As we become more and more dependent on the internet, we open ourselves up to vulnerabilities in our online security. Just last month, the stock market was sent spiralling after the Associated Press had their Twitter account hacked and hackers sent out a tweet saying that the White House had been attacked and the President injured. The same hackers have also previously targeted the Financial Times, the BBC and satirical news website The Onion, prompting Twitter to add a new security feature which requires users who opt-in to input a code sent via text message in order to log in to their account.
While having your business' website hacked might not cause mass panic on the stock market, it will certainly have a negative impact on your trading and brand. Rhye Media are proud to say that not a single site hosted on our servers has been hacked. However, we have designed and produced sites for clients who have chosen to use less secure hosting services, which have consequently been hacked.
As we have previously mentioned numerous times, we take the utmost care with the security of our server and attempt to ensure that our clients are running the most update and secure versions of their required software. While we do have a back-up system in place, should your site ever be hacked, prevention is always better than cure.
There are different types of computer hacking. If your account is hacked, it will probably be used to send spam; bulk e-mail sent most commonly for commercial purposes in an unsolicited means. Spam can also be used to send out fraudulent requests for personal and financial information which appear to come from official sources, or with attached links that, when clicked, download a virus or direct you to obscene or offensive content.
If your site is hacked, your ad words and marketing campaigns will be blacklisted and cancelled, due to their links to unsavoury and unsafe content. Not only does this cost you money, exposure and potential clients, it can take time to rectify due to Google's use of caching content. Depending on how far into your system the hackers have gone, your business' and your clients' confidential information could be compromised.
If you have been the victim of a cyber attack you need to immediately change all of your passwords, update and scan all content on your server and personal computers, and check your server logs for any suspicious file activity (last modified dates are good for this) to ensure that once you've kicked the hackers out they won't be able to get back in. Let anyone who may have been affected by this breach know that you've been hacked so that they can protect themselves, too. If you've had a particular account hacked, here are some links you may find helpful for reclaiming it as your own; for Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo!.
To save yourself all of the time, stress and lost revenue that goes into reclaiming a hacked account, make sure that you're using a secure server and up to date software throughout your site.
If you have any questions, concerns or queries, use our Online Support system to get in touch. You can also check out our newly updated Rhye Smile section for articles containing tips, tricks and commonly asked questions.