So, with much sweat and toil, you have finally drawn up your very own website. The thought of having a nefarious hacker break into your painstakingly constructed site is probably giving you sleepless nights. According to a Thales Group report, approximately seven million pieces of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) are at stake every day.
This roughly translates into havoc for your business as it could endanger your valued customers’ personal data. To help you secure your website against such insidious hacking attempts, we have compiled a list of six, easy to follow and implement recommendations that will indeed prove to be worth their weight in gold.
Regularly update your software and requisite plugins
Do you have an OS or software update lined up for long? Well, we suggest that you put an end to the procrastination and get cracking! Hackers will not give you the benefit of the doubt as they are always on the lookout for loopholes in the software. They use bots to scan for vulnerabilities, which explains the need for regular updates.
There are some updates that your web host will take care of itself, such as server software and operating system updates; however, some still need to be done manually, like CMS software updates. You can also make use of super handy automated tools to help with the vulnerability patching.
Use security plugins
If you have constructed a website on a Content Management System (CMS), you can take effective steps to prevent malicious hacking attempts on your website by installing security plugins. Most CMS systems offer a host of such plugins, some of which are free to use and install. Let us have a look at some of these security extensions for various CMS systems.
For Joomla
- jomDefender
- Antivirus Website Protection
- JHackGuard
- RS Firewall
For Magento
- MageFence
- Amasty
- Watchlog Pro
For WordPress
- Wordfence
- Bulletproof Security
- fail2Ban
- Sucuri
- iThemes Security
Ensure that you use secure, hard-to-guess passwords
Even in the age of increased cybersecurity attacks, some people still prefer to use simple, easy-to-guess passwords such as 123456, their birth date, kid’s, or pet’s name. This makes the job of hacking into your website super easy for scamsters. Use a password generator to create a robust and hard-to-guess password, a tough nut to crack for hackers. Encourage your employees or team members to set up strong passwords, as even one weak password can prove to be the chink in the armor and set the stage for a cyber-attack.
Install an SSL certificate on your website
Simply put, HTTP + SSL spells HTTPS, where the extra “s” stands for secure. In common parlance, this simple transition, or the magic of an additional “s” translates into peace of mind for website owners. It secures your communication by converting plain text into ciphertext that can only be decrypted by the recipient’s private key.
Many people believe that only ecommerce websites need to Install SSL Certificates on their websites. However, this is a misconception that has been doing the rounds for too long. If you have an online presence with your website out there, you must invest in an SSL certificate right now! This is because hackers can easily “eavesdrop” on communications carried out on unprotected websites (HTTP).
Regularly scan for malware
Hackers believe in wreaking as much havoc as possible without anyone noticing. They do so by hiding such pages from administrators’ vigilant eyes or by making them visible to visitors from countries other than the one in which the admin is residing. To stall their malicious advances, you can either manually scan for malware or use automated manual scanners that effectively scan and weed out malware in your website.
Maintain an incremental website backup repository
The best way to put an end to your worries is by maintaining an automated, incremental, cloud-based backup that ensures you have the latest edition safely uploaded to your cloud. These scores are overtaking manual backups as you will have to remember to take regular backups. However, some may counter the above statements by saying that cloud security can be compromised. To eliminate this possibility, switch to using incremental automated backups tools that do the job well!
Final takeaway
So far into the article, you must have gathered that securing your website against cyber-attacks is not all that difficult; neither is it too heavy on the pockets. Whether installing an inexpensive SSL certificate on your website or going for regular updates and religiously maintaining backups, the ball is pretty much in your court when it comes to keeping your site secure and hacker-free! Got something to add? We would be happy to read in the comments section below!
