Cyber and internet security is now more important than ever. With organisations such as Anonymous continually targeting government websites, it really does seem like nobody is safe. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that your business and its website will be targeted to this extent, it is best to be prepared for the worst case scenario. In order to make sure your website is safe, and in order to see whether it would be able to withstand being ‘hacked’, you can get it tested. But what is this testing and how can it help you? Here, we explain in detail.
Why Does Your Website Need to be Safe?
Your website needs to be safe so that it can’t be hacked by people who are looking to steal information. If you’re the owner of an e-commerce website this is particularly the case as it’s likely that your website will be strong the information of all of your clients. This could mean that, if your site is hacked, the hackers can take credit card information. This recently happened with TalkTalk, and they’re facing big fines.
How Do You Know if Your Site is Safe?
There are lots of little plug-ins and pieces of software that you can download in order to make your website safer. However, unless you’re a website developer or someone who is incredibly internet savvy, it’s more than likely that you’ll be unsure how vulnerable your website is. Downloading anti-virus software, anti-malware software and installing firewalls are all helpful ways to boost your site’s security, making it a trustworthy source. However, even then you’ll still be unsure of exactly how safe it is. Thankfully, specialists can help with penetration testing. This shows you just how safe your site is.
Penetration testing shows how vulnerable your website is to attacks, meaning that you can ‘plug the gaps’ to make sure it’s safe. It shows how simple it is for a potential hacker to gain access to a website and its data. This includes testing whether employees from within the company can hack the data through the internal firewall.
There are two types of testing, one known as internal testing (more focused on the company and its employees) and one known as external testing (more focused on hackers and people outside the organisation).
To conclude, internet security is highly important, especially with the rise of internet shopping and cyber-attacks. So up your site’s security and install penetration testing to your security system to make sure your site could withstand an attack.
