With more people setting up their own home-based, online businesses every day, the amount of vulnerable websites is increasing at an alarming rate.
And the blame for this lies mainly within the Internet marketing community itself.
Why? Using the powerful persuasion techniques at their disposal, many so-called Internet Marketing Gurus lure people into setting up their online businesses.
They do so by providing them with ready-made, plug and play websites that contain fundamental security flaws.
Do not forget that most of these sites are made by marketers, not programmers! And the consequences for you can be disastrous.
1. Index files malicious actions
One of the most common vulnerabilities – and paradoxically the most easily cured – is to ensure that each directory on your site contains an index file.
By default, web browsers, when directed to a directory, look for a file named index.
Varieties of extensions such as .html, .htm, .shtml or .php to name the most common ones may follow immediately after it.
If the browser does not encounter the index file, it will display the entire directory in a clickable navigation list.
Doing this will cause the browser to disclose all your content for all to see. Leaving your essential and often restricted content wide open to any vulnerable attack.
To avoid this scenario, you should make sure that you have at least one or a combination of the four following basic security measures in place:
Then make sure that all the internal links to that page are up to date as well!
You could also provide a message and a clickable link on that page to take your visitors to the correct page.
There are many free and easy code snippets available that you can implement to do so. And your visitors will not even notice that there is a redirection.
But keep it in a separate, secure directory and set up your payment processor to that directory. That way, you ensure that only people who have paid for the content have access to it.
2. Cookies side-jacking
Cookies are software that provides information about a user’s online search habit. Most types get stored on the user’s browser or hard drive to provide such information.
Many online platforms such as e-commerce, search engines like Google, and social media like Facebook all get to know what we are looking for online.
One’s browsing habit gives them knowledge of what kind of audience they are. These pools are what they collect from millions of internet users through the help of cookies.
They categorize it according to the target audience and sell it to online advertisers at a high price.
E-commerce platforms also use this in finding related content for a user based on their search history. Cookies make all these possible, targeting the audience with their browsing history.
But it is also one of the ways to track a user. That is because when a user leaves a website or any account they logged in to, the cookies do not go with them; it stays.
It remains as a mark that the user was there and may even last up to 3 months.
So that when the user logs in again into the same website or page, it will quickly recognize the visitor as the previous user.
But these cookies often get hijacked, and some may not even be aware of the cookies in the first place.
Therefore, the rightful authority requires every website, page, or account that uses cookies to notify the user to accept or not.
Cookies side-jacking or session hijacking occurs when a user logs into a service like a banking application and leaves without logging out.
Hijackers or attackers can rely on this information provided by the session cookies to perform fraudulent actions like transferring the original user’s money.
It then becomes vital to follow some measures that can prevent such attacks, such as;
Lack of internet security can hurt a digital marketing campaign. It becomes indispensable to do the needful to keep your customer and company safe.
3. WordPress sites attack
The WordPress platform is one of the popular website’s e-commerce and other online marketers use. Its popularity makes it a good target for online fraudsters.
And with more than 70% of WordPress users not optimizing their websites for security, it even makes it an easy one for them.
These hackers most times do not have an interest in the data and files. Their interest is in taking over the account to use it for fraudulent activities and in sending spam emails.
Therefore, it is essential to secure and update the necessary features using WordPress for your internet marketing.
The measures that will help you are;
4. Internet Bot threat
Internet bot or non-human traffic (NHT) is why more than 50% of internet traffic.
They easily target online marketers such as blogs, websites, web hosts, media buyers, sellers, etc., and its computerized nature makes it an easy one.
What these robots do is that they create traffic for online businesses such as internet marketers. It may come in the form of several clicks and impressions on online advertising.
Their main aim is to bring down websites, especially the ones that have low human traffic. They capture and multiply user’s identifications using it to create more falsified traffic.
One of its adverse effects on internet marketing is that it disrupts the traffic metrics, thereby presenting false data on the performance of a business.
It doesn’t only even stop at committing click fraud. It also creates and sends spam emails, record websites links and vital information from different pages (web scrapping), and more.
The measures you can use to prevent this are by;
When selling products online as an Internet Marketer or otherwise, you are more prone to people trying to get to your restricted content to avoid having to pay for it. These four basic security measures should help you drastically reduce the risk of unlawful access to your site and save you from a lot of headaches and worries.
