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Studies find that small businesses leave their websites open to hacker attacks
A recent study has revealed that 2 in 3 small business websites in the UK are vulnerable to attacks from hackers.
We found that just 33% were employing anti-hacker software on their websites. In addition, only 36% of the survey said they had anti-phishing software installed whilst 14% admitted to having no security measures for their website whatsoever.
Many more businesses in the UK are making sales online, heightening the need to keep sensitive customer data safe and sites free from malicious intrusion attempts. The Financial Times recently reported that the UK is the world leader in ecommerce, predicting that the sector will contribute £225 billion to GDP by the year 2016. Further to this, small businesses that embraced the internet for sales and marketing were seen to grow by 12% per year. Despite this, a study by WorldPay found that over half of UK consumers still have concerns about security when buying online.
A recent survey conducted by Ponemon Research revealed that 90% of businesses said they have been hacked, showing the extent of hacker activity. Common methods of infiltrating sites include SQL injections which can result in confidential information being stolen for fraudulent activities, and cross site scripting which can result in visitor redirects, stolen account details and the spread of viruses.
Anti-virus software and firewalls were the most popular security measures amongst small businesses in the survey, methods which alone are not considered effective enough to protect against hackers. Whilst web hosting providers take steps to prevent malicious attempts to hack sites through measures such as deep packet inspection which monitors the traffic on a network to detect suspicious activity, the onus is on small businesses and all website owners to be personally vigilant to prevent attacks.
Steps such as installing regular software updates, employing strong and secure passwords, email previewing windows, regular website backups and effective anti-hacker software are all proven methods of defending a website against hack attacks.
“It’s extremely important for small businesses to protect themselves from malicious attacks to their website”, said Compnix Internet director Jonathan Brealey. “Repairing damaged sites proves costly both financially and from a PR perspective as you may find you have to win back the trust of your customer base if you have been hacked. Security software such as StopTheHacker, which works with your anti-virus software and firewalls, should be a necessity for any small business website, whether you trade online or not.”
Compnix Internet provide small businesses with a comprehensive range of website security services including StopTheHacker, online backup solutions, SSL Certificates, and Hosted Exchange
New Survey finds majority of the UK do not know what Web Hosting means
New research published today indicates the UK general public are unaware of the web hosting industry.
A survey conducted by UK hosting company Compnix Internet, polling a representative sample of 1,000 people, discovered that nearly two thirds (61 per cent) said that they had never heard of the term “web hosting”.
With over 4.4 million active websites currently hosted in the UK, as reported by Netcraft, and over 10 million .UK domain names registered with Nominet, the results of the survey suggest that whilst the demand for owning a personal website is healthy, web hosting remains a niche technical product.
“What this tells us is that the web hosting industry isn’t a mainstream consumer product yet, we need to be careful that we use the right language and channels to reach them” commented a Compnix Internet director. “For example, when selling to people building their first website we should not be using technical terms such as bandwidth or MySQL databases. Instead we need to inform them about the personal benefits of using our product, and how it will help them achieve their goal of building a successful website.”
According to the research, 35-44 year olds are the most common age group to have heard of web hosting (46.9 per cent saying they had), whilst 18-24 year olds were the least likely (30.2 per cent saying they knew what web hosting is). Additionally, a larger proportion of men (43.9 per cent) claimed to be aware of the term “web hosting”, than women (32.9 per cent).
Compnix Internet Hosting Launches Advanced Website Builder For Designers
Compnix Internet (Compnix Internet) has announced the launch of SiteDesigner, their brand new website builder software giving customers the ability to design, publish and manage their website without writing any code.
According to Compnix Internet, SiteDesigner has been created to scale depending on the user’s knowledge and requirements. Beginners with no technical knowledge can use drag and drop tools to create a website quickly and easily, whereas experienced web designers can utilise advanced tools to speed up the process of building a website.
Starting at £5.99 per month, the software comes with web hosting included and over a hundred professionally designed templates for customers to customise to their own requirements using the drag and drop interface. Advanced features include direct access to the HTML and CSS, ecommerce functionality plus built in scripts such as contact forms, maps, social media widgets and image galleries. Compnix Internet reseller customers are also being given the ability to sell SiteDesigner to their clients along with a 25% discount on the monthly price.
“We believe SiteDesigner is a major step forward for online web builder products” said a Compnix Internet directo. “Every pixel can be customised to the customer’s needs, and the easy to use drag and drop system makes building a beautiful website a reality for non-designers. Additionally, SiteDesigner can be used by professional website designers to speed up how long it takes to launch a great looking website.”