The dangers of the digital world have taken us by surprise to some extent. People were not fully prepared for the rapid rise of the internet and digital security can often be lacking, but it is increasingly important. In light of the recent, global speight of cybercrime that has hit some of the largest organizations in the world, everybody is keen to make sure they are safe. Large companies will be able to afford a cyber-security team that can keep on top of things, but for a smaller organization, it is a bit more difficult. Without being able to pay a professional, you need to identify any problems yourself, but how do you do that? Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly clever and a lot of the time it is almost impossible to tell if your website has been hacked. Fortunately, there are a few tell-tale signs to watch out for and some ways to test your site.
Unusual Activity
This is a bit of a broad piece of advice, but any unusual activity could be due to a hack. One of the more common things to look out for is a sudden spike in traffic. It could mean that your website has become very popular in a short space of time, but it is not normal for a site to drastically increase its traffic overnight. If the extra visitors seem to be on a lot of older posts that people won’t be likely to be reading then this is a definite warning sign. Another thing to watch out for is visitors from strange places. You aren’t likely to be getting many visitors from halfway around the world in a country that you don’t do any business in so this can be a sign of a problem as well.
Bad Functionality
If a website isn’t working as well as it should, there could be a number of different reasons for it. It might be something completely innocent, but on the other hand, it could be due to a security breach. When having issues with your website, you should visit places like https://www.qasymphony.com/software-testing-tools/integrations/jira-test-management/ to help you run diagnostics. If you’re lucky, then you may find certain errors that are causing the problems. However, if everything seems to be normal then you should start testing for hacks.
Testing Software
There are a few different pieces of software out there that you can use to check whether your site has been hacked. Google Webmaster will scan and report any problems back to you. Unfortunately, it also alerts visitors to the site, which may not be a good thing if you want customers to keep coming back.
iThemes Security is another very good tool to use. It focuses on searching files for any alterations and then emails you the results. As this is the most common way that hackers will attack your site, it’s a good way of testing for breaches.
If you are careful, you should be able to protect yourself from the perils of cyber-attack.