Website security is very important in keeping a website safe. Without proper security on one’s website, hackers can easily gain access and explore it. They can take control of its management, take it offline, and even impact your online presence. The impact of a hacked website may include financial loss, poor search engine ranking, and brand reputation issues. Creating a small business fraud protection can help mitigate these risks. Website security protects your website from:
- DDoS attacks
- Malware
- Blacklisting
- Vulnerability exploit
- Defacement
Website security also protects your visitors from:
- Stolen data
- Phishing schemes
- Session hijacking
- Malicious redirect
- SEO spam
Steps Taken to Protect Website from Hackers
It is not enough to set up a website, it is also very important to secure that website against cybercriminals that intend to cause harm. The following steps can help keep your website safe from hackers:
Step 1: Install Security Plugins
If your website is built without a content management system (CMS), then you can boost your website with security plugins. Some of the plugins include:
- iThemes Security
- fail2Ban
- Amasty
- Magefence
- WatchGuard
- Antivirus Website Protection
Step 2: Use HTTPS
These five little letters are very important shorthand for hacker security; they simply signal that it’s safe to provide financial information on that particular webpage.
Step 3: Keep your Website Platform and Software Up-to-date
The leading cause of website infection is vulnerabilities in a content management system’s extensible component. To protect your website against hacking, always ensure that your content management system, apps, plugins, and any script installed on the web are up-to-date.
Step 4: Make sure Your Passwords are Secure
Do not use a password that would be easy to discover by hackers. Make sure your password is long, and use a mix of special characters, letters, and numbers.
Step 5: Invest in Automatic Backups
It is always terrible to lose all of one’s content due to hacking. Therefore, another way to protect yourself is to make sure you always have a recent backup for your website contents.
Why do Hackers Attack?
When you consider the reasons why hackers attack websites, you will think they have a specific purpose of targeting your website. But in reality, hackers don’t often single out someone. Most times, they randomly spot a website’s vulnerability and get to work. The following are some of the reasons hackers pounce on weak websites:
- Stealing personal information from visitors: The majority of these hackers attacks simply because they want to get personal details about visitors that they can use to against them. There is some website that will require that you give your credit card details to subscribe for some things. If the site is not very secure, hackers can get access to those details.
- Stealing server information: In this case, these hackers take total control of the website from its owner and use it to further their criminality.
- Abusing server resources: They make use of the resources that are provided in the servers of the website for their gains – what they are not supposed to have access to in the first place.
- Defacement: Many of these cybercriminals attack websites and change the visual appearance of such a website. They simply break into a website and replace the hosted website with one of their own. This is often done by some radical groups trying to gain attention. They will hack into a popular website and then replace it with details of their own identity or presence.
Website Vulnerabilities
The vulnerabilities of web security are prioritized depending on detectability, exploitability, and impact on software. The following are some website vulnerabilities you should know:
- SQL injection: Injection is a vulnerability in web security that gives hackers the access to alter backend SQL statements by manipulating supplied data by the user.
- Cross-Site scripting: Hackers who attack a website with cross-site scripting vulnerabilities put your visitors’ personal information at risk.
- Brute force attacks: Hackers use automated service to many username/password combinations until access is gained.
- Malware: This is a general name for various malicious software variants such as spyware, viruses, and ransomware. The malware is a backdoor for easy server access at a later point, and it allows the hacker to collect visitors’ information and launch attacks on other users.
This is a computer software application, like WordPress, that is used in the creation and management of digital content. This software gives users the easy opportunity to create, edit, collaborate, publish and store digital content. A CMS has two components: Content Delivery Application (CDA) and Content Management Application (CMA).
The CMA is a graphical user interface that allows users to design, create, modify and remove content from a website even without knowing HTML.
The CDA component, on the other hand, provides the back-end services that support the management and delivery of the content as soon as a user has created it in the CMA.
The CMS is an easy-to-use software for website owners. However, it has both its advantages and disadvantages:
- CMS helps non-programmers build a website
- However, CMS requires specialized security that non-programmers may not be aware of. This ignorance, unfortunately, may give hackers direct access to your website’s details.
In conclusion, when you set up a website, you must ensure the safety of the website, or vital information on the website will be at great risk. Nonchalance has resulted in the defacement of a lot of powerful websites out there. The steps outlined above will keep you from being a victim of the menace of website attacks.