In the era of the global economy’s rapid digital change, businesses interact with their customers either online or through social media. Users can examine all recent changes, purchase goods or services, get in touch with the company’s representatives, and more by visiting the official website.
The company suffers huge reputational and financial damage when its website is offline. Dishonest competitors and unscrupulous agents are aware of it. Corporate websites are targeted by hackers to demand ransom payments or to harm rival businesses. Because of this, businesses frequently ask cybersecurity specialists “how to secure websites from hackers.”
If you have your website, it is time to secure it and make sure that hackers will have no access to your valuable data.
How to Stop Hackers?
Use Security Plugins
If you used a content management system (CMS) to build your website, you can improve it with security plugins that proactively thwart website hacking efforts. There are security plugins available, and many of them are free.
These choices address the inherent security flaws in each platform, thwarting various kinds of hacking efforts that can endanger your website.
Apply HTTPS
You may already be aware as a user that you should always check for the green lock icon and HTTPS in your browser bar before entering any sensitive data on a website. These five tiny characters serve as a crucial shorthand for hacker security, indicating that it is okay to enter personal or financial information on a given website.
An SSL certificate is crucial because it encrypts data transfers between your website and the server, including those involving credit cards, personal information, and contact details.
Because they want visitors to have a great and secure web experience, search engines are taking website security more seriously than ever. In keeping with the dedication to security, if your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate, a search engine may rank it lower in search results.
Therefore, you must spend money on an SSL certificate if you want people to believe in your brand. An SSL certificate has a low upfront cost, but the additional level of encryption it provides to your clients greatly increases the security and reliability of your website.
Set Up A Firewall
Websites are not manually breached by hackers. A skilled hacker will build a bot that searches for weak sites and automates the majority of the procedure. Bots are now designed to do particular tasks. They lack sentience.
A firewall’s fundamental component is software that recognizes fraudulent requests. Each information request made to your website must first pass through the firewall. The request is stopped by the firewall rather than being processed if it is determined to be malicious or to be coming from an IP address that is known to be malicious.
Use Strong Passwords Only
This one appears straightforward, but it’s essential. It can be tempting to choose a password that you are confident in your ability to remember. Because of this, 123456 continues to be the most used password. To stop login attempts from hackers and other outsiders, you must perform far better than that.
Try to create a secure password. Keep it lengthy. Use a combination of small and big letters, numbers, and special characters. Additionally, you should avoid using words like your birthday or your child’s name that could be easily guessed. If a hacker manages to get hold of other details about you, they’ll be able to guess those first.
The first step is to hold oneself to a high standard of password security. Additionally, you must ensure that everyone who has access to your website has equally secure passwords. Set expectations with everyone who has access because one weak password among your team could expose your website to a data leak.
Impose limits on the length and character kinds of all website users. It’s entirely up to your staff if they wish to use simple passwords for their less protected accounts. However, since your website is your business, you can demand more of them when it comes to it.
You can also use a password manager to make it easy when you want to use strong passwords. You don’t have to remember them at all and it allows auto-login.
Use Automated Backups
You still run some danger even if you take all the other steps on this list. A website hack’s worst-case scenario is that you lose everything because you neglected to back up your website. A current backup should always be there as it is the best defense.
Even though a data breach will be distressing regardless, recovery is considerably simpler when you have a recent backup. Making a habit of manually backing up your website on a daily or weekly basis is possible. However, if there’s even a remote risk that you’ll forget, spend money on automatic backups. It’s an inexpensive way to obtain security.
Track Administrative Rights and User Access
You could first feel at ease granting numerous senior staff access to your website. Each is given administrative rights with the expectation that they will manage their site responsibly. Although that is the ideal circumstance, this does not always occur.
Unfortunately, when connecting to the CMS, employees do not consider website security. Instead, they are focused on the work at hand.
A serious security concern could arise if they make a mistake or ignore something.
Before granting access to your staff, you must thoroughly check them out. Ascertain their familiarity with your CMS and their knowledge of the warning signs of a security breach.
Inform each CMS user of the value of strong passwords and regular software updates. Inform them of all the ways they may support keeping the website safe.
Record and update it frequently to track who has access to your CMS and what are their administrative settings.
Staff members come and go. Keeping a tangible record of who uses your website and when is one of the greatest strategies to avoid security problems.
Select Reputable Web Hosting Companies
Select dependable web hosting companies that frequently do backups and check logs for activity from hackers. In the event of a cyberattack, the accountable service provider will work with you right away to filter traffic. Examining a hosting provider’s history of security problems may be reasonable.
Keep Devices Safe
It is also crucial to keep your devices safe if you want your data to be protected. If your computer gets infected by malware, it can gain access to your website once you log in using the infected device. Therefore, use security software and advanced operation systems to help increase the security of your device.
Utilize 2FA
Besides your password, two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second device or token that you must have access to log in.
Several protocols, including TOTP (time-based one-time password) and HOTP, are used for 2FA (HMAC-based one-time password).
The most popular protocols are supported by several premium and unpaid apps that may be used to add 2FA to your login page. If you have a lot of people that contribute to your website, it’s a good idea to use this security feature.
Control the Data that Visitors Upload
If users must upload files, then you must specify the file sizes that are permitted as well as the permissible file extensions. Don’t forget to scan the uploaded files as well because they can be infected with malware. To prevent a website’s functionality and the security of its data from being harmed even if submitted files include malware, they should be kept apart from the root folder.
Purchase Domain Privacy
Your information is entered into a public database when you buy a domain name, whether directly or through your web server, and anybody can access it. Such personal data as your name, address, email address, and phone number will be stored in this database. Your information is left out there for anybody to view, including hackers, spammers, and identity thieves.
Domain privacy services are provided by all domain registrars. This service will have a tiny fee, but it also comes with benefits, making it a wonderful bargain. It will conceal all of your information so that it can go public without affecting who owns the domain.
It’s a short and easy step to take, but it can make a big difference in whether a website is secure or not.
Update Everything
It is a straightforward yet frequently disregarded guideline. However, if you want to be certain that you are secure, you must always use the most recent version of any plugins or security programs.
Update the drivers and software on your website. Updates may seem like pointless upkeep, but they frequently contain crucial patches to counter known infections or flaws. You may stop hackers from using vulnerabilities in your website by updating your software.
Additionally, you should make sure to utilize legitimate software and plugins rather than pirated versions. Always allow the plugin or software to download updates if they are offered.
Conclusion
By being proactive in securing your website, you can ensure that your data is safe. With plenty of online attacks happening, it is always better to keep your website safe because cyberattacks are expensive and damaging to a business’s reputation.
