In today’s age of AI, malware and ever increasing online scammers, the security of your website is more critical than ever. With hacking attempts becoming increasingly sophisticated, protecting your website from potential threats is essential to safeguarding your data, reputation, and user trust.
It’s also a common misconception that if you’re not collecting and storing customer data on your website, then you don’t really have to worry too much about your website’s security. Spare a thought for your brand’s reputation though. Even if you don’t collect and/or store critical information within your website, a hacker could still disable or deface your website, which could cause your business considerable damage in reputation, time and costs to resolve.
Here are some effective strategies to help secure your website from hacking attempts.
1. Use Strong Passwords or Passphrases
This is a pretty common flaw that still occurs regularly. Weak passwords are a frequent target for hackers as they provide an easy entry point to compromise your website. One very simple way to fortify your defences is to ensure that all website administration accounts have a robust and unique password. Also consider adopting passphrases as they are not only easier to remember but can also offer superior security compared to traditional passwords (and yes, most systems will allow you to use spaces between words in a password). Always opt for a unique, lengthy, and unpredictable passphrase to bolster your website’s protection against unauthorised access. It’s also advisable to change your password from time to time and not to share passwords across different systems or accounts. Also when possible, it’s wise to use Multi-Factor Authentication methods to ensure those attempting to access your account can validate their access.
2. Minimise third-party software usage.
Third-party software such as plugins, extensions, modules, libraries, or frameworks can significantly enhance the risk of security and stability issues on your website. While third-party tools and plugins can offer valuable functionality, each additional software component increases the potential entry points for an attack and introduces dependencies that may compromise your site’s security.
By reviewing and reducing your website’s reliance on external plugins and tools, you mitigate the risk of vulnerabilities and gain greater control over your website’s integrity. Prioritise native features offered by the CMS and engage an experienced software programmer to create custom-built solutions whenever feasible. Although this may be more expensive than going for quick and easy bolt-ons, these efforts will help minimise your website’s visibility to potential threats.
3. Secure Your Hosting Environment
To fortify your website’s security further, it’s crucial to ensure your hosting environment is also secure. Start by choosing a reputable hosting provider who will allow you to:
- Use a capable and mature operating system;
- Remove all non-essential software from the host server.
- Set up activity logging to monitor and notifications of key activities such as successful privilege accounts logins, backup process, storage space, changes to configuration files etc.
- Set up network port management measures such as blocking and filtering ports to allow essential traffic only.
- Manage your application files using version control and execution permissions within the host.
- Monitor your application files for unexpected changes and visibility.
- Change the signatures of the services that interact with the outside world.
- Disable automatic updates, and only run updates that are applicable to your combination of use case, host, configuration, and application.
Now I understand that all of this can be seriously overwhelming, which is why it’s important to use an experienced programmer or hosting provider that can manage these aspects for you.
4. Regularly Backup Your Website
Frequent backups ensure that you can quickly restore your website in case of a security breach. Store backups in a secure location, separate from your primary server, and ensure your hosting provider or software development team tests the restoration process periodically to ensure backups are functioning correctly. Backup restoration tests should be executed in a separate environment using well documented restoration processes and procedures to test the hosting capabilities and support by operating system and vendors.
5. Use HTTPS and SSL Certificates
An SSL certificate is necessary to enable HTTPS. Most hosting providers offer SSL certificates, and some even include them for free. These days, certain browsers won’t display websites without an active and valid SSL certificate Google also greatly favours HTTPS-enabled sites in search rankings, providing an additional incentive.
6. Limit User Access and Permissions
Restricting user access and permissions is crucial for enhancing website security. Not every user requires full administrative privileges, so assign roles and permissions based on necessity, limiting high-level access. Regularly review user accounts and revoke access for those who no longer require it. Additionally, set up individual user accounts to prevent the sharing of credentials among multiple users, reducing the risk of unauthorised access and enhancing overall security. Ensure all user activity is logged for your site, so you can detect security issues, see unusual behaviour and help maintain data integrity.
7. Monitor for Suspicious Activity
Regularly monitoring your website for unusual activity can help you detect and respond to threats promptly. Use security and notification tools tailored to your host and application to track login attempts, file changes, and other potential indicators of a breach.
8. Educate Your Team
Human error is a significant factor in many security breaches. Ensure that everyone involved with your website understands the importance of securing your site and how the basics of security works. Provide training on recognising phishing attempts, using strong memorable passphrases, and maintaining general cyber security awareness. What you may think is common knowledge may be completely new territory to someone else, so understanding protocols around website security goes a long way in keeping your website safe.
Securing your website from hacking attempts requires a proactive and comprehensive approach. By using strong passwords/passphrases, securing your hosting environment, regularly backing up your site, using HTTPS, limiting user access, monitoring for suspicious activity, and educating your team, you can significantly reduce the risk of a security breach and a major headache for your business. Prioritising these measures will help protect your website, data, users and customers from potential threats.
Stay vigilant and ensure your website remains a safe and trustworthy platform for your visitors. For all your website needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to Code Brewery.
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