February 2018 stands apart as the month when many people realised their worst fears. Thousands of government sites and at least 5,000 private sites went down or were infected with cryptocurrency mining malware.
In the UK alone, “cryptojacking” (hacking bitcoins and other digital currencies) has skyrocketed by 1,200 per cent.
If you’ve been putting off your next website backup, it could already be too late. Many of today’s hardest-fought battles are occurring on the digital frontier. Here are the seven top reasons you need to backup your website.
1. Because It’s Not “If” But “When” You Get Hacked
Having your website hacked remains a grim, inescapable reality in the twenty-first century and one that comes with serious consequences. Sixty per cent of small businesses hit by a malware attack are out of business six months later.
But when you back up your site regularly and keep it malware free, you don’t have to become one of these statistics.
2. Because Every Update Brings Hackers Closer to Cracking Your Website
One of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) out there, WordPress accounts for 27 per cent of all websites. An open-source platform, everybody and their mother has access to the coding.
When WordPress updates their core files to fix exploitable vulnerabilities, they clue hackers in on their weak spots, too.
The moment core updates go live, hackers update their malware injection bots. This brings hackers one step closer to exploiting your website.
3. Because Your Biggest “Exploitable Vulnerability” Remains “Lack of Time”
Hackers send these bots out to infect any and all sites not yet updated. If you’re not backing up your website or staying on top of updates the moment they go live, you’re in serious trouble.
As a small business owner, we understand how strapped you are for time. So do hackers. In fact, your “lack of time” remains your number one exploitable vulnerability, one that hackers won’t think twice about leveraging.
4. Computers Crash Often
Alright, maybe you’ve reached this point in the article, and you’re patting yourself on the back. You back up your computer regularly and store it on your local computer. So, you’re off the hook, right?
Nope!
One of the great inevitabilities of modern life is that computers crash… often. And when they do, it spells serious trouble in the form of unreadable hard drives and lost backups.
5. Because You Need to Think in Threes
While backing up to a local computer’s a start, you need to go the extra mile. That means making sure you always back up to at least three sources:
- A reputable vendor
- A local computer or external drive
- Your live site
Be sure to name each backup with some type of date convention so that you can quickly and easily access the most recent backups should the worst happen.
6. Because Updates Can Mess Up Everything
Updates can get really messy. They don’t always go as expected, which can leave you in a serious lurch if you don’t have a solid backup to fall back on.
But when you have backups in place, all you have to do is hit a button to restore your site.
7. Because It’s Easier Than You Think to Miss a Payment
Again, based on the assumption that your number one exploitable vulnerability is time, missing a payment falls within the realm of possibilities.
Perhaps the invoices have been hoarded away in your junk folder by your email provider. Or, they’re buried under a mammoth pile of spam email in your inbox. You may have gotten a new credit card and forgotten to update the payment info. Whatever the case, the result is a website offline.
In the mad scramble to figure out what the problem is and fix it, you may have to repurchase your hosting plan. You may need to restore your site. All of this proves a whole heck of a lot easier when you’ve got a recent backup to work with.
Website Backup Matters
Making regular website backup an integral part of your office procedures isn’t always a possibility. Nevertheless, it is a necessity. What to do?
Go with the expert team at Razz Hosting for all of your website backup needs. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help your company with its online presence and business communications.