You have created a robust website; everything is functioning smoothly. But did you pay attention to your cybersecurity?
Did you purchase SSL certificate? Is your hosting provider trusted? In today’s tech-savvy world, business owners want to attract as many customers as they can but never ask a simple question themselves- is our website prepared for the worst To invite people, your website must be prepared to accommodate their data and keep it safe. Business owners need to understand that customers visit websites that they can trust. Customers expect businesses to defend their information till their last breath. For the best home security please check this link.
So, before we tell you the importance of your website’s credibility, let us first understand what exactly is a website’s safety and security.
What is website security, and why is It important?
Web safety and security call for all those measures undertaken to ensure that data and information on the website do not get compromised by cybercriminals. Phishing attacks, MITM attacks, DDoS attacks, defacement, and malware attacks are all prominent ways that hackers use to sneak into your website.
If measures are not taken to stop them, hackers will steal customer data, compromise bank accounts, steal identities and do all sorts of bad stuff under genuine names. Thus, website safety is extremely important in today’s world.
8 tips to improve your website security
- Keep your software updates in check
Imagine you keep wearing the same clothes for the rest of your life. How do you think your life will be? Will you be able to function at your best? After only 10 days, you will start to stink, all sorts of bacteria and viruses will set in, and you will end up with severe skin diseases. The same goes for your website. If not updated with the new security patch, it starts to invite cybercriminals (bacteria), and your website ends up getting compromised (skin diseases).
So, never miss your updates at any cost.
- Purchase an SSL certificate
SSL certificates help protect your fortress boundaries so that no intruder can step inside your palace. In other words, a Secure Socket Layer certificate encrypts your website’s connection and establishes a secure network to facilitate a safe passage for data transfer between you and your customers. Search engines like Google will mark your website as “Not Secure,” and customers won’t be allowed to enter it without an SSL. Your overall rankings will dip, and your reputation will be compromised.
You won’t be allowed to accept online payments as SSL is a mandatory factor in fulfilling PCI/DSS guidelines. But, which SSL should you buy? A regular or a Wildcard one? Well, for a small static website that only shares information, a simple regular single-domain SSL is enough. If you are a brand that deals with customers through online transactions and has multiple first-level subdomains under the main domain to protect, we would recommend going for a wildcard certificate.
So, buy a certificate from a reliable SSL provider such as SSL2BUY as they provide cost-effective and cheap SSL certificates at extensive discounts.
- Maintain a strict password hygiene
Managing your password is one of those website security tips that you must have heard numerous times. But it is too important to leave out even in 2021; some businesses do not take their passwords seriously. Brute force attacks are in fashion. Hackers will try to do everything in their power to hack your website and, if you are ill-prepared for it then, things can turn ugly. To avoid your confrontation with hackers, it is best to have a strong 12-character password containing a mix of both upper- and lower-case letters. Use numbers and ensure that it is unique.
- Choose a reliable host.
It would be best if you chose your host wisely. Ask a few simple questions to them while forming a decision on them:
- Do you provide technical assistance in case of a crash?
- Do you have a remote backup system to retrieve all my information if I lose it?
- What measures do you take to tackle cyber criminals?
These questions are extremely important as they will help you decide whether or not you should choose a particular host. Ensure they are in touch with current security trend(s) in the market.
- Keep your website organized.
Like a dirty body can easily be home to all sorts of harmful bacteria and viruses similarly, an unorganized website is a home to malicious bugs and bots. Current cyber trends ask for all websites to stay clean and organized. This means removing any unwanted file, plugin, or application from your website and keeping the structure clean and clear so that any unwanted file can be easily identified and removed.
A clean interface will also increase the website’s speed, and your customers will be pleased too.
- Backup your databases
Although we assume that you have chosen a reliable host backing up your data, keep a data backup at your end too. Use cloud-based storage instead of hard drives to back up as clouds allow you to access your data anywhere. Moreover, unlike hard drives, clouds do not get obsolete (unless they are compromised, which is rare). They allow you to access your data anytime, so your website does not get shut even for a single solitary second.
Cloud-based backups have always been a famous cyber trend since their existence.
- Do a site audit
Site audits help in identifying potential threats that can be catastrophic in the future. You can also figure out loopholes that can lead your website towards data theft. But, how often should you audit your site? Ideally, you must choose to audit every three months, but we recommend an expert’s advice on this. Different types of websites have different levels of risk; only an expert can assess how much monitoring your site needs and how often.
The importance of site audits is often considered amongst top cyber trends as they keep on changing with advancements in technology.
- Use a Web Application Firewall
Much like an SSL certificate, a Web Application Firewall also monitors the data passing on the server. It sits between your website’s server and data connection and tracks every bit of information that is getting passed. If it finds out that some unwanted traffic and malicious bots are trying to sneak in and can be potentially dangerous, it immediately blocks them and sends you a report. WAF is extremely important for businesses as it helps them keep track of the data and incoming traffic.
To Conclude:
Having a website is not enough; business owners need to be wise enough to defend it against all types of cyberattacks. To ensure appropriate security, the use of security protocols such as an SSL certificate and WAF is necessary. But you can’t call it done simply by installing them on your website. It would be best if you had strong passwords, a reliable host, a robust database backup system, and updated software to sustain in this cyber world full of cybercriminals. Moreover, keep your website organized and run a site audit every three months.
Follow these eight website security tips mentioned above to maintain optimum website safety and security.
Reference Links:
1.https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/trends/10-essential-steps-to-improve-your-website-security
- https://www.sitelock.com/blog/what-is-website-security/
- https://www.infoguardsecurity.com/4-reasons-why-website-security-is-important/
- https://hostpapa.blog/security/importance-website-security/
