Website security is one of the most important aspects of ensuring that your business continues to exist. With the growth of the world wide web, threats to websites have increased. They are much more prone to hacker attacks, data breaches, malicious codes, and malware, which can not only affect the trust your customers have in your website but affect your reputation and cost you money ultimately. No customer wants to get his or her account hacked just by vising your website. Unfortunately, this is occurring at a rapid pace making it a high priority that you do all you can to protect your website.
Use HTTPS To Ensure Website Security
One of the ways to ensure that you maintain website security is by installing a hypertext transfer protocol secure commonly known as HTTPS on your website. This ensures that the data that is exchanged by others with your data is kept safe. This is particularly important for data such as passwords, personal details, and credit card numbers. This is particularly important for new websites.
HTTPS is installed using a secure socket layer (SSL). This is usually obtained from trustworthy web hosting companies. Fortunately, most good hosting providers include this in their web hosting packages. You can either install it yourself or have someone from the hosting company install it for you.
Vendors like Namecheap provide this service. If your vendor does not, make sure you purchase it and get it installed. Once you have an SSL certificate, you need to configure your website to redirect all HTTP requests to secure your website to HTTPS. You can do this by editing your .htaccess file or using a plugin if you are using a CMS like WordPress.
You also need to update any links or data that reference your site. These include your social media profiles, login details, email signatures, or marketing materials.
Employing HTTPS is akin to dispatching your sensitive data in a sealed envelope rather than on a postcard. The contents of an envelope cannot be deciphered or modified by any intermediaries, whereas an eavesdropper can readily peruse or alter the content on a postcard.
For instance, if you input your credit card details on a website that employs HTTPS, a cybercriminal can intercept your website data and pilfer your sensitive information or redirect the data to a fraudulent website.
In contrast, when you visit a website that utilizes HTTPS, your data is encrypted and shielded from any potential interception. Keep your software updated. This includes your web application firewall, server software updates, CMS software, plugins, themes, and any other tools or scripts that you use on your website.
Outdated software can contain vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to gain access to your website or inject malicious code into a new website.
To keep the regular backups and automatic backups of your website, you should check for updates regularly and install them as soon as possible.
You can also enable automatic updates if they are available for your website file backup services or website backup software. However, before updating the automatic backups or anything your website backup has, you should always back up to date your website files and database in case something goes wrong or breaks.
Keeping the security upgrades on your software updated is like changing the locks on your doors and windows regularly. You don’t want outdated software to leave any gaps or weaknesses that burglars can exploit to break into your house.
For example, in 2017, a massive cyberattack called WannaCry infected millions of computers around the world with ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts your files and demands money to unlock them. The attack exploited a vulnerability in an outdated version of Windows that had been patched months before.
If the users had updated their software, they could have avoided the attack. Use strong passwords and change them often
Keep your software updated
Another way to ensure website security is to make sure hackers cannot access your password and break into your website. Apart from not giving access to your website to unknown persons, you should use strong passwords and change them often for your website admin account,
Using the same password for multiple accounts: your login details, your website access, your web hosting company, provider or company account, your database account, and any other accounts that are related to your website is not advisable.
To Ensure Website Security, Use strong passwords and change them often
A formidable password to ensure the security of your website ought to comprise no fewer than 12 characters and feature a blend of uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and symbols.
If you happen to be the proprietor of a small business or a website owner, it is highly recommended to steer clear of commonly used words, phrases, or personal information as they are highly susceptible to being deciphered or guessed with ease.
To establish and maintain the robustness of your passwords, you can opt to utilize an impregnable password management tool, such as LastPass or 1Password. These applications are capable of creating highly secure passwords at random for your website and saving them in an encrypted repository, which can be accessed using a master password.
Additionally, they can conveniently autofill your login credentials when logging into various websites or in the event that you have multiple accounts on the same site.
You should also change your passwords regularly, especially if you suspect that they have been compromised or exposed to unauthorized access.
You can resort to a tool such as “Have I Been Pwned” to investigate whether your email address or password has been implicated in any data breaches.
Ensuring that your passwords are sturdy and frequently rotated is tantamount to employing a combination lock rather than a conventional padlock for your locker.
