Every day, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people are targeted by cyber criminals trying to obtain their personal and financial information. More often than not, this is by email, text message or telephone. Attacks such as these are happening more and more often in these dire times and your online security is more important than ever.

Here are four ways that go a long way towards making your online experience a safe one.

1. Create long, strong and unique passwords.

Long, strong and unique passwords obviously are harder to crack. A truly strong password should contain a mix of at least 15 upper and lower case letters, digits and characters. (I use more than that!). ‘Remember’ these passwords by using a password manager such as LastPass.

Or you could use a lengthy phrase of at least four words that you can easily remember – perhaps an old address – say =128CharlestonRoadBidwellTownHants*

Keep each password unique to one account – so that different accounts have different passwords. Then, if one password is compromised, the attacker will not gain easy access to any of your other accounts.

2. Add a second layer of defence to thwart attackers.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is used as an addition to a password and if used correctly, pretty much locks out your account from intruders. When 2FA is switched on, it normally takes the form of a unique and random code which is sent to your cell phone, although sometimes it can be taken from an app. You then have to enter the 2FA code in addition to your password, in order to gain access to your account. The fact that this code is sent to your personal cell phone makes this a very strong defence against attacks. Even if attackers knows your login credentials, they still access your account without the 2FA code

3. Keep your software and devices up-to-date.

Updates don’t just add the latest features and developments to your software, your apps and your devices, more often than not they address new security weaknesses that otherwise would allow attackers to gain access to your accounts etc. Consider enabling auto-updates (where available) if you do not access your device and these areas of risk on a daily basis.

4. Keep your social media settings private.

A target’s personal information is of the highest value for attackers. Always keep your social media privacy set either to ‘Private’ or ‘Friends only’. This will restrict unknown attackers from learning more about you than you might wish and will help considerably to prevent identity theft. There have been numerous instances of identity theft being achieved via the collection of personal information from the various social media accounts.

Founder, Matt Mullenweg, recently announced that WordPress will require all hosts to have HTTPS in place before the end of 2017 without which certain WordPress features will cease to function.

If you already have HTTPS, this should not affect you. But if you’re still using HTTP, you’ll need to upgrade soon.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS adds a security layer to HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). HTTPS essentially encrypts data(using SSL or TSL) that is communicated between servers and clients until it reaches the intended recipient.

This prevents cybercriminals from accessing sensitive user information and also reduces the risk of tapping and modification of sensitive data. HTTPS is not completely fool-proof, but undoubtedly it has major security advantages.

HTTPS sites can be readily identified, as they show a locked padlock icon on the link bar in most common browsers.

Why is WordPress Pushing HTTPS?

There are two main reasons for this:

Google Prefers It

It is no secret that greater encryption and cyber security has made the Internet a safer place for users. As usual, a Google update signalled the necessity of HTTPS for user experience, SEO and internet security.

As far back as 2014, Google suggested that enabling HTTPS on your site could result in higher search rankings. Although it isn’t the only important factor in raising your site rankings, certainly you should not underestimate its value. For example, if two sites are equal in all ways, but one site has HTTPS, that site would get a boost in rankings.

Chrome will display a green padlock in the link bar when a site is using HTTPS, assuring users it’s using the latest security protocol.

In January 2017, Google released version 56 of Google Chrome. This new release brought about some changes, notably with how Google Chrome treats HTTPS vs. HTTP sites. The browser now clearly identifies sites that are not operating HTTPS on their systems. For example, a “Not Secure” message now appears on pages without HTTPS that try to collect passwords or sensitive information. You can expect that, eventually, all pages not using HTTPS will clearly be labelled as having insecure connections.

It is safe to assume that Google’s preference for HTTPS has been a contributing factor for the changes implemented by WordPress.

Users Prefer HTTPS Too

A secure connection can make all the difference from a user’s perspective. Users see HTTPS as a positive signal that you are taking your site security seriously, for their benefit. So, having HTTPS could mean more traffic and longer usage times on your site.

HTTPS is particularly important if you are operating an e-commerce site. Simply seeing the padlock icon could make users more comfortable in entering their payment details and other personal information. Particularly so with the new Chrome update (mentioned earlier) which shows a “Not Secure” label on e-commerce sites or sites that require a user login or credit card information, but don’t have HTTPS.

Both Google and user preference should be enough reason for you to upgrade your site to HTTPS. It is simply necessary to ensure watertight security for your users and to protect your online business reputation.

Sites that require users to login or enter credit card information are now displayed as “Not secure” in Chrome when they haven’t switched to HTTPS yet.

