#secure website development

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One after another, several big names have fallen target to hackers. Feels like a series of dominoes toppling off in a connected event, almost as if it was the season for big hacks. Heck, even the CIA’s director was not spared. Makes you wonder though, doesn’t it?

    If you are an entrepreneur and you’ve got a website up, you almost get the eerie feeling that you are up next! Which may not be unfounded and baseless altogether but things will be slightly different we presume. How different and how you are at risk? Allow me to explain, but first this.

   The Season of Hacks? Or Is Something Sinister Afoot?

   When did all of this start? You may remember the Ashley Madison hack that broke several families and opened up the Pandora’s Box of problems for many men who were having a pretty good time behind the spouse’s back. There were two confirmed suicides after damning confidential information became public and many users of the website were targeted by extortionists. No one knows for sure who hacked and stole all that data!

    Then the Hillary Clinton hack happened, the US Presidential candidate who got scorched for having poor email security sense. This was a case of carelessness than anything else. Her emails were leaked to the public and what has happened since doesn’t concern most people unless they are interested in US politics. Again, you would have thought that someone who stands for the job of the US president would have very good security measures to prevent prying eyes, and they do, but apparently that is not good enough. Colin Powell, the ex-Secretary of State offered his kind words to Mrs Clinton, but Powell was soon the next target!

 Another hack involving The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) exposed medical files of leading US Olympians. In a long row of events that followed, other renowned names and companies fell prey to hackers. A few names  that come to mind regarding hacks in recent times are ClickSense, EurekaAlert, Last.FM, Republican National Committee (RNC), Democratic National Committee (DNC), just to name a few. And we are not even talking about several others that happened a few months ago! These are all recent targets.

   Who is The Culprit?

   One thing notable about all of these hacks is the government connection. Clinton and Powell got exposed because of a hack targeting the Democratic National Committee (DNC), there is even a Wikipedia article on the topic should you be inclined to read more about this. But what we are trying to point out here is a definite government connection – both at the prey-end and the hunter-end. Some are seeing the Russian hand in all of these, especially with the WADA hack. But given US’s Russia-phobia, and Russia’s proclivity to do such things in the past keeps us all puzzled as to who is the real culprit here. Then there are the Chinese to talk about too. Also, politics can get so mucky no one can rule out for sure that there isn’t any inside hand in these recent political hacks.  Although we are big believers in justice and we want the culprits to be brought to book as soon as possible, the bigger worry now is - are you a potential victim?

  Is There A Pattern In All This? Does Your Website Match The ‘Victim Pattern’?

   No matter who is behind all of these, one thing is clear, there is a definite organizational effort behind the hacks. These sites that fell victim are all important to the US. Two are clearly websites of the Republic and Democratic Party. The WADA hack was clearly done to tarnish US players and some are seeing this as revenge by the Russians after they were banned from participating in the recent Rio Olympics. There is an unmistakable anti-America vibe in all this. And Americans are asking whether hackers are controlling and driving this election? All of that means one thing. This is big, really big and those that are behind the attacks aren’t bothered if you are a humble business doing humble business. So to answer the question we asked – No your website doesn’t match the victim pattern and you are not under risk!

   But Wait. Why Was I Reading This Then?

   Good question, you are reading this because you are not completely out of the waters yet. Agreed, you are not running for the US presidential election or a marathon in the Olympics but you still have a website and chances are that you are a sitting duck with a ton of security vulnerability for hackers to go wild with glee! The big baddies won’t attack you because your business don’t interest them, but what about the wannabe hackers? I can bet my shirt that someone somewhere will be super egged-on and excited by the big hacks to try something of their own. You don’t want to fall victim to amateurs! That’s shameful. Yes, it would be ridiculous if you got hacked by a teenager after spending a lot of money on setting up your precious website only to lose all control over it in a blink!

 And if you didn’t know, once your website is hacked, you will not get it back unless you pay for it – yeah, it’s like kidnapping and ransom in digital form.

   So, What Should I Do?