With Corvid-19 and the subsequent global lockdown, cyber attacks have increased dramatically. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Apple and Nintendo have been a few recent high profile cases. In addition there has been a large increase in phishing email scams trying to convince you to part with your access details. (https://portswigger.net/daily-swig/coronavirus-themed-phishing-campaign-smuggles-agent-tesla-malware)

As a development company, RedKiteIT design, build and can host your valuable WordPress website. As we complete websites we check all current security issues are resolved. We also maintain the security and availability of the hosting server(s) as part of our hosting packages.
However, the website and content ownership becomes the customer’s responsibility, and this includes the website files, content and the security of the files and plugins used within a website. At the time of creation these are checked by RedKiteIT, however as time goes by new vulnerabilities may be found within certain elements of a website that can be exploited. It is important for you to keep your website updated.

RedKiteIT has always offered ongoing, optional extras to assist our customers’ with the fulfillment of these duties such as website backups, security scans, and maintenance.

Even before the Corvid-19 lockdown, RedKiteIT offered customers free website security checks. However we also opened the same offer to any businesses which were concerned about any potential loopholes with their WordPress website. This security scan reporting service provided a valuable check on the risks your website might be exposed to.

Thankfully several businesses took advantage of this service and their websites were checked, reported on, and in some cases, security vulnerabilities were resolved free of charge.

Not long into the lockdown, global cyber attacks escalated and several customers’ websites – whom decided not to take advantage of our free offer – were indeed exploited through old versions and plugins used on their sites.

As soon as the attacks were detected, RedKiteIT swiftly fixed all affected sites free of charge on behalf of our customers. We also decided to scan ALL customer sites and fix any security vulnerabilities even if they had not been exploited at the time. In this way, we ensured that all of our customer sites were safe. Within hours, all affected sites were fixed and again totally secure. All unaffected customer sites were also scanned and any issues resolved.

Due to the nature of people’s understanding and the global upsurge of cyber attacks, RedKiteIT has now decided to roll out regular security scans into our hosting packages for free. This equates to a massive cost saving of over £2000 per year in security reporting alone! RedKiteIT will also, where possible, fix any security issues. If your site contains extensive customisations we will discuss the best course of action with you.

Our scans use the same tools as the hackers use to check your site for exploitable flaws so you can be assured the providence of the checks. As part of our hosting service we now include these scans, as well as fixes where possible. If a fix is not straight forward due to customisations of your site we will discuss with you the best course of action.

If you are in the unfortunate position of not being one of our customers, does your WordPress website hosting company, or developer offer this security service? If not and while the lockdown is still in effect, we can offer our free service of scanning your WordPress website. Simply give us a call and we can report any security concerns that may exist on your site. You can then use this report to fix your website, or take the report to your web developer for action – hopefully before a hacker exploits it.