Your business website is like a shop where customers expect to be safe sharing their personal information and banking details. Hence, digital security is critical for winning the confidence of your customers.
India saw a 37% increase in cyberattacks in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the previous quarter.
Cyberattacks on small, local businesses are on the rise since they are more vulnerable to such attacks. Hackers don’t want to work any harder than necessary, which is why they go after websites with weak defenses.
6 benefits of securing a business website before an attack
With an increasing number of cyber-attacks across the nation, your business could be at risk too. As a business owner, you must know all the possible threats that a malware attack can pose to your business.
60 percent of small companies close within six months of being hacked.
Over the years, hackers have created new variants of malware that are stronger and more dangerous. Here’s a list of reasons why you should consider investing in website protection now.
1. Avoidance of loss of reputation
Businesses have to invest significant effort, time, and money in building their reputation in the markets where they operate. Hence, your topmost priority as a business must be to protect your customers’ data from hackers.
When customers buy your products or services, they’re trusting you with their private information like:
- Name
- Street address
- Phone
- Credit card details
- Aadhaar Number
Personal information like this is highly sought-after. Hackers keep trying to steal it through various malicious cyberattacks on any website that lacks adequate digital security.
If your website is hacked and your customer information is stolen, it may lead to significant financial losses to the customers and your company. For many small businesses, the worst damage is the loss of reputation.
The far-reaching consequences of a data breach
A hacked website attracts negative publicity in the media, and these kinds of news articles are common these days. You must have read the recent news about Zomato, where it suffered a security breach with over 17 million user records stolen from the food-tech company’s database.
Avoid this kind of situation and secure your website so that the users can view your company as a trusted brand that cares about protecting their information.
Editor’s note: GoDaddy’s new, improved Website Security suite protects against malware, DDoS, blacklisting, theft of your clients’ personal details — it even speeds up your site’s load time by 50%.
2. Impact on operations
Security gaps on your website can impact your business in a big way. Hackers may not only steal your customers’ data but also inject viruses on your site to hijack it, demanding a monetary ransom before they return control to you.
This leads to lengthy downtimes of the website and loss of productivity for the business.
Not only your business suffers in terms of revenue loss, but if the problem persists, it may lead to a permanent closure of the company as well.
3. Securing Intellectual Property
Many businesses own intellectual information and patented technology such as the designs of their products, applications, or systems. This kind of information is highly valued by thieves, as any company’s valuation is dependent on the intellectual property they own.
Hackers can try to steal this information and sell it on, or they may damage your software to an extent where you have to build the system from scratch again.
Businesses owning intellectual property should follow digital security protocols and keep regular backups to prevent (or recover from) such malicious attacks.
4. Legal impact
A website hack can not only lead to significant financial and reputational loss to your company, but it can also have legal implications. Statutory bodies can impose fines on your company since the customers’ financial information is at stake.
The authorities can also impose restrictions on your business activities.
The best way to avoid these adverse scenarios is to invest in digital security starting today and run your business with peace of mind.
5. Improving search engine ranking
Every day Google quarantines websites on the internet for being unsafe, as it is Google’s responsibility to lead web users to safe and malware-free websites.
To discourage visiting such websites, Google shows a warning message before you enter such sites. The warning message looks like shown in the figure below.
Google also blacklists sites that are not secure for users to browse because they contain malware.
If your site is blacklisted by Google, you can lose not only the organic traffic, but revenue also.
As a website owner, you understand the hard work that goes into improving your website SEO. Of course, you do not want all that work to go down the drain due to a digital security breach.
6. Cost of cleanup vs website protection
If your website has been hacked, then you must hire a professional to:
- Recover the website
- Clean it
- Estimate the extent of the damage to your business
By the time it’s all said and done, it will have cost a lot of money for the company. Therefore the hidden cost behind not securing the website in terms of revenue loss, reputation loss, and recovery cost is way higher than to secure it today.
As a rational business person, it makes sense to start investing in robust security infrastructure to keep your business safe and sustainable.
Good digital security pays off in customer trust and loyalty
It’s the right time for small businesses to start thinking about digital security and to be proactive about protecting their websites from malicious attacks.
Website protection now is cheaper than cure later!
Small and local businesses are more vulnerable to cyberattacks since they can act as a gateway to other, bigger companies’ data. Investing in the right digital security features allows your business to not only keep your customer’s data safe but also protect you from hefty monetary and reputational losses.
If you take the necessary steps to secure your business website, your customers will always trust you, and you will stay ahead of the competition.
