Everyday we see new types of exploits and hacks in the news. Many websites are being compromised as we speak. Every site owner has to take precautions in order to stay safe. When questions arise about securing your website, you must first understand which things can attract cyber criminals and where security issues need to be addressed. Some people will go through simple checklists and other ones will actually hire companies to do the audit for them. Hackers can look for a number of different back-doors which can cover; code injections, database hacks, DDoS attacks and so forth. You should secure your website, database, cloud and the server. It’s essentially a complete website security solution.
Why is website security so important?
Some steps that all webmasters should think about:
- Regular site updates are critical. Many websites are compromised every day due to outdated and insecure software used to run them. Third-party plugins can also be crucial to update. It is important to update your site as soon as a new plugin or CMS version is available.
- Passwords are important and should be kept confidential. The passwords should be strong and unique. They cannot be easy to guess or brute-force.
- Install SSL/HTTPS Certificates which secure the communication between the browser and server. Offering the user encrypted web experience. SSL certificate is build up of the secure has algorithms with encryption keys which are hard and almost impossible to crack. Once the website is secured with the SSL Certificate, no other person or a robot can breach or crack the communication between the browser and server.
- Managing the backups of your website is equally important as well. But storing the backups on your website is a major security risk also. These backups invariably contain unpatched versions of your CMS and extensions which are publicly available, giving hackers easy access.
- Keep web-server secure and database server. Web Server is one of the most important and critical components of a web infrastructure. Web server is responsible for hosting a Web site and its related code, services, and all required files. Make sure database server is separate from a web server.
- Monitor traffic and audit server logs.