Malicious cyber criminals consider emails as businesses’ vulnerabilities: weaknesses in a computer system that hackers can exploit. This is like protecting your house with the latest alarm systems and then leaving the backdoor wide open.

If you’re wondering if you’re leaving your business vulnerable to cyberattacks through your email, read on as the best web hosting company shows how cyber criminals can attack you through your “back door”:

How Cyber Criminals Exploit Businesses Through Emails

Business Email Compromise

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a form of corporate identity fraud. It occurs when a cybercriminal poses as a trusted contact in an email to fraudulently coerce money from their victims.

The money taken in a BEC attack is usually sent to accounts controlled by the criminals. Sometimes, cybercriminals also get their victims to engage in wire transfer requests to make the fraud even harder to trace.

The best way to defend yourself against BEC attacks is to keep your guard up. Be alert when receiving emails and ask yourself if the request being made by the email is really legitimate.

Malware Spread

Malware is a software program that is used to damage or disable computers, smartphones and tablets. Cyber criminals use malware to steal personal and business information.

There are many sneaky ways that cyber criminals use for spreading malware, one of which is through phishing emails.

A phishing email is an email that tries to trick you into installing malware onto your computer by pretending to be from a trustworthy source, such as a bank or IT company. If a phishing email reaches you, don’t click on any links contained in the email and don’t download any attachments. Simply delete the email, and then add the sender’s email address to your spam or junk email filter.

Denial of Service Attack

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is when a cybercriminal uses malware to take down a website by flooding the site with traffic. 

This type of cyberattack can be done by a single computer or hundreds of computers, known as a botnet. Botnets can be programmed to generate traffic to websites that can crash their servers and take them down.

If you want to prevent a DoS attack on your website, you must employ a strong internet security solution.

Fake Site Emails

Fake website emails are emails that redirect you to a site that is identical to your bank’s or another company’s legitimate website. Once there, your personal and financial information is collected and then used for identity theft.

You can protect yourself against fake site emails by not clicking on any links in emails that you’re unsure about, even if the senders are legitimate contacts. Only visit the companies’ official websites and bookmark those official sites in your browser to make sure that you’re on the correct website.

Conclusion

These are just some of the malicious ways that cyber criminals can use to attack your company through emails.

To protect your business from cyberattacks, you should always be vigilant and keep your guard up when you’re communicating through emails. And if you ever have any doubts, don’t hesitate to contact the sender in a different way to confirm the legitimacy of their requests.

Your business is too important to become a victim of cyberattacks so make sure that you work with a web hosting company that can assure your security, especially that of your emails. 

IO Zoom is a reputable web hosting company based in Houston, Texas that offers a plethora of services including email security solutions. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business!

The post Your Email May Be Leaving Your Business Vulnerable – Here’s Why appeared first on I/O Zoom.

We are now entering the holiday shopping season, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching very soon, so you need to make sure your website is prepared for the increased traffic and holiday sales by offering more products and getting your name out there early.

It has been a difficult year in more ways than one, and while Black Friday last year was a busy one, it is going to take additional preparation ahead of time to ensure your small business is ready to handle the amount of traffic and demand that 2020 will bring.

This article is going to show you the things you will want to consider when dealing with the increased demand that this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday will bring, ensuring that you can appeal to both loyal customers and new customers alike.

Is It Better To Buy Online On Black Friday?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest events for businesses when it comes to holiday shopping, which is why it is so important for you to prepare for this shopping weekend before the big day arrives.

This is when people start their holiday shopping and aim to get as much done as possible with the great deals that are going on. Traditionally, Black Friday deals were an in-store event that made people visit malls and their local high streets in search of holiday deals, but with the increase of technology and online shopping, Cyber Monday was born.

Cyber Monday sales, like Black Friday, offer great deals to customers for a limited time but exclusively online.

This has been a strange year in more ways than one, and it makes it hard to predict exactly what will be in store for Black Friday 2020, but if there is one thing that can be guaranteed it is the fact that more customers will be going on the internet for holiday deals.

Instead of having a shopping day out at the mall, you will need to keep in mind that your customers and potential customers are likely going to be spending this weekend exclusively on the internet, which is why you cannot leave your site preparation to the last minute. You want to ensure that your site is prepared and optimized for the increased traffic that will happen during this weekend.

