Although you may not perceive your website worth a hack, however, the fact that you must know is that websites are being compromised every second of the day. The reasons behind website security breaches can be in abundance.
Right from the intention of stealing your data to messing with the layout of your website, attempting to use your website server to send spams, setting up a temporary web server, there are a lot of things that can be done instantly.
So, if such is the scenario, how can you keep your website safeguarded? Here are top 12 tips to keep your website protected from hackers.
1. Stay Updated:
Believe it or not, even the trends and techniques in the hacking industry are changing rapidly. Therefore, it is important to stay updated with what is going on so that you can protect your website against any possible threat.
For this, keep a tab on the updates provided by major tech companies. You can even indulge in your personal research. In the end, use that information to put precautions whenever necessary to keep the site safe.
2. Protection Against XSS Attacks:
These days, cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks are being held responsible for injecting malicious JavaScript into your web pages, which runs in the users’ browsers and can change the content of your web pages altogether.
Thus, you would have to ensure that your users are not injecting any sort of active JavaScript content to your web pages. Also, you can even try injecting JavaScript into your HTML code, which turns out to be effective when it comes to providing safety against XSS attacks.
3. Use HTTPS:
If you are on the consumer end, you might always look out for a green bar with https in the URLS section before submitting any sensitive information, isn’t it? So, the same goes for your business website as well.
Having https in front of the URL makes sure that your website is secured enough. So, if your website is selling goods online and would require customers to add personal details, such as address, phone number, card details, and more, then you must ensure to have https.
Not just that, having an SSL certificate installed is even important. This certificate lets you secure the information transfer between the server and website. So, if you haven’t got it yet, buy SSL certificate now.
4. Reliable Hosting Provider:
Your hosting provider plays an essential role in keeping your website protected from hackers. If you have a reliable hosting provider by your side, you would not have to take enough burden of safeguarding the entire website on your own.
So, before taking the plunge, make sure you are cross-checking every factor and aspect of the hosting provider. Know about how seriously they are taking the security. If you are using a shared server, know whether it will be adequate for your website or not. Once you’ve looked at every factor, then make your decision.
5. Keep an Eye on Email Transmission Ports:
One of the primary targets for hackers to get access to your information will be your email. Have you ever thought about whether or not your email transmissions are secured? To make things easier for you, there is an easy and quick way to figure out the transmission security.
Visit your email settings and have a look at the types of ports you are using to communicate. If the ports are IMAP Port 143, SMTP Port 25 ports, or POP3 Port 110, know that your email transmission isn’t secured.
On the contrary, if you are using IMAP Port 993, SMTP Port 465, or POP3 Port 995, your email transmissions are secured as these ports are encrypted with higher security.
6. Don’t Use Weak Passwords:
This is another precaution that can keep your website safe. Most of the times, brute force attacks happen by guessing your username and password multiple times. Hence, by using strong passwords, you can limit the chances of the dictionary and brute force attacks.
You must ensure that your password is an amalgamation of symbols, alphanumeric characters, upper- and lower-case characters. Also, it should be at least 12 characters long. Not just that, but you must also make sure that you are changing the password regularly to avoid problems.
7. Don’t Put Too Much Information in Error Messages:
Although you may consider error messages as a way of making your users understand reasons behind why they cannot perform a certain action, such as login and more; hackers can easily use such information to calculate the available risk on your website.
For instance: While brute force attacking the login page of your website, if the screen displays “incorrect password” and “incorrect username,” a hacker will obviously guess what to change and what to keep. Hence, try and keep the information limited on the error message.
8. Hide your Admin Directories:
One of the easiest and most common ways for hackers to access the data of your website is by getting inside the admin directories. Hackers are highly developed, contrasting your perception about them.
Just with a single script, they can scan different directories on your server and take out information like access, login, admin, and more. Since several CMS platforms provide you full control over directories names, you can put an extra effort and rename the admin folders.
Choose such names that would make important folders inobtrusive and communicate the same only to the webmaster.
9. Keep the Website Clean:
Every additional application, database, or plugin on your site is another probable way for hackers to get inside your website. So, if you are not using certain databases, files, or applications on your website, it is always recommended to delete them right away.
Furthermore, it is even essential to keep the structure of files organized so as not to face any hassles while keeping a tab on changes and removing old files.
10. Installation of Web Application Firewall:
A web application firewall, abbreviated as WAF, can either be based on a software or hardware. This firewall is installed between the server of your website and the data connection to read every sort of data that passes through.
Just in exchange of a modest subscription fee, you can get your hands on cloud-based WAFs these days as well. Apparently, this cloud service is organized in front of the server with an intention to serve as a gate for every bit of incoming traffic.
Once you have installed it, a web application firewall can help by filtering unwanted traffic, blocking hacking attempts, and removing malicious bots and spammers.
11. Dodge File Uploads:
If you are allowing your users to upload files on your website, you are opening several gates to risks for the website. Regardless of safe, it may look, you wouldn’t get to know which file comprised a script that was executed on your server and caused damage.
Even if uploading files is an essential aspect of your website, make sure you are paying utmost attention to each and every file.
12. Backup your Data:
Backing up your website regularly is one of the considerable steps that you can take to ensure safety. Not just the website layout, but you must even take backups of files, data, theme, and more to regain the access if the website becomes inaccessible.
Although your web hosting provider would be offering you regular backup, however, even if they fail to do so, you must ensure that you were being cautious and arranged for an emergency.
Conclusion:
Website security is surely one such aspect that shouldn’t be neglected at any cost. So, if you didn’t have any idea of how to keep the website safe yet, follow these tips mentioned above and things will be just fine for you. So, apply these steps and keep your data secured.