Last week we celebrated Safer Internet Day. For many people it was just a hashtag holiday. For us website professionals it was a reminder of just what our jobs entail: keeping websites up to date and keeping up with Security standards to avoid being part of the latest breach.

Let this sink in, 2 out of 3 people have already had their data stolen in a security breach. It doesn’t matter if they had a secure password or two step authentication, somewhere there was a breach. From Yahoo to Home Depot to the latest breach for Arbys patrons, 64% of Americans have had their data stolen through breaches according to WordFence.com.

Stolen credit cards are one thing, their repercussions can be minor or HUGE. But if a hacker steals someone’s debit card number, they could empty that person’s bank account. This could leave their entire family homeless while trying to recover.

What about the even bigger side of cyber hacks?

Election 2016 Hack Comes From WordPress

Just days after Safer Internet Day the US Department of Homeland Security released a report that hackers used Wordpress as a command and control server during the 2016 Election Hack. Yep, WordPress – the same website program used by businesses large and small – had an open door.

How did this happen? Basically, the site’s owner never updated a WordPress plugin even after its author released a security fix last year. A single click to update the plugin would have prevented this type of attack.

Website Defacements on the Rise

It seems Safer Internet Day also became a competition to hackers with website defacements on the rise by over 26% in just a 24 hours period, to put that in numbers, that’s over 1 million websites hacked with messages from the hackers toting their signature for having hacked your website. From small sites to the National American University, no website was safe. Not sure if your WordPress website is susceptible to this vulnerability? Get ahold of Appletree MediaWorks we can let you know the status of your website and help you get things updated to be safe.

You Need a Website Maintenance Package

There’s a reason why good web development firms offer monthly Maintenance packages to keep your website updated and running – security. The majority of our clients take advantage of our affordable maintenance packages. They trust in our union team to stay up on threats and updates. We’ve had clients that choose to save a couple of bucks each month and maintain their own sites. Some of them are diligent about running updates and stay safe. However many of them don’t, leaving themselves open to security holes like the websites we’re hearing about in the news.