Is Your Website Secure?

Google Chrome's latest update could render your site as "insecure". Two years ago they made a pledge to get the world on to a secure platform by naming and shaming sites that aren't encrypted.

Web security has always been important and through the updated Chrome browser, Google aims to create a safer environment on the web. How? By flagging Not Secure websites. This could definitely have a negative impact on your business.

• Customers will be weary about transacting on a website that’s unsafe. Google Chrome 68 will now flag websites as Not Secure if they’re not encrypted. With a Not Secure site, visitors, sales, sign ups, purchases and business could all drop.

• Google will start prioritising websites that are secure to the top of search engine results page. Therefore, if you are not secure, you WILL take a significant hit to your results to the point your customers may never even get that far down the list.
• It should be noted that Google Chrome is not the only browser enforcing this update. Firefox will also be introducing a similar concept. Between the 2 browsers alone, this represents a whopping 3 out of 4 of all your customers.

n basic terms, encryption is a way to make your and importantly your customer data secure from 'sniffers' and other malicious software especially common to public wifi but can also happen at home. It turns data from a human readable format to unreadable whilst in transmission. The process all happens seamlessly behind the scenes with the use of an SSL Certificate that needs to be obtained separately.

Fortunately all 'Powered by Irez' sites come with an SSL Certificate as part of your package and is always up to date. Having an up to date SSL Cert is just part of the daily battle in the interwebs these days. Ensuring your code/plugins/extension is also up to date and safe from harm also forms a vital part of ensuring your business expertise isn't wasted chasing your tail due to malicious attacks, or worse your customer data being stolen.

Under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) there is now legal requirements for organisations to notify your customers of any potential breaches, the problem of course, is unless you have a solid understanding of your IT infrastructure you may not even realise how long it has been going on for until it's far too late and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has to intervene. This could lead to serious fines or worse closure of your business.

Contact usfor a no obligation security check the health of your site and network. We've partnered with Google and Esetto help bring you the very best security options for your business.