We understand that you may be overwhelmed switching from HTTP to HTTPS. After all, change does takes time to get used to, but in this instance, you may need to quickly get on board. HTTPS presents a number of unique advantages for user experience and security that everyone should quickly embrace. And the advantages of HTTPS greatly outnumber the disadvantages. Plus, upgrading to HTTPS is no longer the prohibitively costly, time consuming, and difficult process that it once was. Obtaining an SSL certificate in 2017 is fast, sometimes free and comparatively easy to implement.

How to Get HTTPS

WordPress hosting partners should now provide an SSL certificate for all accounts. (It is required that they all do so as early as the first quarter of this year.)

Your hosting provider may already provide a free SSL certificate, so check with them first before you make any third-party purchase. If they do not offer a free one, you could ask them if they sell third party SSL certificates. Once purchased, you can ask your provider to install the certificate for you on your server.

Clockwork Internet provides FREE SSL certificates for its clients.

Remember that SSL certificates upgrade the website, but not the content itself. That means that the content on your page will also need to be updated so as to avoid 404 errors. Google may interpret the error as a mismatch in the security level of your site.

What if You Just Don’t Want to Upgrade to HTTPS?

You could see a number of things happening to your site over time if you do not upgrade to HTTPS. The first may be facing the consequences set out by Google such as lower rankings and having your users staring at a “Not Secure” warning when they try to access your site.

The second is that you could struggle with WordPress updates and lose some or all functionality on specific WordPress plugins.

Third, your site may be an easier target for hacking.

Those are three consequences that require you to seriously reconsider if you really want to take the risk of not upgrading to HTTPS.

Wrapping Up

Let’s put it this way: you will simply have nothing to lose by adopting HTTPS. On the other hand, if you do not use HTTPS, you could risk leaving your site in the “dark ages” of the Internet.

If this conversion process is a task that you do not wish, or do not have the skills to tackle yourself, you should consider entrusting the transfer to Clockwork Internet who will complete the entire process for you, for just US$ 69.

(From an article by Arnaud Broes, Semper Plugins.)

It is now the time to move ALL websites over to HTTPS …… and EVERY new website should be built with it from the outset.

In a few years’ time (and possibly much sooner) EVERY website will be secured through SSL and undoubtedly that is a very good thing. If you have not already moved, or you are not now in the process of moving to HTTPS, you will very quickly get left behind.

Here are just four compelling reasons to make the change to HTTPS without delay:

1. SEO: Google has stated that the move of all websites to HTTPS is long overdue and Google now boosts the SEO ranking of secure sites. Simply put, a move to HTTPS WILL give you a better SEO ranking.

2. SECURITY: SSL helps to protect your site, its data and its visitors. It encrypts all data that may be transferred over the web, such as credit card transactions, form submissions etc.

3. ECOMMERCE: If you’re accepting any payments on your website, SSL IS NON-NEGOTIABLE. SSL is an absolute must for any form of ecommerce and/or membership website.

4. AFFORDABILITY: In the past, SSL certificates almost always were expensive, but the rapidly changing web landscape has brought prices down to more realistic levels and has made the certificates, and the cost of switching to SSL much more affordable.

Unfortunately most people don’t know where to begin nor how to complete the transformation without making a mess of it.

Clockwork Internet provides all of its hosting clients with FREE SSL certificates, and will move any website (client or not) across to HTTPS for just US$ 69.95.

Without doubt, there has never been a better, or a more pressing time to move your sites across to HTTPS.

This is an extremely important announcement!

Further to our previous post, if you have not already done so, you need to take action now.

In the last two weeks, over 50,000 WordPress websites have been hacked due to a major security vulnerability that was discovered in the WordPress REST API.

But we are delighted to be able to report that none of the sites protected by our partner site WPSiteWizard.com was compromised during these attacks

The WordPress core team silently fixed the issue and pushed out the WordPress 4.7.2 update.

If you have not yet updated your WordPress site to 4.7.2, then you should do so immediately.

With this vulnerability, anyone on the internet can deface your website without having the login access – it’s that serious.

If you have not already updated your WordPress website(s) to WordPress 4.7.2, you should do so immediately. While three WordPress security vulnerability fixes were disclosed last week, the disclosure of an additional security fix in WordPress 4.7.2 was announced yesterday.

Because of the significance of this vulnerability, we strongly recommend that you update your WordPress website(s) to WordPress 4.7.2 as quickly as possible.

WordPress 4.7.2 was released as an auto-update, but you still need to confirm your sites have been updated successfully. You’ll find the WordPress 4.7.2 update available now from your WordPress dashboard.