Your site must offer a great shopping experience for customers, making it easy for them to get the deals they are looking for, whether they are using a desktop or mobile devices.

This may be the first time that you are partaking in this weekend as a site, and what a good way to ensure profit! But you will need to know the various ways you can get your site ready for this busy season of the year and how you can make it easy for people to make purchases with your brand.

How Do I Prepare My Business For Black Friday?

There are several things you will need to do to prepare for Black Friday as an eCommerce business, and you will want to get ready for the busiest day of the season early, so you don’t miss out on sales.

The following is a brief overview and are the areas you will want to focus on to make this Black Friday and Cyber Monday more successful than last year. We will address these in more detail later.

· Start Marketing Campaigns

To ensure that people know about your business and are aware that your website is partaking in Black Friday, you may need to up your marketing efforts.

This can include using email marketing, social media, and other forms of marketing strategy to attract people to your website before the big day arrives.

· Review Your Goals And Sales

Before you can plan out your online sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you first need to review your current sales. You can use your current sales to plan out your goals and prepare for Black Friday, as this will give you an accurate estimate of what you can expect.

Reviewing your sales is a great way to see whether there are any areas of your business that need improving before Black Friday, as well as giving you an accurate estimate of the numbers you can expect.

· Access Your Ecommerce Tools

If you already have an eCommerce business, then now you need to access the tools you use and make sure that they can handle the increased traffic that will be coming your way.

Tools like your security, payment methods, checkout process, and shipping costs will need to be addressed to ensure that your customers will have a great time using your website. You want to make sure that your website is optimized for not only the increased traffic but also for the increased use of your eCommerce tools.

This means you will need to keep an eye on your security and loading speeds, as well as the number of products within your store.

· Plan Deals

There is going to be a lot going on for Black Friday Cyber Monday, and you will want to stand out from the crowd.

You now need to start generating a buzz around your store on social media and to do this, you will have to plan out what kind of deals you can afford to give your customers.

Offers such as free shipping on certain orders and exclusive products can be a great way to generate hype around your store and encourage people to visit your website.

Things To Do Now

To prepare for Black Friday Cyber Monday, there are some things you need to take action on now to ensure you are prepared for the upcoming holiday season.

This includes:

· Send Out Email Marketing

If you are an existing business, you now need to start sending out marketing emails to your customer email list where you can let them know about the deals you will be offering on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

To draw in customers during this period, offer them content they can use while also advertising your brand. A good example of marketing emails that work is gift guides. Gift guides can be very useful for customers, as you are helping them out with their shopping while also advertising the products you are selling during this period.

Another form of email marketing that you will want to set up now is abandoned cart emails. This is a way to counteract lost sales, as you will be reminding customers of the products, they wanted at the that time but did not complete the checkout process for.

· Create Landing Pages

During the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, people are going to be browsing for the best deals and offers on the internet.

To ensure your site is included in this search, you will want to create a specific landing page for Black Friday Cyber Monday.

By creating specific landing pages for your holiday deals, you will be attracting more people to your site and making it easy for them to find what you are offering.

This is something that can be easily done, such as adding a Black Friday slug to the meta description and title of your site around this time.

· Increase Customer Service

Black Friday Cyber Monday is the busiest time of the season for your site, so you want to ensure that you are prepared for every eventuality.

During this season, you may want to increase your customer services, such as adding a live chat platform or creating a unique email address that visitors can use if they have any issues. These are great things to use around this period, as it allows instant communication with visitors and ensures that any issue they come across can be resolved immediately.

As well as offering the best products at great prices, you also want to ensure that you are offering your clients a great experience when shopping, which is why customer service is something to consider carefully. You may want to get more people on your team for this weekend to ensure you are prepared.

· Remember Keywords

To get as many people onto your site during this time, you want to ensure that you are coming at them from all angles.

This means considering and making adjustments to the keywords you use on your website and social media, ensuring that all variations of specific terms are included, especially surrounding the kind of products you sell.

People will be searching on the internet during this period for specific items and the deals that they can get for them, so make certain that you are listing your products alongside terms like ‘Black Friday’ as keywords to attract as much traffic as possible.

For more business advice during this season, please follow our blog for regular updates.

The post How to Prepare Your Site For Black Friday and Cyber Monday appeared first on I/O Zoom.