A Website Security Solution for Small Businesses

A study by PwC shows that in 2014, survey respondents detected a total of 42.8 million cyber security incidents, an increase of 48% over 2013. I think we can understand the magnitude of the problem, when we consider that this data was collected from just 9,700 respondents worldwide.

This major threat is out there continuously hitting websites. However, so many businesses, especially the ones that don’t have a website security monitoring system in place, don’t realize this problem until their websites are impacted.

The impact is usually noticed, when the website slows down, starts to display unfamiliar content or links, is defaced with a message from the hacker, does not function anymore or is totally shut down by the web host. And the result is lost business.

There may be different solutions you can utilize to protect your website from malicious threats, but I wanted to talk about the service I recently started using. I have hands on experience with a paid account which is used for active websites. Not a trial account. I also have to state that this article is not sponsored in any way.

Sucuri is a security company which offers website security monitoring and malware cleanup services. I think it is an ideal security solution for small businesses that do not have the in house technical expertise for managing website security. It is also very cost-effective.

There are two main products Sucuri offers;

The firewall is a gatekeeper, which intercepts incoming website traffic in order to filter known website security threats. It blocks malicious access attempts and lets legitimate traffic reach your website server. As new threats are discovered, security experts at Sucuri update firewall filters to make sure your site is always protected from hackers as much as possible.

In addition to filtering web traffic, the firewall also caches you website pages. When pages are cached, they can be served to visitors directly from the firewall without waiting for page requests to be processed by your web server. This will reduce the load on your website and improve the overall performance of your website.

The “Basic Plan” costs $9.99 per month and should be suitable for most websites. If you have an e-commerce site, you can sign up for the “Professional Plan” at $19.98 per month, which includes additional features on top of the “Basic Plan”.

A Complete Website Security Solution

Sucuri Website AntiVirus combines the Website Firewall with malware detection, malware cleanup and blacklist removal features to offer a complete website security solution.

Sucuri’s online monitoring service will periodically scan your website and check if your site is compromised. Even with the “Website Firewall” in place, there is still a possibility that malicious attempts can pass through undetected and end up infecting your website. Using sophisticated technology developed by security experts at Sucuri, every file and database that serves the website is analyzed. In the event of any security incident, an instant alert will be sent via email so necessary actions can be taken.

If your site is compromised, you can request malware clean up, which is included in the website monitoring service. After the cleanup you will get a complete report that lists detected and fixed issues. You will also receive a list of important steps you should take to avoid reinfection.

In case your site is blacklisted, Sucuri will also take care of blacklist removal after the site is cleaned up.

The cost of the “Basic” antivirus plan is $199.99 per site per year. It includes unlimited malware cleanup, malware detection of unlimited pages and website blacklist removal as well as website firewall and protection. For e-commerce websites the “Professional” plan offers complete website security for $299.99 per site per year. I believe this is a very economical solution. The impact of a hacking incident can cost much more than that, if you consider the cost of lost sales, loss of customer confidence and cost of cleaning up and restoring your website.

Has your website ever been hacked?

What did you do? If you are using Sucuri or another website security solution or service, tell us about your experience.