Support

Just like a car, a website requires regular maintenance and care to keep it running smoothly and effectively. Without regular maintenance, your website can become slow, unresponsive, or even vulnerable to security threats. That’s why website maintenance is so important.

Website maintenance involves a variety of tasks, including updating content, applying security patches, and optimizing performance. By keeping your website up-to-date and well-maintained, you can ensure that it continues to serve as an effective tool for your business.

In addition to keeping your website running smoothly, regular maintenance can also help protect your business from potential security threats. Hackers and other malicious actors are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities in websites, and if your site is not properly maintained, it could be at risk. By keeping your website updated and secure, you can protect your business, your customers, and your reputation.

At DSM Tech Services, we offer comprehensive website maintenance services that can help keep your website running smoothly and securely. Our team of experts is skilled at performing a wide range of maintenance tasks, from applying security patches to optimizing performance. Let us help you protect and maintain your website, so you can focus on running your business.

Here is an excerpt of an article from zdnet explaining the vulnerability of websites.

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Millions of WordPress sites have been probed and attacked this week, Defiant, the company behind the Wordfence web firewall said on Friday.

The sudden spike in attacks happened after hackers discovered and started exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in “File Manager,” a popular WordPress plugin installed on more than 700,000 sites.

The zero-day was an unauthenticated file upload vulnerability that allowed an attacker to upload malicious files on a site running an older version of the File Manager plugin.

It’s unclear how hackers discovered the zero-day, but since earlier this week, they began probing for sites where this plugin might be installed.

If a probe was successful, the attackers would exploit the zero-day and upload a web shell disguised inside an image file on the victim’s server. The attackers would then access the web shell and take over the victim’s site, ensnaring it inside a botnet.

“Attacks against this vulnerability have risen dramatically over the last few days,” said Ram Gall, Threat Analyst at Defiant.

The attacks started slow, but intensified throughout the week, with Defiant recording attacks against one million WordPress sites, just on Friday, Sept. 4.

In total, Gall says Defiant blocked attacks against more than 1.7 million sites since Sept. 1, when the attacks were first discovered.

The 1.7 million figure is more than half of the number of WordPress sites using the Wordfence web firewall. Gall believes the true scale of the attacks is even much larger, as WordPress is installed on hundreds of millions of sites, all of which are probably being gradually probed and hacked.

The good news is that the File Manager developer team created and released a patch for the zero-day on the same day it learned about the attacks. Some site owners have installed the patch, but, as usual, others are lagging behind.

It is this slowness in patching that has recently driven the WordPress developer team to add an auto-update feature for WordPress themes and plugins. Starting with WordPress 5.5, released last month, site owners can configure plugins and themes to auto-update themselves every time a new update is out and make sure their sites are always running the latest version of a theme or plugin and staying safe from attacks.

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On top of using a high speed SSD storage and Optimized CPU resources for a speedier web browsing performance we perform the task below to ensure that your website runs smoothly at all times.

Below are the updates and upgrades that we do at a very regular and scheduled interval. 

SSL Certification for domain to ensure encryption, authentication and https -SSL/TLS. https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-is-an-ssl-certificate/

Elementor Pro license  https://elementor.com/pricing/

Optimus HQ- conversion of images to WebP. https://optimus.io/

Updraftplus – backup tool for complete website backup on Google Cloud. https://updraftplus.com/

Wp Optimize- Clean database, compress images and optimize cache. https://getwpo.com/

Plugins Update- Regularly update plugins to maintain website stability and uptime. https://wordpress.org/support/article/managing-plugins/

WordPress Core update- mandatory update to ensure website’s security. https://wordpress.org/support/article/updating-wordpress/

WordPress theme updates- This update is to ensure that your website displays the images, text, media and videos as was intended. Outdated sites may have misaligned templates , text and un-loadable images and videos etc. https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-themes/how-to-update-a-wordpress-theme-

Update PHP- Crucial update as the coding for wordpress is at this level. https://wordpress.org/support/update-php/

Migration ready- FTP support for accessing database and transferring files on CPanel. https://wpengine.com/resources/migrate-wordpress-site/

Malware threat mitigation- A periodic scan and mitigation of malware from websites core files. https://sucuri.net/guides/how-to-clean-hacked-wordpress/

Thorough database cleaning- To improve site load times and clear junk files that build up over time.  https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-clean-up-your-wordpress-database-for-improved-performance/

Cache optimization using a cache enabler plugin. A standalone plugin that handles the minification of html, CSS and javascript loading. https://wordpress.org/plugins/cache-enabler/

SEO optimization- To enable google to find your website and rank it higher on its search engine. https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-seo/.

Domain optimisation by using CDN- Host the domain on a content delivery network for  fast load times. https://www.fastly.com/blog/why-you-should-use-content-delivery-network

Brute force attack mitigation- We configure the wordpress sites to minimise this type of attack. https://wordpress.org/support/article/brute-force-attacks/

Jetpack Integration- To enable the website to have mobile apps and functionality with woocommerce. Also an  added security layer to the website. https://jetpack.com/

In conclusion, regular website maintenance is essential for ensuring that your website continues to serve as an effective tool for your business. By keeping your website up-to-date and well-maintained, you can protect it from potential security threats, improve its performance, and ensure that it continues to deliver value to your business. At DSM Tech Services, we offer comprehensive website maintenance services that can help you keep your website running smoothly and securely. Contact us today to learn more about our maintenance services and how we can help your business succeed.