Small business owners are just as vulnerable to website security hacks as big companies, a new report found. And the risks of vulnerability go far beyond online downtime.
According to GoDaddy鈥檚 , a commissioned research and analysis of over 65,000 infected website cleanup requests from small business customers, due to limited budgets and knowledge of online security, small business owners fail to prioritize protection of their business websites.
What they don鈥檛 realize is that by doing this, they鈥檙e actually risking even greater financial losses.
鈥淲e refer to this as the small business website security paradox鈥攕mall business owners lack the knowledge and their perceived notion of funds needed to more fully secure their website,鈥 said Tony Perez, general manager for security of GoDaddy. 鈥淏ut once the website gets hacked, it can lead to significant financial loss due to its effect on business reputation.鈥
Once a website gets hacked or infected with malware, which are the common problems small business websites face, the effects can go beyond just downtime. Companies such as Google and Norton flag an online portal as dangerous once they detect that it has beencompromised. This action negatively affects traffic to a website and eventually can make it invisible online.
Google blacklists more than 10,000 websites a day. And getting off that blacklist is not easy.
Worse, if malware is present on a website, it can be even easier for hackers to explore its vulnerability.
Other key findings of the report reveal just how much it can affect business growth:
- Of the 1,000 micro-businesses surveyed, nearly half reported suffering a financial loss due to hacking.
- Three out of 10 small businesses who suffered a cyber breach reported they had to inform customers and clients.
- It鈥檚 not enough to clean up compromised files, hackers regularly create 鈥榖ackdoors鈥 on a compromised website, so they can secretly re-enter a platform even after a file cleanup.
- Malware/computer viruses and phishing are the most common types of attack & can target any aspect of a business.
- SEO spam is also popular among hackers. Hackers go into a website鈥檚 keywords and add malicious links, and often, small business owners aren鈥檛 aware this is happening.
- Of the 65,000 global website cleancup requests, half involved outdated software on the most commonly used platform and tools, including plug-ins on WordPress and other popular content management systems (CMS).
What can small businesses do?
Only half of businesses surveyed use a monitoring service to stay on top of their site鈥檚 security, with most relying on an effective password strategy. While it鈥檚 true that cybersecurity measures aren鈥檛 hacker-proof, it鈥檚 a good idea for small businesses to start to focus on keeping their business website better protected from potential downtime.
鈥淐ybersecurity is not about preventing a risk. That isn鈥檛 yet possible. It鈥檚 about reducing the risk. It鈥檚 understandable that very small business operators handle a lot and it鈥檚 hard to make website security a priority. But taking even modest steps can make a difference,鈥 Perez said.
GoDaddy recommends small business owners invest in a website security monitor service to keep an eye on any red flags or warning signs with 24/7 monitoring, deploy a website application firewall, and register with Google鈥檚 webmaster tools which alerts when there is an issue with the website before negatively impacting how it shows in search results.
