Security

Can I password protect parts of my site?
Yes is the short answer, if you are looking at "pass-wording" areas of your site, you might care to look in more detail at our Commerce package.

How do I ensure my customers credit card details are safe?
If you are going to sell your products and services on your website, then you will no doubt be accepting credit card information from your customers. To do this the right way you need to make sure your website has SSL, more information about which is available.

What is this SSL thing, I've heard mentioned?
SSL is the thing that keeps your credit card number safe when you buy things over the web. Technically it’s an abbreviation for secure sockets layer, however to you and I it is a piece of software that encrypts information that you see in your web browser, and that you provide to some websites. You will know that you are looking at a ‘safe’ page due to the padlock that appears at the bottom of the screen, as well as the address of the website which should start with ‘https://’ instead of just ‘http://’.

What does the little lock I see at the bottom of some screens mean?
The little padlock is an indicator to you that the information you are reading on the webpage, and information that you type onto the webpage, are secure. So it’s pretty safe to provide information like credit card numbers and personal details on these pages. If you double click on the padlock you will be able to see more information about the security of the page. Information that you see in your web browser, and information that you type onto a web page, normally flies around the world before getting to the other end. Because it uses this method of communication, there is not much stopping people with the wrong intent from looking at the information you provide. So to prevent these people from ‘seeing’ this information, some web pages are encrypted, or garbled, so that if someone was to look at them in transit the information just wouldn’t make sense. As a general rule you should never provide your credit card number to a website that doesn’t have a padlock at the bottom of the screen, and definitely NEVER in an email.