Best HOA Website Security Features

What type of security measures does my HOA or Condo community website need?

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Best Website Security Features For A Condo Or HOA Website

When establishing a website for your HOA or condo association, there are a few considerations paramount to security.

All community association websites should encompass a variety of security measures, however, homeowners associations and condo association websites should pay special attention to website security to ensure the protection of resident and homeowner information, and other sensitive community data.

A few key features for community website security include SSL certificates (HTTPS), uptime monitoring, and routine website backups. 

Following these best practices and safety measures for your homeowners Association website will keep your community data safe and secure. 

Below we describe each security feature and why it is important for your HOA website. 

SSL Certificate (SSL) For Condo & HOA Websites

An SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer) or HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) are security systems for internet-based web pages that create a secure channel of communication through computer networks.

Typically, this encompasses encrypting information (resident data for example) so that the data, even if accessed by unwanted parties, is not readable or usable.

In essence, this encryption rewrites the information into a cryptic computer language that requires specific codes to unencrypt and make it readable for users.

This renders your data secure.

Using SSL certificates or HTTPS as a security measure on a condo website establishes trust so users (homeowners, board members, residents, etc.) feel confident in uploading personal information, accessing financial documents, or paying dues without concern that their information may be breached.

Ideally, your condo website users can freely access and use the website without worry that their personal data will remain protected because the connection is secure thanks- to an SSL certificate. 

Uptime Monitoring For Condo & HOA Websites

Uptime monitoring is a service to automatically monitor the security of your condo & HOA website on a continuous basis.

Uptime monitoring is a way to ensure the functionality and secure encryption of website data at all times and can include immediate notification for any issue like wrong codes, hard disk failures, malware attacks, network problems, or website downtime.

If there is an issue, your web host will be alerted and can address the issue immediately. (Learn more about web hosting here)

Because websites are running 24/7 occasional bugs or issues happen.

So, while the goal with servers is to reach 100% uptime, there is a guaranteed uptime of 99.99% to account for alerts or possible issues.

Strong uptime also allows for reliable and stable connections as it indicates a system with minimal crashing.

Overall, uptime monitoring as a security measure for your condo website lets you rest assured that if there is an issue, you’ll know and be able to address it immediately.

In this way, keeping confidence in website users and maintaining trust.

Routine Website Backups For Condo & HOA Websites

A final important HOA website safety measure is routine backups.

This means storing extra copies of website data outside of your server, so that in the event that your main server crashes, your data is not completely lost.

Routine website backups store files like coding, databases, and secure customer/user data.

Not everything from your website needs to be backed up, but the important data should be routinely backup up, properly stored, and encrypted.

Be sure to inquire with your web hosting service if routine data backups are in place (at least on a  monthly basis) and that you will have access to the backups if necessary.

Specifically, ensure that user-uploaded content will be saved and secure, and available to your condominium in the event of a website crash.

Routine HOA website backups also provide peace of mind for the Board of Directors and website administrators. 

Your data will never be completely lost due to a virus or server issue, and you’ll be able to refer to your backups to get your condo website back online quickly.

Condo & HOA Website Security Final Thoughts 

As described above, the key considerations to maintain a secure HOA or community website include SSL certificates (HTTPS), uptime monitoring, and routine website backups. 

Encrypt your data, monitor the website and set up alerts, and be prepared with data backups just in case.

Following these best practices for website security will ensure protected data for your residents and homeowners and thus provide your community peace of mind.

Learn more about integrating safety measures for your association website today.

We’ll help add security measures to an existing HOA site or help build a new secure HOA community website from scratch.

Schedule a call with PropertyPop to review your HOA Website Saftey Features