ImagesMagUK_November_2020

www.images-magazine.com NOVEMBER 2020 images 23 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT makes all information – such as names, addresses, payment details – unreadable for everyone except the destination server of the website you are using to buy online from. The certificate is a valuable tool in building trust online as it displays a ‘secure’ status in the toolbar. It certifies you are exactly who you say you are and that your business’s website is safe to use. HTTPS HTTPS is a protocol to transfer encrypted information over the web. This should be used on all pages where customers may enter any information to ensure it is safe and secure. HTTP sends any customer information as plain text, making it prone to attack and more vulnerable than pages using HTTPS. Bear in mind this does not need to be on every page of your website, just the pages where customers may enter any sensitive information. Having it on every page will slow down your website and affect loading speed. A safe and secure website is a non-negotiable must- have for your business. It is essential to not only ensure that your business remains safe online, but that your customers are kept safe too. Trust is everything when it comes to websites. Customers are more willing to give their hard-earned money to businesses that appear credible, secure and are operating smartly online. Year on year, hackers and threats to websites are becoming more sophisticated. To ensure your ecommerce website remains safe, there are a few key things to consider. PCI compliance This is essential for card payments. The PCI Security Standards Council is a global group consisting of some of the world’s largest credit and debit card providers who set the standards for security standards for online payments and payment processing. This is otherwise known as PCI-DSS and is a set of criteria a website and business must adhere too. This ensures all stored data is secure and sensitive information is safe and secure throughout the checkout process. To take payments online a payment processor is required, and your site is required to show it actively uses PCI-DSS to keep customers safe. SSL certificates To ensure your website is PCI-DSS compliant, it must have an SSL certificate. This works to ensure sensitive information sent over the internet is encrypted and secure. The certificate essentially Online security for beginners Andrew Langridge is from ETrader, one of the industry’s leading suppliers of websites to garment decorators across the UK. www.etraderwebsites.co.uk W e live in an era of inescapable reliance on technology, and it’s hardly necessary to point out that most of what we do to conduct and administer a small business involves a computer. While both hardware and software are much more reliable and user-friendly than they were even just a few years ago, it is inevitable that sometimes your business’s computer network will need attention. Unlike large companies with a dedicated IT staff, most small business budgets cannot accommodate a full- time computer technician. Computer failure – hardware or software – will, however, bring with it the prospect of a one-two punch of downtime and a hefty bill. It’s enough to cause a small business owner to descend into a state of despair. Choose your computer technician for those inevitable downtime emergencies with care. They come in varying degrees of competence; limit your choices to the upper end of the range. Not only will a competent technician save you when technology emergencies strike, but they will also help you make sense of the alternatives when new technology is being considered. They can help cut through the mind-bogglingly unfathomable techno-talk that often accompanies new technology. Your business will generally have access to one of three computer technician resources: sole practitioners, local companies consisting of a staff of technicians, and nationwide franchises. The advantage of hiring multi- technician computer service companies over sole practitioners is that the Computer technician An indispensable guardian angel former’s technicians have likely been tested for competence during the hiring process. When you engage a sole practitioner, the competence checking falls on your shoulders. In the end, however, it all comes down to the individual technician’s competence, regardless of whether they are a sole practitioner or an employee of a service. My final advice, based on hard- earned experience, is to not engage a computer technician until you have recommendations from their clients with similar requirements to your own. There are no guarantees that your selection will be perfect, but choose a computer technician with due care and you give yourself the best chance of enjoying a relatively failure-free computer network. Michael Best is a print industry veteran, accountant and author of Characters Who Can Make Or Break Your Small Business . Through 39 characters, Michael covers all aspects most small business owners can expect to encounter in the life of a business from inception to disposition. It is available from Amazon and www.smallbusinesscharacters.com .