Let’s face it: You’ve invested lots of time and money into your website in order to create the best resource for promoting your writing. But here’s an unfortunate fact of today’s world—you must be vigilant about keeping your author website safe from frauds, hackers, spammers, and other e-criminals. Your website safety must be a top priority. The following survey can help you determine if your author website is safe and secure.
Is Your Website Secure? Answer Yes or No to These Questions:
1. Do I display my physical contact or other personally identifiable information? Yes No
- If you’d like to keep parts of your life private, don’t broadcast them on the Web. Publicly displaying your name, address, date of birth, and phone number makes it that much easier for hackers to gain access to your information and leaves you open to identity theft.
2. Is my site’s hosting server password protected? Yes No
3. Is my site on a shared server with other sites? Yes No
4. Is my Web host available with next-day (or better) support? Yes No
- Make sure your hosting company offers next-day (or better) support and security options such as spam filters, and extra levels of security such as additional passwords, before a site can be accessed.
5. Do I use a contact form instead of displaying my email address? Yes No
6. Do I use CAPTCHAs (spam-thwarting programs) on my forms? Yes No
- Don’t publicize your email address. It’s a good idea to instead install CAPTCHAs on your website contact forms to help protect against spam entries. CAPTCHAs require the user to enter a specific combination of letters and numbers that is randomly generated in order for the form to be submitted. This protects against the thousands of spam robots that attack sites on a daily basis. Pro Tip: If you’re using WordPress, Akismet is a great plugin that can identify and quarantine spam comments on your blog.
7. Do I have domain privacy enabled on my domain’s registrar? Yes No
- Privacy protection is a company-controlled security measure used to mask the identity of your personal information when you register your URL. While you will usually have to pay extra for the service, it is a must if you’re concerned about privacy, hackers, or spam.
8. Are my site username and password strong? Yes No
- A strong password has at least eight characters, uses upper- and lowercase letters, has numbers, and includes symbols. Even stronger—don’t spell out any complete words. A hard-to-crack user name features at least six characters in a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols.
9. Do I perform regular maintenance to ensure my site’s CMS/plugins are up to date? Yes No
10. Do I make regular backups of my site’s content? Yes No
If you answered NO to three or more of the questions above, your website may be at risk. Take steps now to protect your author website and your identity by implementing the suggestions above. And check out our blog for more suggestions on how to keep your website secure.
If you want professional Web designers—who also understand the unique needs of writers—to help you build a new, secure website, schedule a free consultation with our experts today!
QUESTION: What security measures do you take to protect your author website?
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