A combination lock offers a far greater number of potential permutations, rendering it significantly more challenging to penetrate compared to a padlock, which can be effortlessly cut or picked.
To illustrate, if you happen to utilize a password that is predictable or easily guessable, such as “123456” or “password,” a malevolent hacker can employ brute force methods to gain entry into your website’s confidential data. But if you use a password like “h4ck3r$B3w4r3!” or “p@$w0rd!$n0t$@f3” for the same password, a hacker would have a much harder time cracking it.
Limit user access and permissions
If you have multiple users who can access or edit the content management systems and the same server for your website, you should limit them to secure your website and access the default settings and permissions according to their roles and responsibilities in building websites.
For example, you can assign different user roles in the content management systems, WordPress such as administrator, editor, author, contributor, or subscriber. Each role has different capabilities default settings and privileges on what they can do on your site.
By limiting user access to data and giving access permissions on secure websites, you can reduce the risk of unauthorized changes uploaded website, data breaches, or malicious bots’ actions on your hacked website. You can also monitor the activity of your users and track any changes they make on your secure website.
It is highly recommended that you alter your passwords on a regular basis, particularly if you harbor any suspicions that they may have been jeopardized or exposed to an outside entity.
Install security plugins or tools
One of the most effective ways to enhance the security of your web server and website is to install security plugins or tools designed to protect your web server and website from diverse security threats and cyber-attacks. Multiple security plugins or tools are available for different platforms and security purposes, which can be availed through your web host.
These plugins or tools can offer an array of security features, such as firewalls, which filter incoming and outgoing traffic on your website, thereby preventing any suspicious or malevolent requests from infiltrating your website’s systems.
Malware scanner:
A malware scanner is a tool that scans your website files and database for any signs of malware infection or code injection.
Backup
A backup refers to a replica of your website’s database and files, which can be reinstated in the event of data loss. It is essential to perform regular backups, preferably on a weekly basis.
Brute force protection
On the other hand, brute force protection constitutes a functionality that curtails the number of login attempts or restricts the IP addresses that endeavor to guess your passwords. This feature serves as an effective deterrent to hacking attempts.
Spam protection
This serves as a security feature that precludes spam comments or emails from inundating your website or email inbox. Finally, SSL enforcement is an attribute that obliges your website to employ HTTPS, thus obviating any insecure connections or mixed content issues that could undermine your website’s security.
Some examples of security plugins or tools that you can use are:
Wordfence
Wordfence is a popular security plugin for WordPress that offers a firewall, malware scanner, brute force protection, spam protection, and more. Sucuri: Sucuri is a comprehensive security service that offers a firewall, malware scanner, backup, SSL enforcement, and more. It works with any platform and can also help you clean up your website if it gets hacked.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a cloud-based service that offers a firewall, SSL enforcement, spam protection, and more. It also improves your website performance and speed by caching your content and delivering it from a global network of servers. Incorporating security plugins or tools is akin to installing an alarm system or security camera for your residence. These protective measures can aid in identifying and thwarting any malevolent intruders or threats attempting to gain access or inflict harm on your property. For example, if you have a WordPress website, you can install security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri, or Cloudflare that can protect your website from hackers, malware, spam, and other attacks.
Educate yourself and your users
The last tip for improving your website security is to educate yourself and your users about the best web security practices and the common web security issues hacker attacks and cyber threats that can affect your website.
Do regular backups. You should stay updated on the latest web security news and trends and learn how to prevent or fix any website security threats or other website security issues themselves, that may arise.
You should also educate your users on how to create and manage strong passwords, how to avoid phishing or malware attacks, steps to secure your website further, and how to report any suspicious or unusual activity on your website.
A plethora of online resources exist that can furnish you with an in-depth comprehension of website security and site over, ranging from websites, blogs, podcasts, webinars, courses, and books on website security and site over.
Additionally, you can opt to join online sites, communities, or forums to obtain guidance, swap tips, or acquire support from other website owners or experts.
Educating yourself and your users on website security is tantamount to learning how to safeguard yourself and others from criminal activities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I trust that these instances have elucidated the significance of website security and how to elevate it for your website, your business, and other websites as well.