Why Website Security Matters for Economic Development Corporations
Website security is critical for Economic Development Corporations (also known as EDCs) to start thinking about right now. If you don’t have a plan, it’s time to create one. We get it, your team is focused on tackling blight, building up infrastructure, and helping your community achieve new economic milestones. Your EDC team is working to make sure they stay ahead in a quickly evolving technological landscape. They must wear new hats and work diligently to make sure the community stays on track and continues to see economic growth year-over-year. Website security is one of those things where you want to know that it is being taken care of, and you don’t have to worry. But, if you don’t have the right website support team, it can introduce huge headaches for your organization, disrupt services to the community, and cause your EDC thousands of dollars in unplanned website repairs and remediation.
What does website security mean? A few key areas are authentication, code updates, and the server environment. Strong login security is essential in 2026, and administrators should protect access with measures like multi‑factor authentication to reduce the risk of unauthorized entry. Keeping the website platform updated by regularly patching all plugins, themes, and custom code—along with continuous monitoring—helps prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited. The server environment should be tightly controlled, and hosting resources should only be shared with trusted parties to minimize exposure to security risks.
Common Security Risks Facing Economic Development Websites
As a quasi-government entity, you are under additional scrutiny and review by your auditors. You can’t afford the bad PR a security breach can bring. This unfortunately happened to a federally mandated agency’s website before we took over their security and website management. The agency’s website was exploited to show large banner ads for edible gummies and other products. The hackers were smart, hiding the ads from administrators so that the exploit went undetected for a significant amount of time. Our team was brought in to mitigate those security risks and make the website secure by removing unvetted plugins and vulnerable code. The website has not had any security incidents since we took over.
Bad actors are constantly trying to take advantage of website exploits. They will use agentic bots and other technologies to try and gain administrative access and break through your existing website security. Denial of service attacks might bring down your website entirely. Outdated plugins and code may give hackers the opportunity they need to point your website to a different domain. Sharing a server with other unknown organizations can lead to unexpected downtime. All of these types of attacks will break the trust you’re trying to build with your community.
The Importance of US-Based, In-House Web Support
The CH Web Agency’s design and development team is entirely in-house and local to Chapel Hill, NC. Many of our partners are university programs, quasi-government organizations, public entities, or federally mandated nonprofits. We take website security seriously from the start of the web design project. We are making multi-factor authentication standard for all new projects. Our strategic partners are vetted and located on the east coast. We also vet our prospective clients to ensure we establish good working relationships.
US‑based agencies are especially valuable to economic development corporations because they operate within the same regulatory environment, ensuring data handling, privacy practices, and security standards align with U.S. compliance requirements. They also provide clearer accountability and faster, more secure collaboration, which is essential when managing sensitive regional data and coordinating with government and business partners.
How Secure Hosting and Monitoring Reduce Risk
Economic development corporations are expected to be a reliable and secure resource for both government and business partners. If you experience hosting and performance issues, that reliability and security may be questioned. Your website might be using a shared hosting environment. The reason we take vetting our partners and clients so seriously is to guarantee that we mitigate our existing clients risks for disruption.
Our hosting service provider offers an estimated 99% uptime. We host clients on one of our dedicated servers. Other hosting providers can put your website on a server with websites that haven’t been updated in 10 years. This can result in unforeseen downtime and unstable connections. All clients with a service-level agreement or who host with us receive bi-monthly website security updates. We also monitor websites 24/7 and are notified within minutes if there is any downtime.
What to Look for in a Long-Term Website Security Partner
When an economic development corporation evaluates a long‑term website security partner, it’s essential to look for a team that understands the unique responsibility of protecting regional data, stakeholder information, and public‑facing resources. The right partner should offer 24/7 monitoring, regular security updates, rapid response capabilities, and a proven track record of maintaining secure, compliant digital environments for organizations that work closely with government and business leaders. When you work with CH Web Agency, you’ll receive all that and more. You’ll receive a dedicated team that is ready to help you build your community, we’re just a quick chat, Zoom call, or in-person meeting away. Call us today to learn how we can help you make your organization more secure. As a small business, we know the value that economic development corporations continue to bring to communities in 2026.
