The vacation season is upon us again. If you manage an online shop, you can choose to temporarily hand over its technical management to a stay-at-home member, or you can continue to manage your shop from your vacation address. In both cases, it is important that you are well prepared and take into account security and unforeseen performance problems.
Tip 1
Do not log on to FTP and mailboxes from an Internet cafe or computer that you are not 100% confident does not have a keylogger on it. If you do plan to log in regularly, bring your own (secure) laptop.
Tip 2
Internet cafes too often operate with outdated software and Internet browsers. These versions are "outdated" for a reason: they are insecure. If you use them to manage your shop, it is incredibly easy for malicious people to enter your shop. When software or an Internet browser is outdated, you get a notification when you start it up.
Tip 3
Do not use a public WiFi network to manage your site, but use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection.
Tip 4
Still want to use public WiFi networks? Then never use an unsecured WiFi network. In other words, without a password. It's child's play for malicious people to eavesdrop on these and it happens incredibly often.
If the network is password protected, make sure the wireless network you want to connect to is actually the WiFi hotspot you mean. Malicious people sometimes set up a fake wireless network to use it to store sensitive information. However, this is sometimes hard to tell. Don't trust it? Just ask the staff if the network is indeed the company's own.
Tip 5
Even during your vacation, implement security updates within 24 hours and keep monitoring your web shop closely. Hackers don't have a vacation ...
Tip 6
Don't need access to FTP or SSH while away? Then turn off access.
Tip 7
Not working from vacation? Then make sure important tasks have been transferred to someone in the Netherlands. Also make sure this replacement is known to your hosting partner.
Patrick Heijmans, owner of WebwinkelCommunity, is an experienced Online Marketing Specialist who uses knowledge and passion, with professional and personal guidance to help clients get more out of their website.