Hackers deleted 4,800+ websites this week in Australia

It was with much horror that I read an article in one of our major newspapers this week, about a local domain registrar and hosting company called Distribute.IT. My client Chris alerted me to this and I wanted to share this so that everyone would really seriously think about their OWN websites and business.

Read the article on the Sydney Morning Herald >>

Hackers succeeded in breaking into their servers and deleted all websites, all backups - everything which would help them to rebuild all their customer sites.

This is an absolutely shocking story - and one which should strike fear in the heart of EVERY website owner around the world.

Part 1 of How To Backup Your Website Using cPanel

. .

I'd like to stress to all website owners that good hosting companies DO take weekly or monthly backups, but this SHOULD NOT be taken as a reason to NOT do your very own backups.

Hosting companies can be hacked - as we've just discovered.

So - who do you think is the most reliable person to backup your website (and your business)??

That's right - YOU!!

I ~~harp on~~ recommend to my clients and friends that they do backups - but I know the majority of folks just don't think it's necessary ... until it's too late.

So today - right here - right now - I want you to listen AND TAKE ACTION.

If you are my client, there are several ways to backup your site:

via the cPanel Backup Option in your hosting account with my company
via a Backup functionality installed in your Wordpress websites hosted with my company
via downloaded backup software which does a flat-file (no database) backup of all your pages at any time (see info below)
via cloud-based backup and storage solutions online.

If you're not my client, that's ok - I have these suggestions for you too:

contact your Hosting company and ask for instructions on how to backup your site - and do it at least weekly
if you use Wordpress, have your tech person install Backup functionality and set it to weekly (or daily, depending on how frequently you update your site).
via downloaded backup software which does a flat-file (no database) backup of all your pages at any time (see info below)
via cloud-based backup and storage solutions online.

Frequently asked questions about BACKING UP WEBSITES

Q: "How often should I back up my website?"

A: How often do you work on your website? If you work on it daily, backup daily. If you work on it once a week, backup once a week, same goes for any other period of time.

Q: "I will forget to do this - I'm too busy - my assistant keeps forgetting to do this ... help!"

Let me ask you this - if your entire website was LOST/DELETED/HACKED BEYOND REPAIR today, how would you feel?
Would you have wished you'd spent 5 minutes once a week to back up your website, or better still, setting up an automated process?
If your website is your business and not just a hobby - how would the loss of it impact your business as a whole?
How long would it take to reproduce a new website and all the information contained therein?
Did you store ALL your contact/client details on your website in the back-end? Do you have an export, a download of that data which you extract regularly, and save OFF your computer for safe-keeping?
Is any of this starting to make you think twice about backing up TODAY? I do hope so!

Q: "Doesn't the hosting company back up my site?"

Check with your hosting company first - and ask them how easy it would be to recreate your site if their servers were hacked and everthing was deleted. They may say this will never happen - but look at Distribute.IT - their entire business - and their 4800 clients' businesses - have been lost overnight.
Most hosting companies do backup their servers, but the fine print when you sign up will explain to you that they are not responsible for daily backups etc, and that responsibility falls onto the shoulders of the website owner.
Please DO NOT use your hosting company as your backup 'solution'. Be responsible for your own website - and back it up today.

Q: "Isn't it hard to backup a website, and then to reinstate it/get it back later?"

No it isn't hard to backup a website.
No it should not be difficult to reinstate a website later.
Please contact your hosting company or it IT person or techie guy/gal and ask for their help if you're not sure what to do.

Types of backups you can do or have done for you

cPanel or Hosting backups using the hosting backup software in your Hosting Control Panel (dashboard); most will send an automated email to advise when the Full Backup is complete. TIP : the backup is generally stored in your hosting space - this will do you no good whatsover. You need to DOWNLOAD THE BACKUP and store it OFF your computer (on a flash drive, thumb drive etc). Having several backup copies is excellent business practice.
Wordpress Backups - there are many plugins which can be installed in Wordpress websites to manage automatic backups - speak with your IT person or techie guy/gal and ask for their help if you're not sure what to do.
Download backup software to your Windows PC or Mac and perform ADDITIONAL backups every now and then - and then remove them from your computer (in case your computer crashes or is stolen) (see info below).
Use online Backup / Storage spaces - there are plenty of these which you can investigate.

If you use cPanel Hosting

Go to http://tutorials.teenahugheswebsites.com
select cPanel in the options in the centre of the screen
select Backup.

It's very straightforward - you will need to login to your Hosting account (type your full domain name in a browser and add /cpanel to the end), and click the Backup button as shown in the video (the layout of your cpanel might be slightly different and more up-to-date than the video); I recommend backing up the entire site, which includes the most important bit - the SQL databases with all your site data in them.

Part 2 of How To Backup Your Website Using cPanel

How to Download the Website Backup File

. .

If you have a Wordpress website

If you're my client and not sure if you have Backup software installed, please contact me.

If you're not my client and not sure if you have Backup software installed, please contact me and I can set up the automated backup software for your website.

If you'd like to download software

Windows Users
==========
Download f-r-e-e back-up software at http://www.httrack.com

Mac Users
==========
Download f-r-e-e back-up software at http://sitesucker.us

Follow the instructions on the websites. I have used both with great success.

Many of the automated solutions will provide an option to copy/upload the backed up website directly to online storage places like Amazon S3 and other 'cloud' storage places online.

The bottom line is there is no excuse to NOT HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR WEBSITE.

Trust me - you never want to find your self in a position where you've lost everything - no matter what the cause was.

Now - go do it today!

Sign up for Your Biz Hot Tips Newsletter today If you found this article helpful and would like to learn more about websites, hosting, Wordpress and the internet, you might like to sign up for my newsletter - YOUR BIZ HOT TIPS >>