DW Tips

Google recently released their latest Webspam Report which details how the search giant fought Search spam in 2020. The comment that really jumped out at us was that, 'Hacked spam was still rampant in 2020 as the number of vulnerable websites remained quite large'.

Hacked sites can be used for a variety of fraudulent and sneaky activities; for example using harmful code to record keystrokes on visitors' computers to steal their login credentials for online banking, or using the site as a Trojan Horse to redirect visitors to phishing sites.

As Google said in the report, it is easier to prevent a site from getting hacked than to recover from a hack.  Although hackers and cyber criminals are becoming ever more sophisticated, there are three basic measures you can take to keep your website safe:

1. Use strong passwords, and don't store them on your computer
2. Keep your website's software updated, and remove any software you're no longer using
3. Backup the website regularly

For peace of mind, talk to us about our website hosting services

Helpful Resources

Here are some helpful resources for keeping yourself and your business safe online:

1. StopBadware - https://www.stopbadware.org/
2. Google's Webspam Report 2020 - https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/04/how-we-fought-search-spam-2020
3. certnz - responding to cyber security threats in New Zealand - https://www.cert.govt.nz/