August 2020 - HUSL Digital

WordPress Security Hygiene

Amanda Garceau

In order to prevent or significantly hinder the chances of cyber attacks, it is important to practice good security hygiene. Because there are many different types of threats with attacks that can occur on different types of scales, security cannot be a one-time setup. It’s an ongoing process that requires regular maintenance for the greatest, up-to-date strength. Below are some areas to focus.

User Management

The first and possibly easiest way to practice good security hygiene is to closely monitor and manage your internal users. It’s easy to attack a website if a username or password gets into the wrong hands. Use secure passwords and change them often. Avoid generic usernames like “administrator” or “admin.”

Control Visitor Input

Filtering and managing input from visitors is important for preventing the likelihood of code/service attacks. Contact forms, sign-ups, and anything that a user can input data into is a possible vector for attack.

Audited & Updated Code

As part of the initial setup of a website, code should be carefully scrutinized. This is a key factor in the process of maintaining security.

Properly Managed Servers

WordPress Security goes hand-in-hand with a properly managed server. You need a professional host who truly cares about the health of your website and is able to work seamlessly with your development and operations teams.

Avoiding Default Settings

To add an additional layer of website security, update and avoid default settings whenever possible. The problem with keeping default settings is that it gives potential attackers yet another known element of your website, which can be exploited.

Post-Launch Considerations

Once your website has launched it is important to stay on top of security best practices. Consider setting up remote security scanning, 2-factor authentication, and a web application firewall. Always ensure that software and security updates happen regularly. Don’t forget – always maintain regular and complete backups.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can keep your website secure, get in touch! We’re here to help.

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Meaningful Moments Over Metrics: Partnering with HUSL Digital

Sam Vaden

Business Development

Partnering With HUSL Digital

By Samuel Vaden, Director of Strategic Growth at HUSL Digital

With the introduction of COVID-19, the landscape for technology companies is changing rapidly. The disappearance of traditional “in-person” sales activities (e.g., industry trade shows, drop-ins, in-person demos, c-suite meetings), has forced most B2B SaaS companies to adopt a “digital-first” strategy to survive. While this ongoing pandemic has created difficulties and frustrations among sales and marketing teams worldwide, I’d argue it has given industry professionals an opportunity to create their own destiny moving forward.

Now more than ever, agencies should be re-establishing the cornerstones of what a “real” partnership looks like. It needs to go beyond the bi-weekly check-ins and metrics reports. While digital marketing metrics (e.g., impressions, bounce rate, CPC, etc) are important components of any digital plan, the glue which binds an agency and their client, lies in meaningful moments and a collective, human connection.

We as agency stakeholders should be framing our conversations and expertise around empathy and humanity, just as much as we are on digital ad spends and ratios. Agencies should be proactively offering solutions that transcend metrics. Agencies should be providing alternative, holistic strategies that address immediate pivots, as well as address the long-term health, and survivability during this inevitable “new normal.”

We should be offering these proactive suggestions without expecting an immediate revenue return. We should be doing it because that’s what a “partnership” looks like. Right now, “shedding light” during dark times is the appropriate course of action.

Conclusion

The staff and leadership at HUSL are excited to connect, re-connect and proactively address the “new normal” with each and every existing client, as well as with companies exploring new agency partners. While we are experts at developing and executing on digital plans, we always strive to be equally adept at listening, understanding, collaborating, and supporting our partners. At the end of the day, our partners are humans. Humans who are going through a “new normal” full of mixed emotions and rapidly, shifting realities. Therefore, I challenge my colleagues and peers here at HUSL, as well as my industry peers to find intentional, meaningful moments throughout their day to embody the word “partner”.

If you’re interested in partnering with us, get in touch! We’re here to help.