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S is for Security

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Illustration by Ramiro Roman, Jr.

Illustration by Ramiro Roman, Jr.

This post is part 19 of 26 of The Freelance Writer’s ABCs. Come back tomorrow for T.

Once you become your own business, you’re going to have to do whatever it takes to keep that business secure.

Since freelance writers work primarily online these days, I’m going to chat about E-mail Security and Website Security.

E-Mail Security

Most of us know not to send money to help out a Nigerian prince, or buy “enhancing” drugs from an unknown source without a prescription, but spam has gotten trickier these days.

Many spam e-mails look very legitimate and try to gain access to your most private information by posing as real companies such as PayPal or eBay.  These spam mails/scams are also known as “phishing” e-mails.

The Big Tip-Off:  When an e-mail lands in your inbox asking (for “verification purposes”) for you to fill out a form with your account name, password, address, card number, expiration date, and sometimes even your social security number…  Alarm bells should go off in your head!  99 times out of 100, this isn’t a real company: this is someone trying to steal your identity.  Oh, they’ll “verify” your credit card all right—by spending all your money!

Some Precautions:
  • Never give out your credit card info or social security number in an e-mail.
  • Never click on an unknown link
  • If you suspect the e-mail could be legitimate, air on the side of caution anyway.  Instead of clicking on the link in the e-mail, go straight to the source.  For instance, if you get an e-mail from “PayPal” saying that your credit card needs updating, don’t follow the link in the e-mail—take the time to type PayPal’s address into your browser.  Trust no one but yourself.
  • Don’t click reply.  Sure, most spammers use fake e-mail addresses, but the ones who don’t will take that reply (even if you’re complaining) as a signal that your e-mail address is indeed “real” and that there’s not only a real person on the other side (you), but that you’re reading their mail.

While you may be sad that you didn’t actually win that free vacation (or free iPad or PS4 or whatever), you can’t get lots of money for no work (don’t I wish!), and there’s no quick fix to repair your bad credit—you’d be a lot more sad if you took the bait and lost your identity.

Reducing Spam in Your Inbox

You may never elude spammers completely, but here are a few tried-and-true tips for reducing their numbers:

  • Don’t give out your primary/personal e-mail address to just anybody.  Be selective.
  • Create a second “junk” e-mail address.  You can use this address for signing up for online offers (make sure they’re legit), online forms, short-term correspondence, and anything else you don’t want clogging your “real” e-mail’s inbox (an overabundance of Facebook notices, perhaps?)
  • Don’t post your e-mail in a public place.  If you post your e-mail address on a forum or other public area online, you’re bound to attract a few spammers
  • Turn them in!  If you get a “phishing” e-mail (one of those e-mails that looks legitimate), most major companies have a place to report these e-mails now.  For instance, if you can an e-mail from “eBay,” you can report it by forwarding it directly to eBay (spoof@eBay.com)

If you find a fake website that is trying to steal personal information, report it by emailing the URL to phishing-report@us-cert.gov

Website Security

I’ve had my website hacked twice. It is absolutely devastating. The most recent one–from last July–nearly killed my business entirely.

One day, you’re humming along just fine; the next day someone’s ripped your livelihood right out from under you.

Don’t Take It Personally

Unfortunately, it’s pretty common for WordPress websites to get hacked.

Don’t get me wrong: I love WordPress.  It’s fun, easy to use, and has nearly endless possibilities!  And it’s great for boosting the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your website.

In fact, the better SEO you have, the more likely you’ll get hacked.  Many modern “hackers” use bots to look for websites with fair-to-good SEO and launch their attack from there.

So…take it as a compliment!

It’s not personal.

When my website got hacked the first time, I kept bemoaning “Why meeeeeee?!”  I thought I’d done something to piss someone off.  I kept wracking my brain trying to think what I could have done or said to make someone hate me.

I was very confused.

I knew that it was impossible for everyone to like me, but I didn’t think I’d done anything that would make someone hate me enough to want to ruin my life by taking away my livelihood!  But it still hurt to think that there might be.

Knowing that it was a faceless robot attacking me rather than a “real” person was comforting (but no less irritating or detrimental to my business).

5 Things That Can Help After You’ve Been Hacked:
  1. Don’t Panic! I know that’s going to be tough, especially if you depend on your website for money–and you most likely will.  But panicking will only make things worse.
  2. Backup Your Files.  Backup your files (everything on your website!) often.  I was immensely grateful that I was so consistent about backing up my files when I’d lost everything.  It allowed me to restore everything with relative ease.  No starting from scratch for this gal!
  3. Get Yourself a Real Theme.  Yeah, I like free stuff too, but, truth is, the free themes just aren’t as secure.  I know, I know.  It’s a bummer.  But shelling out for a more secure framework and theme to go with it is well worth it.  I recommend StudioPress.
  4. Keep Using Common Sense!  Just because “common sense security” can’t protect you from every type of attack doesn’t mean you should stop using it!  Keep your passwords to yourself, always.
  5. Get Yourself Some Security Plug-ins.  Make sure you protect your website with trusted security plug-ins.  Get a few of them.  They each do different things, so having more than one will protect you from more than one angle.  It’s like when you scan your computer for viruses, and then scan it again for malware & spyware.

Note: The e-book WP Pro Simple Security has some great recommendations for free security plugins (and additional security tips); however, as soon as you can afford to, I HIGHLY recommend investing in Sucuri (malware monitoring & clean-up).

Sucuri is amazing and pretty much saved my business single-handed after I was blacklisted by Google due to last year’s pharma hack incident. Since then, my website has been attacked a few times–but they’ve stopped the hackers in their tracks every time.

S is Also for… Saving Your Work!

Backup your files! Please.

I briefly mentioned the importance of backing-up your files in the section above, but it’s worth reiterating.

In addition to backing-up the files on your website, back up the files on your computer in general. In “O is for Organization” I described how I keep my business files–particularly my client files–organized. But I never rely solely on my laptop to save all of that information. And neither should you.

Once a week, set aside an hour or two and SAVE EVERYTHING. Spending one hour per week backing-up your files is nothing compared to the years it took you to write everything you’re saving.

Respect your work. Respect yourself.

Save.

The post S is for Security appeared first on LittleZotz Writing.


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