The advancement of technology has enabled us many great things, however, it has also brought us many online dangers. For instance, hackers are constantly finding new ways to break into highly secure websites. According to Hosting Facts, an estimated 37,000 websites are hacked every day.
The sad thing is that most business owners think that their websites are completely resistant to hacking. Unfortunately, they only realize the importance of enhancing security measures when it is too late.
Don’t let your business fall into the trap of hackers. Here are six things you need to think about in order to protect your site.
Install a Web Application Firewall
Hackers use several techniques to launch web attacks. Installing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) is one of the most effective defensive countermeasures you can use to bring down different security threats into a manageable list. Some of the attacks controlled by WAF include Cross Site Scripting, SQL Injections, and brute force attacks.
Since hackers first determine the operating system, the web server, and the database platforms, you should use camouflage techniques to trick the attackers. For example, removing and obscuring the website signatures via WAF systems can prevent hackers from attacking the site by making them spend hours guessing the right point of attack.
A firewall is also able to detect and block new threats by monitoring the unfamiliar patterns on the site’s traffic data.
Update on a Regular Basis
Hackers can easily breach most websites because the owners don’t take the time to download the latest updates for their content management system (CMS) and other software. Such updates contain crucial security patches and bug fixes that can prevent hackers from accessing the contents of your website.
Failing to update your software regularly can result in a weakened security system that can allow attackers to send spam from your server, fiddle with SEO data and place malware or adware on your website.
Make sure you check the CMS dashboard regularly, to find out if there is any feature that requires an update.
Use SSL
Most hackers can intercept data that is being sent from a user to a website. This happens because the data is sent in plain text format and is not encrypted. Using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) on your website can prevent this from happening.
SSL is a technology used for establishing an encrypted link between a website and a browser. The SSL technology actively monitors the transfer of information between the browser and the website and converts the information sent in plain text to encrypted formats so that hackers can’t intercept it.
Therefore, when your customers type in credit card information and other sensitive data on your website, the SSL secures the transfer of information. Websites that use SSL protocols have URLs that begin with https instead of the conventional http.
Use Strong Passwords and 2-Step Verification
Using strong passwords can protect your site from brute force attacks. These types of attack use a trial-and-error method to guess weak and common passwords.
To prevent hackers in succeeding, ensure you use a combination of letters, digits and symbols in your password which should contain at least 12 characters. You should also make sure you change your passwords on a regular basis and never use the same password for different logins.
In addition, you can use a 2-step verification process which requires you to allow or deny login attempts via an application on your smartphone or tablet. This will prevent someone from logging in just in case they do guess your password.
Educate Your Employees
Unfortunately, most hackers and their cyber-attacks are very intelligent and can easily trick your employees. One click on a malicious link in an email from an unknown sender is all it takes for hackers to plant malware on your employees’ computers. This malware can, for example, track your login information and give hackers access to your website.
This is why it is important to educate all of your employees about online security. Educating employees is a valuable defense mechanism you can use to fight against hackers. Just like the technical variant, the human defense system can make a difference in the battle against hackers.
Make sure all of your employees know they should never click on links in suspicious email, always use strong passwords and change them often. They should also avoid logging in to your company’s website using unsafe public wi-fi.
All of your employees in the company need to know about the security risks and how to prevent them They should also keep up to date with the latest scams and hacking attempts.
Back Up Your Data
Even if you implement all the security measures mentioned in this article, you should still make sure to back up your data in case a hacker manages to get through your security system.
When you back up data on a regular basis, you can make sure that the company will still be able to operate after the attack. The smartest idea would be to back up your data both to an external hard drive and the cloud.
This way you won’t have to worry in case there is a fire or a flood in your office and you can’t access the backup on the hard drive. You will rest assured knowing that another backup of your data is safe in the cloud.
Final Thoughts
Protecting your website is important, especially if you are own an e-commerce store. Technologies such as WAF and SSL will ensure you keep hackers from intercepting sensitive information on your website. Practices such as data backup, strong passwords, and employee education will increase the security further. Never forget that investing in a website’s security is well worth it.
Lisa Michaels
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