Ok, so this may not be the most interesting subject – but security on your blog is essential and can’t really be stressed enough these days. Your blog is your pride and joy (or one of them), a huge investment of your time and determination, or maybe your sole source of income; therefore keeping it safe from bugs, hackers and other nasties is something worth thinking about for a few minutes.
You’ll remember several outbreaks of online security news earlier this year where many social media platforms were attacked by the Heartbleed bug, putting personal information at risk. While not a life-changing cause for panic, this bug brought attention to password security, and Google, Facebook and other platforms urged users to change passwords and up security. Passwords are the key to all your information, and most people (73%) use the same one for multiple password-protected sites, or 30% use weak passwords such as date of birth or a partner’s name.
Ex-conman Frank Abagnale (aka the inspiration behind Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Catch Me If You Can) has stressed how the ‘Facebook generation’ can make life so easy for hackers – give a conman your full name and date of birth, and he has just about enough information to steal whatever he wants from you. I’m not saying don’t give any personal information away on your blog; obviously your blog is your personal space and it needs to be personable to connect with your readers, but maybe go away and look at your posts and About Me pages – are you giving away enough basic information that provides a hacker with the starting points to crack your code? If your passwords are weak and follow the common mistakes many people make, then you could be putting your blog at risk. So therefore the key take-away from this article – your blog contains SO much information about you, make sure your password doesn’t reflect any of this information!
A good infographic of the statistics and the do’s and don’ts of passwords can be found here.
Let us know your thoughts on this subject, or share your own tips or methods for keeping your blog safe!
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