Do you think your company website is too inconsequential to matter to hackers? You’re wrong; your website is exactly what hackers are targeting these days. So, before you review the security checklist, let me explain what hackers do and why.

You’re probably wondering why a hacker would be interested in your site when there are millions of more important websites on the internet. The reason is because your site is so inconsequential. Your site may be an easy target and useful when needed.

While some websites are hacked for political reasons, most are hacked for much more malicious intent. It’s to their benefit to lay quiet for the time being. Smart hackers today aren’t storming the gates of government websites; they’re building an army of small sites that can do much more damage. When they decide to act, you aren’t even aware what’s happening.

Hackers comprise an international community. They have multiple goals, from making money, trading in hundreds of millions of dollars, to espionage, spying on you and others like you.

Once you’re hacked, they can sell your information or access to your computer. Typically, your hacked website becomes a pass-through so they can distribute their malicious software, called malware, to millions of computers.

Because authorities can track where malware originates, you may unknowingly become party to a criminal activity. But you’ll suffer other negative consequences as well, such as:

• Your site could become a spam proxy, blacklisted by other sites.
• The activity tarnishes your brand’s reputation, causing serious embarrassment.
• Your hacked site may overwhelm your hosting server, resulting in it being shut down. This typically results in loss of business, especially for ecommerce sites.
• Your “innocent” website may get slapped with a “Malicious Site” warning when people find your site on your internet searches.

All of this cost you time and money. The costs of recovery can vary from slight, assuming you have a viable website backup, to a full redevelopment if your data is deleted or lost, or if you have no chance to recover your original files.

So, don’t think your website is safe from hackers because it’s too small. Hackers know the power of hacking many little sites over the risks of hacking into one big one. They know that smaller sites are much harder for their targets to detect and eliminate.

Play it smart by implementing safety precautions now. Protect your site and your data from prying eyes. Protect your company from a hacking nightmare.