Yesterday, a friend reached out: “Hey Alex, please send me some of the websites you’ve done.”
A potential client? I was thrilled. Like any web developer, I have a shortlist of my proudest projects that I confidently share. But this time, before hitting send, I decided to double-check one of them.
And that’s when it hit me. The website was gone.
Instead of the cheerful layout of a local bakery’s website, there were error messages and what looked like Arabic characters scattered across the page. My heart sank.
A joyful moment had just turned into a cyber nightmare.
This wasn’t a high-profile company. It was a small, locally-owned bakery—a passion project we had proudly built together. It was clean, simple, and filled with love. Who would want to hack that?
The truth is, being hacked feels a lot like being scammed—violated, exposed, and a little embarrassed.
Thankfully, at Designx Tech Africa, we believe in routine website backups. In just a few steps, we restored the site, and the bakery was back online, serving digital pastries once more.
(I haven’t told my client yet, but if she’s reading this—surprise! 😅)
How Do You Protect Your Website?
Websites are like homes. You furnish them with content—beautifully written text, curated images, and functional tools. But just like homes, they need security.
Here are 3 practical steps to avoid waking up to digital graffiti:
- Backup, backup, backup Whether it’s daily or weekly, an automatic backup system is your safety net. It saves hours (and tears).
- Use Security Plugins Free plugins like Wordfence and Sucuri offer real-time firewall protection, block suspicious logins, and send alerts when something fishy is going on.
- Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Yes, it’s mildly annoying to wait for a code when logging in. But trust me—you’d rather lose 10 seconds than your entire site.
In Conclusion
Even small websites are targets. In fact, they’re especially easy targets for bots and hobbyist hackers. Cybersecurity isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.
So today, I’m sounding the alarm: If you haven’t secured your site, now’s the time.
Let’s build the web—not just beautiful, but safe too.
#WebSecurity #WebDevelopment #SmallBusinessTips #DigitalSafety #DesignxTechAfrica