News of big venture websites hacked are getting common. But unfortunately, hackers are really a threat to every website. It doesn’t matter the size of your business.
It’s a fact they can cause big damage to your reputation and income if they manage to steal your users’ data, inject malware on your site or distribute it among your clients. Imagine the loss in terms of time, work, and money if they hijack your site.
6 tips, how to protect my website, coming right up!
Bullet-proved-secure passwords for your website
It sounds obvious, but it’s critical. Hackers can easily run malicious programs and try to guess your password thousands of times per second until they get it. So avoid common, easy words directly linked with the name of the website or your brand. Include uppercase and lowercase letters to write it. Use numbers but never consecutive series. Special characters are welcome.
A sixteen-character password will be stronger than a shorter one, but think about how practical it is for you to remember. Otherwise, a good combination of the described elements could get an eight-character password strong enough.
You can also change your password from time to time to be safer. Just be careful not to recycle previous passwords.
Save your password in just a few and specific places.
Secure the communications on your website
Hackers usually look for users’ data and passwords. If they get them, the rest will be so easy for them. Passwords can be stolen when they are on transit (sent to log-in) from a computer, mobile, or between servers.
So always send data through encrypted channels. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol that secures the transmission of data by encrypting it. Use HTTPS to avoid your admin credentials or users’ data to be intercepted and easily read. Choose a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP or FTPS) every time you transfer files to your server.
The HTTPS in the address bar proves your site uses encrypted channels to protect clients’ data from hackers.
Change the URL for the administrator on your website
Most of the time, CMS sites include a default administrator page, which is easy to spot. Something like “domain-name/admin”. Hackers use software programmed to find such doors to get into the site. Better change it, making it non-obvious and harder to find. You can do it manually or through an extension. If the malicious software can’t easily find the URL, it will go away, looking for another target to attack.
Maintain your website updated
Outdated CMS, plugins, themes, or software mean vulnerability for your website. Don’t make it easy for hackers. Update regularly every component that requires it. Currently, some software and plugins offer an auto-update feature to give you a hand with this task.
Restrict access to your site’s backend
Multiple people could have access to your admin panel. Limit it to the point they need. For example, a blogger who writes your articles does not need admin privileges.
You can also restrict access to it by using whitelisting and allowing only added IP addresses (devices) to access it. A hacker with a different IP address won’t be able to connect.
Use server-side validation (ssv) to secure your website
It is an effective defense not to get invalid or malicious data on your site. Through this validation, everything sent by users is tagged as “not trustable”, so it gets extra checks.
Suggested article: The 4 most famous DDoS attacks in the history
Conclusion
No matter the kind of website you own and its purpose, security must be the main concern for you. Hackers never stop developing new ways to affect sites, but the maintenance of your website is key to prevent it.
An extra tip is to back up regularly. It won’t protect your site from hacking, but if it happens, you will be able to get back on your feet faster.