What Happens If Your Website Goes Off Line Permanently?

What Happens If Your Website Goes Off Line Permanently?

We are getting reports that business websites are being attacked by ransomware (Ransomware is a type of malicious cyber attack which locks up all of the files and data on a computer until you pay the criminals to release it). This effectively takes the website offline until the ransom is paid.

In particular, this is affecting websites built on a common software platform called WordPress. Although, we have been expecting this development for sometime and will likely affect other websites as well in time. There is nothing bad about WordPress per se, it is just the most widely used.

What To Do To Protect Your Web Site

Funnily enough – exactly the same as you do on you IT system! However in our experience this is often not being done.

  1. Make sure the version of WordPress (or other software on the site) is fully up to date. Check “plugins” as well, and any underlying software
  2. Have a regular backup taken of your site so you can restore if the worst happens
  3. Check how many “admin” accounts there are to login to the site and if all are needed
  4. Check that they passwords used to access the site are all strong and not used on other sites as well
  5. Ask your web hosting people what network protection they have in front of your website to block malicious traffic before it gets to your site
  6. Put some monitoring in place to alert you if your website goes down or is modified without your knowledge

Of course the level of security you put around your site would be proportional to the importance of the site to your business, and what the consequences of losing the site for a period of time would be.

If you would like any further information regarding this article or any other area please do not hesitate to contact me: chrismward@vermont.co.uk