After a brief affair with a full-time role that ended abruptly due to budget cuts (very disappointing considering how much work I put in setting it up, but glad it ended now and not in 6 months time) and a hacked website at the beginning of the year, Hazel Brown Creative is back up-and-running (although I never really left) and feeling stronger than ever!
With a renewed determination to jump back in, I’ve got some exciting new content lined up. Podcast, HAZEL TALKS, part 2 will be out very soon and I will be running some workshops in marketing, website building and storytelling for SMEs and freelancers. Keep an eye out or sign up to my mailing list for updates.
What I learnt from being hacked
Being in the marketing and digital realm, the last thing you’d think you’d want to admit is that your website got hacked. However, I’ve decided to be transparent about it because although something went wrong, I have most certainly learnt from this and will not be letting it happen again! We’re talking a fairly hardcore malware-based hack here – it got into every single file across two of my websites I’d spent a long time building. Now whilst this was incredibly irritating and frustrating, a small part of me thought it was a little bit exciting that someone thought it worth hacking my small business. That said, any website is at risk, no matter how frequently visited it is, so my business wasn’t “special”. It can happen to anyone.
WordPress is the most commonly used website content management system – 34% of the internet is powered by it. If you have any weaknesses anywhere including outdated themes or plugins you are at risk. Being the most popular system, it’s also the most hacked. So, it’s really important you work with or get advice from someone who knows what they doing or can support with ensuring your website is as secure as possible if you feel your knowledge is lacking. As a minimum, it’s extremely important to ensure you keep everything up-to-date.
It’s important to distinguish the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org (WordPress.com is a hosted service owned by commercial company Automattic taking some of the pressure off you to secure your site. Whilst WordPress.org is the cheaper open source choice but also requires a lot more updates and security measures to be taken by yourself or your developer). No website is 100% hack-proof and it’s certainly worth keeping this in mind if you are dealing with user’s sensitive information like addresses and phone numbers. It’s important you do as much as humanly possible to keep this data safe.
Do not underestimate the power of backing up and taking screenshots of your website. Every single time you make an update. It’s one of those high on the list but I’ll get around to it soon, I promise, kind of tasks – but don’t make it one of those tasks. Do it. Every. Single. Time. Thankfully I managed to salvage most of my content for both my websites, but it did take a bit of rebuilding. I have now implemented an additional backup process and have ensured that security has been improved and increased for my website and any clients I work with, taking the worry out of the process.
With a refreshed and updated website, Hazel Brown Creative is back in business. Watch this space!
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