Oracle Enterprises

Updating software is quite consequential to the security of your systems. The risks are particularly apparent in systems exposed to the Internet, such as Content Management Systems (CMSes) like Joomla and Web Server software like Apache & PHP. Pieces of add-on programs called ‘extensions’ or ‘plugins’ are particularly susceptible to attack (They should be avoided unless absolutely necessary). If there are insecure versions of software running on your Internet-connected system (such your website), automated programs made by malicious visitors can break into your website using known vulnerabilities and access, alter or destroy your data. If you store client data or other sensitive information on your website, it is your duty to make sure that this doesn’t happen.

Even if you don’t have any sensitive data on your website, attackers could change your files so as to include hidden spam links to pornographic sites or sites selling cheap/fake medicines. Even worse, they can have malware automatically downloaded and installed on to visitors’ computers. This will affect your site’s reputation, and may cause it to end up in blacklists.

If you are interested in improving the security of your websites, call our support team.

Related: Protect your data with Strong Passwords

Using strong passwords for online accounts is paramount to their security. Short, easy-to-remember passwords can be easily cracked using simple techniques, and may compromise the security of your website or client data.

A strong password will consist of both upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols. It used to be safe to have 6 or 8 character passwords. But the increasing availability of high-performance computers has meant that these short passwords can be cracked within a few seconds! These days, passwords should be at least 15 characters long to be considered secure. If the website or service allows long passwords, you could consider using pass-phrases instead of pass-words. Online password generators are available can give you completely random passwords of any level of complexity.

If you are very concerned, you could use this tool by Microsoft to evaluate the strength of your password.

Another thing to remember is that you should never use the same password for accounts with more than one provider. If you use the same password for your online banking account and for some random website you signed-up to, you are basically giving the creators of that site access to all your money. Never use the same password for your email, your computer, your banking accounts or your work accounts. It compromises the security of all accounts which share the same password. If you find it hard to remember a long list of strong passwords (most people do!), you could consider using a password manager.