As an online business owner, you face treacherous Internet security risks every time you go online. Viruses, hackers and spam await you at every turn. The reality is that these threats will always be a component of being online and doing business online. Unfortunately, it seems that they are here to stay.
Given that, there are a number of precautions you can take to keep yourself, your business, and your site visitors as safe as possible. Here are 8 proven tactics to improve your Internet security:
1. Virus protection. Make sure you have the latest virus updates installed on your computer, and let the software thoroughly scan your entire computer every day to make sure no viruses successfully plant themselves on your hard drive. Set your antivirus to scan your email when downloaded too.
I use AVG Free to scan both my computer and my email. They also have a paid version that provides complete internet protection. McAfee and Norton also offer similar products.
For spyware and malware protection, I use CounterSpy. The company that makes this software also has a new product to protect against viruses and spyware called VIPRE.
2. Spam Blocker. I have a spam blocker that I use with Outlook called Cloudmark Desktop that does a great job of helping me train my email program to recognize spam. What I like about this program is that the users of the program tell Cloudmark what spam arrives in their inboxes and the developers update Cloudmark accordingly to recognize those types of emails. Other spam blocking programs include IHateSpam and MailWasher.
3. Web hosting spam blocker. To block spam before it even reaches my Outlook inbox, one of my hosting accounts offers Postini spam blocking on my server. I pay a few extra bucks each month to add this service, but it’s worth it as it routinely blocks at least 100 spam emails a day. I always have the option to log into that account if I’m missing an email that I may have ended up there accidentally, and I can “whitelist” the sender so there won’t be a problem next time. Every night this service sends me a list of emails that are questionable (meaning the service isn’t sure if it’s spam) and I quickly scan them to approve any that have been misidentified.
4. Spam at the email address. One of the easiest ways to add your email address to massive email spam lists is to include a clear link to your email address on your website. Spambots routinely patrol the Internet looking for readily available email addresses to harvest online. Even if you have the “hidden” link saying “click here to send an email”, which will display your email address in the visitor’s email program, the spam bot can read the HTML source code and harvest the Email address.
Instead, remove your email address from all of your websites. Use a contact form for people to send you emails that incorporates CAPTCHA technology (where the form filler has to read a graphical representation of a word, set, or numbers to prove they are not a spam bot). I use the free version of Freeback for this task.
5. Discussion list spam. If your email address should appear on discussion lists, blog posts, or forum posts, use a free email address like those available from Gmail or Yahoo. In this way, you protect your “real” email address from being picked up by spambots.
6. Catch-all email address. If your web hosting company allows it, create a general email address that receives all email that is not specifically marked for a set POP email address or email forwarding that you have set up. When you sign up for someone’s free giveaway, for example, that will add you to their marketing list, you can enter an email address that reminds you of the site or giveaway you used it on.
For example, if I subscribe to Jane Smith’s free dog training tips report, I could use [email protected], which will then end in my general domain email address. This way, you don’t have to reveal your “real” email address and you can determine if the list holder sells or rents your email address to another. So if you suddenly start getting emails at your [email protected] address from a dog food company you’ve never heard of, you know that Jane sold or rented her email address to them.
7. Firewalls and Hackers. Make sure you are using Windows firewall protection, at the very least, to protect your computer from being hacked while online. Or use a free firewall like ZoneAlarm. You can also upgrade for a fee for enhanced protection.
If you use a wireless router, be sure to set a password to protect it so that anyone passing by your home or office can’t hijack your signal and potentially hack into your computer. I was resetting the wireless connection on my laptop last week and found out that there were 3 unsecured wireless connections in my neighborhood. I live in a residential section with no businesses, so I know these were unsecured wireless routers in my neighbors’ houses.
8.Secure Server. If you are selling something online, your website hosting account or your shopping cart provider must have a security certificate so that any monetary transactions can go through a secure server. You can verify if your checkout is secure by looking for https:// in your browser’s address window when you’re on your site’s checkout/shopping cart page. Some browsers will also display a gold closed lock icon when you are on a secure server.
I had to purchase a security certificate from my hosting company for my membership site, since the secure server was not integrated into the shopping cart that is integrated into the membership site software. If you use Paypal or any version of 1ShoppingCart.com, you are safe, since your customers’ transactions are made through a secure server.
When you make sure your computer and email are protected from spam, viruses, malware, and the like, your customers are safe when you send them an email or upload something to your site for them to access. Responsible online business owners should take all available precautions to improve Internet security for everyone involved.