Cyber Security planning is highly crucial, It can either make, or break a business. ~Vikrant K. Roy

During the COVID surge the small and medium-sized businesses becoming more and more aware of online business strategy, and therefore rapidly implement software technologies into their business process to remain in the grid. However, hacking or security breach remains the major concern which your need to be aware of before taking your business online. It has been seen that SMB’s struggled to understand the security protocol involved in digital technology, and became the victim of what we called “Data loss or misuse”. It can cost your business major damage including financial loss and even more. If the issue is must be prevented while you’re doing your online business.

If you have ever encountered a security breach or may have such security-related concerns, then this article is just for you. It will help you understand the hacker mentality and how you can protect your precious data from the fingers of hackers.

Your software such as your website, mobile application, and business management software is live 24/7, thus hackers may try to breach it anytime from anywhere, you can prevent it by learning a few simple tips and tricks which you can also share with your friends, family, and colleges to help them prevent data loss.

How hacker deceive us?

  1. Hackers use insecure forms in the mail to send spam and virus. 

Hackers may place your domain and perhaps even the entire web server in mail blacklists and now you’re facing the problems of sending legitimate mail to others in the future. In addition, you have to deal with angry requests to stop sending spam and deal with potentially thousands of e-mail bounce messages for mail sent to addresses that do not exist.

2. Hackers can upload a program on your website and use your server to attack other sites.

This can severely slow down all of the websites hosted on your server as well as get your server placed on more blacklists.

3. The hacker can run a secret meeting place for his friends and other hackers right from your website.

Not only will this probably slow down your server, but it also puts other accounts on your server at risk as more hackers explore looking for other vulnerable sites.

4. Your website and all of the data it contains can be destroyed, defaced, stolen, or tampered with.

Hackers can use your hacked account on a shared server to gain access to other accounts or even the entire server (though their ability to do so depends in part on how your web host has the server configured).

5. Your website itself or the entire server could be attacked, keeping people from being able to visit it.

This can be done without compromising the data in your account and can be very difficult to stop once it starts. Your web host will need to assist you.

How to prevent hacking?

Data breaching is one of the major challenges of online business and there is no right answer that you your software or data will always be safe because not only the small business but even the big business are facing such crisis today, the only difference is that they can fix it quickly with their financial strength. You can prevent data breaches by using few simple steps.

1. Always create a strong password

Using a short and simple password on the Internet site you access may make life easier for you, it also makes hacking easier for hackers. We recommend you use a strong password that cannot be guessed easily. Always use different usernames and passwords on every website you access and keep a log of them all. Make sure the password contains letters and numbers, and ChAnGe ThE CaSe if the site password is case sensitive. Write a hint to yourself that you know will make it easy for you to reconstruct the correct password.

This is rather simple, but you can get the general idea from it. Several computer programs offer to save passwords and other sensitive information in a heavily encrypted format so only if a person knows the (hopefully hard to guess) master password will they be able to access your private info, even if they steal the file itself.

2. Insecure Scripts/Programs

Although that new script you found might be the best thing since the advent of the Internet, that doesn’t mean that it is secure. Hackers constantly look for holes that will allow them to bypass the security built into a script or program and the more popular a script is, the more likely that hackers will target it to try to find holes. Once you choose to install a script or program on your website (whether you use cPanel’s Scripts Library or install the script manually), it will be up to you to make sure that you keep up with installing the latest versions of a script. New versions of scripts don’t just add new features; they very often fix identified security holes. If you are uncertain how to go about updating the scripts you use, ask other people who use the same script or visit the website of the author(s) of the script in question and see if they have directions on how to upgrade from an older version. Chances are good that they will be able to help.

3. Social Engineering

Unbelievably, hackers can often gain access to your site directly from you. They might send you an e-mail claiming to be someone from your web host or some other official-sounding company. They may tell you that you need to go to a particular web page and update your personal information or enter your credit card information. The website might even look legitimate on the surface. How do you defend against this sort of thing? First, pay attention to what information you are being asked for. Does it make sense? Does the e-mail address, URL, and so on not match what you think it should? For example, if your web host doesn’t provide support via instant messaging clients and all of the sudden you get an instant message from someone claiming to be from them, be very careful and don’t give out any personal information. Immediately contact the company through official channels and find out if the contact is really from an employee or not.

4. Virus/Worm/Keylogger/Spyware

If you don’t have a good virus-scanning program, then you really should go out and get one right now Also, be sure to keep it up to date or it will be useless. Even if you have one that is up to date, don’t allow this to lull you into a false sense of security; new viruses and other security threats are released nearly every day, so it’s possible your virus scanner could miss the very latest virus/worm or keylogger.

Recommendation: We recommend you to use Kaspersky Total Internet security, which can protect your computer from the external drive as well as from the internet virus or spyware.

5. DOS (Denial of Service)

This sort of attack uses many computers to flood your web server with fake requests for information. While this won’t affect the data in your account like a direct hacking attempt could, it will slow down your server to the point where your website may no longer be accessible. Web hosts and data centers work hard to combat these sorts of attacks, but they are difficult to protect against. Please try to be understanding with your host if your server is the subject of a DOS attack because it can take a while to filter out all of the fake traffic and return things to normal.

What to do when your account is already hacked?

Remember, don’t panic! The damage to your account is already done. Try to stay calm and provide your web host with as much information as you can, mentioned are a few cases for you that occur frequently.

  • Hacking related to the personal computer or business software

Consult your software provider immediately, and explain the issue the situation that you’re facing.

  • In case of financial hacking

In case of your bank account-related concern, contact the bank immediately and block your credit/debit card associated with your hacked account. It is wise to take early action in case of finance-related matters.

  • In the case of social hacking.

It may happen that a hacker has hacked or used your social media account such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. In such a situation contact their customer service as early as possible.

We hope this article helps you understand about hacking and consequence, and how you can prevent it just following few simple steps mentioned here.