Technology has been through a lot of changes, but there is more to come. It will still be evolving, and we will be expecting more changes and new ideas that will come to life.
But, as we wait for new groundbreaking technology, let us talk about one change that made a strong impact on our lives, particularly on businesses and in the marketing world.
In the past, marketing strategies only involve the use of printed publications, radios, and TVs. Now, marketing experts changed their strategies. They use the internet to market brands.
Digital marketing became the latest method for businesses to reach out to their customers. It comes in many forms, from email marketing to social media marketing. All these forms of digital marketing bridged the gap between businesses and customers.
As businesses moved to the online world, marketing a brand became easy and complicated at the same time. It’s easy to find new customers and to showcase a business’s products. At the same time, it’s also highly competitive, and somehow the market is becoming exhausted.
However, competition with other businesses and trying to stand out are not the only problems encountered when running an online business. The biggest threat that stands in their way is security.
Cyber threats are the biggest problem most businesses online encounter. Cybercriminals not only steal information or money from businesses, but they can also even ruin it. These cybercrimes disrupt and affect many lives.
Your online presence as a business is vulnerable to cyberattacks. That is why businesses must invest time and money to protect their accounts.
For you to further see why you need to secure your business‘s digital platforms or accounts, here are the importance of cybersecurity.
Importance of Cybersecurity on Digital Marketing
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is one of the biggest and best-known platforms to market a brand. Multiple businesses are often seen on social media because there are more potential customers present in this platform.
However, social media is also often overlooked when it comes to securing accounts. Hackers often target social media platforms because it is easy to manipulate or break into it.
How to secure social media accounts: If you want to protect your business’s Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or other social media accounts, you have to follow these simple steps.
- Use a strong password that is not easy to decipher.
- Implement two-factor authentication.
- Do not share login credentials to anyone.
- Inform employees to avoid responding or clicking on any links unless confirmed.
EMAILS
Email marketing is one of the oldest and still effective ways to promote a brand. It has an increase in ROI, website traffic, and conversion rate. Therefore, some businesses still use email as part of their marketing strategy.
But as good as this may sound, cybercriminals often target emails. Email is a hacker’s favorite place to find their next target. The most common method done phishing.
They send out emails that may look like it came from a reputable source, but it contains malware that could enter your device.
How to protect your email account: Similar to social media, you must use a strong password and two-factor authentication. You can also add filters to block spam emails.
WEBSITES
Another part of digital marketing is running a website. One of the most popular website host or Content Management System (CMS) is WordPress.
The popularity of this platform makes it a common target for hackers. Cyberattacks occur from outdated plugins and themes. That is why, as annoying as it may be, software always installs updates. These updates patch security problems found in these tools.
Aside from outdated software as a gateway to your website, hackers can enter your site or disrupt it in other ways.
- DDoS Attack: They flood your site with a large amount of traffic to exhaust your server, causing your website to be down.
- Cross-site Scripting: This is when malicious code is inserted into your website, stealing data that enters your server.
- SQL attacks: This attack occurs when the hacker has access to the database of your website.
- Password Attack: If you use personal information, recycled passwords, or simple characters, hackers can easily guess it.
How to protect your website: There are ways you can protect your website.
- Always update your software or installed plugins.
- Use two-factor authentication and a strong password.
- Place a Web Application Firewall behind your website. There are security software that offers multiple features you can use. It doesn’t only block malicious content but protects your website too.
- Encrypt your website with SSL by acquiring a digital certificate.
Web Application Firewall or WAF software are important to protect your site from attacks. Here are some samples of the best WAF you can find on the market.
- Imperva Cloud Application Security: It has an enterprise-grade WAF that is effective for DDoS attacks and speeds up the loading time of your website.
- Alibaba Web Application Firewall: It has a maximum protection feature that will safeguard your website’s data.
- Templarbit Shield: It detects an early data breach, protects your website’s data, and block malicious code or traffic.
- Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service: This is one of the best WAF software in the market. It has outstanding features such as an anti-DDoS attack, protection from OWASP, detects automated attacks, and avoids web scraping.
- Cloudflare WAF: This software protects your website from SQL attacks and cross-site scripting.
Aside from the mentioned WAF software, there are other firewall software you can find in the market to protect your website’s data.
CRM SOFTWARE
Part of digital marketing is the use of CRM software. This software is used by marketing professionals to collect data from your customers, learn from it, and come up with a marketing strategy for the business. Aside from building strategies, these tools are used to automate some activities.
If hackers gain access to your software, they could steal sensitive data. You could lose your business’s reputation if this happens.
How to manage the safety of your CRM software: The use of a strong password won’t be effective as you may think when you want your software to be protected. Instead, you must take a different approach.
- Limit the access of the account to trusted employees. Often, breaches are an inside job. Screen your employees before assigning them the task of managing your customers’ data.
- Use tracking tools whenever a login occurs in your CRM software.
- Avoid the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy. Employees are only allowed to use laptops or desktops provided by the company.
BACKUP AND RECOVERY
The best you can do is to back up your data daily. You can do this manually or set an automatic backup. It is important to practice this in case a cyberattack happens.
In some instances, cyberattacks can lead to complete loss of information or data. If you do regular backups, it would be easy to restore the information you need.
You can choose to back up your data on the cloud, on a hard drive (external or internal), or it is best if you use both.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity should always be considered when making plans for your business. It is not something you do at the last minute. It is better to prevent cyberattacks than to be a victim and then find ways to solve it.
If you are hacked, even though you found a way to solve the problem, sometimes trust is difficult to be built again. Your customers might find it hard to give you their information. You could lose your customers or your business if this happens.
AUTHOR’S BIO
John Ocampos is an Opera Singer by profession and a member of the Philippine Tenors. Ever since, Digital Marketing has always been his forte. He is the Founder of SEO-Guru, and the Managing Director of Tech Hacker. John is also the Strategic SEO and Influencer Marketing Manager of Softvire Australia – the leading software eCommerce company in Australia and Softvire New Zealand.
