the customer's information
This is as simple as it gets. If a website is secure, the customers’ information will naturally be secure as well. Regardless of what the website is used for, it will contain the customer data. This can be in the form of IP information from the cookies or other personal data such as email, real name and credit card information. We can easily assume that a hacker or similar personnel can use these customer data with malicious intent.
Protects the physical equipment
Your physical devices are only as safe as the websites you use. This statement essentially states that if website security importance is compromised, it will get compromised regardless of what device you use. We all know that hackers and other such people can use malware attacks and cyber attacks to record and track your movement and personal information. While this may seem similar to a website’s threat, we must remember that a website only contains information and personal data regarding the specific website. However, physical equipment contains information on just about every website you use.
If such information gets to your device through a compromised website, you can easily guess the consequences. Therefore as a customer, good website security will not just prevent such malware but can also notify you of the malware you got from other websites if they try to access their information through your devices. As such, website security is important for protecting your physical equipment!
Better user experience
A website contaminated with malware is never easy to use. It may be filled with links, be extremely slow or redirect the customer to another website. Even if the malware just makes a website slow and nothing much, it can easily turn the user experience sour. As modern internet users, people will close the website if it takes a long time to load or has bad UX.
The conclusion,
In the end, website security is important for a customer because of data security, device security and user experience. We don’t need to say that personal information is extremely valuable, especially if it is connected with your payment and financial details. If it gets into the wrong hands, you can face any form of problems ranging from simple targeted ads and spam emails to randoms and threats.
We hope you found this helpful. And as always, thank you for reading till the end.
Casey is a digital marketing consultant, author, and instructor. She has more than 4 years of practical experience with SEO and digital marketing. Casey holds an MSc Degree in eCommerce and has consulted with Fortune 50 companies in different industries. She blogs regularly about SEO and Digital marketing, and her work has been referenced by leading marketing websites. Connect with Casey on Twitter and LinkedIn.