All websites, over time, will need tweaks, code changes, script upgrades and more, to stay useable and, most importantly, to protect it from malware or hacking. Hackers gain a way in to your website by exploiting holes in code and scripts. If your site is based on WordPress, meaning its database driven, you are especially vulnerable to hacking because of holes in outdated database code, plugins and scripts. Not all hosting providers have the latest SQL, MYSQL and PHP versions on their servers. It would be wise to talk with your designer or call DVMARK at 210-888-9296 for assistance.

Do You Have a Shopping Cart? What is PCI Compliance?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) refers to payment security standards that ensure all sellers safely and securely accept, store, process, and transmit cardholder data (also known as your customers’ credit card information) during a credit card transaction. PCI Compliance is mostly related to accepting and charging credit card information thru an online shopping cart, portal or webpage. You must make sure that your website is SSL or HTTPS:// secure or that any link to the purchase process, points to a page or portal that is HTTPS secure.

If you sell anything online that uses a checkout process, or, that clients can click a link labeled buy now, the interface that transacts that purchase must be SSL or HTTPS to be a PCI Compliant. Why should I care about PCI DSS? Please read the info on this website. Cut and paste this string into your browser and hit enter https://preferredpayments.com/pci-compliance-why-should-care/

What Is SSL or HTTPS?

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, it’s also referred to as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). It allows browser sessions with a website to occur over an encrypted communication channel. The Chrome browser already labels sites without HTTPS as “Not secure”, which leaves it up to your customers to interpret. There are basically 2 types of SSL: Free and Paid. FREE SSL is good for most websites that generic in nature, they tell that they sell a product but you have to call them make the transaction.

Free SSL’s do not carry insurance policies that protect against issues related to client personal information during a transaction. PAID SSL is mandatory for all shopping carts that use a built-in checkout feature to process credit cards. Sites using a Google Pay, Apple Pay or PayPal with BUY NOW buttons can get by on FREE SSL if the BUY NOW link takes the purchaser to a https or SSL secure gate way to process the transaction. PAID SSL certificate can carry up $1 million dollars, and greater, in insurance to protect against a data breach.

As of 2019 all websites need to adhere to the Google SSL/HTTPS directive, because soon every browser will begin reporting that HTTP sites are NOT SECURE. The FREE SSL that DVMARK.COM offers should be enough for most but If you have a shopping cart or are contemplating selling items thru a web-based cart, then you need to seriously consider a PAID SSL. Contact DVMARK.COM for more details.

As of 2019 all websites need to adhere to the Google SSL/HTTPS directive, because soon every browser will begin reporting that HTTP sites are NOT SECURE. The FREE SSL that DVMARK.COM offers should be enough for most but If you have a shopping cart or are contemplating selling items thru a web-based cart, then you need to seriously consider a PAID SSL. Contact DVMARK.COM for more details.

DVMARK is ready to help you with all these possibilities. In most circumstance we will need to perform remote access on either your PC or your CPANEL access to your website hosting account.

On April 21, 2015, Google announced a major change to how websites get ranked, the result is be mobile friendly or fall back. Mobile-Friendly in 2019 means that a website is instantly viewable and legible on any phone or tablet without finger sizing page content. Bottom-line is, if your site is not mobile friendly its not going to get ranked.