Generally, people know nothing about security and the only time they become aware of it is when their site ends up hacked. The reason I’m writing this is because I don’t want you to be the next victim. It’s easier to prevent things than to do a complete website recovery. While I was reading articles online, I saw one very interesting quote: “Most companies believe they will be hacked in 2015” – fortune.com , which is actually good, because those who believe will do whatever is needed to protect their online investment before it’s too late.
Negative effects of security intrusion
Visitors/Customers
If your site is compromised, in most cases, your visitors will be aware of that. Antivirus programs installed on the visitors PC’s are able to detect malware on the site and notify the user. After the visitor gets such notification, he will literally run away from your site and you’ll lose the potential client. But, that’s not all.. compromised sites can cause even bigger damage because certain malwares can infect PC’s, mobile phones, tablets etc… so, pretty much, poor security can have very negative consequences on a long-term basis.
Hosting
Hosting providers have a tendency to suspend compromised sites in order to protect other users on the same server. In those cases, a WordPress developer always has to beg hosting support to put the site back online so he will be able to perform a complete clean up and inspection. If no action has been taken for a certain amount of time, the hosting provider will simply delete your files and data and cancel the hosting account. Some of the security loopholes could be caused by the server that is not properly maintained, but that’s something that hosting providers would never publicly say, it’s not in their interest.
Google has its own way of determining if a site is infected or not. Ideally you should clean up your site before Google notices that it has been compromised, because otherwise, your SEO rank may drop and your URL could be marked with warning “This site may be compromised” in the search results. This means that you won’t get any new visits from Google, because no one normally would click on a compromised link and put his PC in danger.
Loss of valuable data
Depending on what kind of malware infected your WordPress site, you may lose your valuable content & data you’ve been collecting and publishing for years. Some of the malwares have a tendency to spread to all WordPress files and data, while the other ones are affecting only posts and pages (with Iframes, backlinks etc..). As for security insurance, it’s very important to always keep a fresh copy of your site by doing regular backups from time to time.
Reputation
WordPress security plays a big role in your online reputation. To understand the significance of security, imagine that you’re the owner of online store that has regular buyers, and suddenly the site gets hacked and customers vital info goes into the wrong hands. Wouldn’t that be a complete disaster? I would say, not only a disaster but also the end of that online business. So, without proper WordPress security, you are risking having all your work and efforts ruined over night. As I said in the beginning, it’s much easier to secure the site and prevent hacks, than to later on deal with all negative effects of security intrusion.
If you are interested in making your site secure like never before, get in touch to receive a free security audit.