Have you ever received an alert that one or more of your passwords has been compromised? It’s happened to pretty much all of us.
Unfortunately, passwords are not the best line of security, because they can be stolen in a variety of ways—password cracking, data breaches, malware, and simply guessing to name a few. Of course, you can improve your password security by only choosing strong passwords (you know, the ones that aren’t easy to remember) and not repeating passwords across multiple websites.
However, even the strongest passwords may be leaked in a data breach or sniped via malware. Therefore, you might consider adding two-factor authentication—also known as 2FA or 2-step verification—to your website maintenance plan.
Unauthorized access to your website can have a wide range of negative consequences, including hacking, malware, and website theft. Fortunately, Anchor Wave’s Technical Support already enables 2FA by default, and can help you set up 2FA access on your login account!
What is 2-factor authentication?
2-step verification is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a security measure that requires two different credentials to sign in to your website. The first factor is your password. The second factor may be a security code sent via email, text, or generated in an app on your mobile device. It may also be a biometric factor like a fingerprint.
With 2FA, simply having a password isn’t enough to get into your site. Without access to the second factor code, hackers have a much, much harder time gaining access to your site, and most of them will likely give up and move on to an easier target.
Why should your business’s website use 2FA?
If your website is hacked, it can cause numerous headaches for your business. A hacked website may have malware running in the background that steals user data from your site visitors. Hackers may also gain access to user info stored on your site, including their contact information. A hacked website may even be held for ransom by attackers. In turn, this erodes customer trust, feeling they cannot be safe with a company whose information has been compromised. It goes without saying that unwanted access to your website is something your business should avoid at all costs.
2FA adds an additional line of protection that is invisible to your visitors, and is not a burden for your team when they need to log in.
Other Ways to Bolster Your Website Security
Along with limiting login access, you can further boost your website security by limiting WordPress features for specific users. For example, if you have contracted a content writer who uploads blogs to your website, you can limit their access within the WP Admin area, restricting them from accessing the administrative functions.
How Anchor Wave Can Help Keep Your Website Secure
With web hosting from Anchor Wave, your website will have 2FA automatically enabled. Our webmasters use 2FA to access your site, and we make it easy for any of our hosted site clients to set up their two-factor authentication for no additional charge. Our website support and maintenance services are designed to be approachable, convenient, and affordable. That’s because our priority is helping your business thrive with a strong web presence.
Contact Anchor Wave today to set up a strategy call to discuss our full range of website hosting and support solutions.
