Why You Must Update Your Website Regularly

03/29/2020

We're going to be talking about websites and why building a website isn't just a once off activity. A lot of business owners build a website, and they think, "oh, okay, it's made, it's done and it's finished." They think of it like it is a book. But the problem is that it isn't like a book. It's more like a car. When you make a car sometimes it works really well but sometimes it doesn't.

If you get it serviced regularly it'll continue to work really well. If you don't, it might not. Eventually, something's going to crash. Something's going to go wrong. Something's going to break down.

For your website, if it's any of the modern websites that are around such as Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, there are thousands of files that they rely upon being updated and kept secure. A website sits on a server in the cloud. The cloud, or a server in the cloud, is kind of like you have someone that you're renting a property off. So you have this property which is awesome and you're renting it and it's nice and secure. It's got Crimsafe. It's got deadbolts. No one's getting into this property unless you give them the key. That's one of the problems.

Secure Your Website!

If you give them the password or in this case the key, you may be letting them into your business or your website. If they are logged in on their browser and their computer gets infected, you could be up shit creek. So don't give out your passwords. That's a big one. Especially for things as important as your website and any online presence. Now, back to the analogy. If you've got a landlord, awesome locks, everything's looking great. You move in and you put all your stuff in there, so your TV, your lounge, all your kit and caboodle, everything moves into this house and you keep the door locked. Awesome, no one's going to take your stuff.

If you leave the front or back door open intruders can jump in and knock off your stuff, deface your website. What's worse is they can actually pipe traffic through your site, giving you a very big bill with your hosting provider or a slap on the wrist where they may ban you for using their service. You could also get the federal police contacting you because you're trying to be a different site that you're not meant to be. For instance, we've seen people's websites that have been changed to mimic Westpac Bank, NAB, Commonwealth Bank and PayPal. They've pumped tens of thousands of visitors through asking them for credit card details and people have unfortunately entered them.

Pay Attention to What is Going On

Now, because you're negligent does not mean that the activity you're doing was not fraudulent. You need to keep on top of it. If you're not paying for updates for your site, you are at a huge risk and the public embarrassment with your site going down. You need to really make sure you're on top of it. If you don't have your back door open, you'll know for sure that no intruders will come into your back door.

Think About Who Hosts Your Website

Most website hosting providers are not actually giving you the whole server as it costs them way too much. A good example is that one of our servers costs us $1300 a month to have maintained. This covers power, dual internet connections, backup power, the actual rack space that we have to have in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. This cost a lot of money. If you're paying $5 or $6 or $10, that means for them to make no money and break even at $1300, they have to have 130 people just like you on their site at $10 a month for them to break even.

Hopefully, they want to make some money. So, they're going to be having more than that. That means that you've got 130 other people that you're sharing resources with. If you're sharing those resources, and they get hacked, chances are if you've gone with a reputable host for your website you won't have a problem and your site won't get hacked. But it might slow down your site or it might put you on a blacklist.

So, you want to make sure you're with someone who ideally isn't sharing as much as that. If your host is only paying $200 or $300 for their hosting and then they're only charging you at $5 or $10, you might go, "ah cool. I'm only sharing it with 30 to 60 people." That's true, you are, but the type of infrastructure that you're on won't be very good. That is not going to give you great speeds. Keep this in mind when you are considering updating your website. Stay good!

To learn more about cybersecurity, go to our blog https://dorksdelivered.com.au/blog/it-solutions/ or subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/DorksDelivered/.

About This Author

Dorks Delivered

Dorks Delivered gives you on-call system engineers. Looking after all of your equipment has never been so easy. It can be done 24 hours a day remotely or on-site. Using cutting edge technology, Dorks Delivered can detect your problems before they cause you downtime!…