How to prevent your website from being hacked?
Imagine that your website has been hacked and defaced. Owning and running a good website can be challenging. Having your website hacked can be a nightmare and dealing with a hacked website, an even scarier one.
The proverb ‘prevention is better than cure’ is very much in line when it comes to web security, and in this article, we shall discuss a few methods to prevent a hack attack.
Keep CMS updated: Updating your web development software is the most significant aspect of web security. Most updates are security or functionality related, and when you miss these updates, you miss certain security fixes which hackers will try to take advantage of.Keeping the hosting software updated is also important, but this is often not in the hands of the website owners or developers. Ensure that your web host is reliable.
Double Check Third Party Code and Script: If you intend to use any code on your website that you have not written, it needs to be double checked. Running a quick google search would help you find out the reliability of more than half of these type of codes. Codes which are not secure can make your entire site vulnerable.
Strong Passwords: In most cases where information is stolen, the hackers guess the victim’s password. A strong password can prevent or at least slow down a potential hacker to a large extent. Avoid the names of your dear ones or your favourite book as your password as they could be guessed by hackers. Use numbers, alphabets, and special characters in your password.
Make sure your computer is secure: No matter how secure your website is, it can be hacked if the hacker has access to your computer, i.e. any computer from which you can edit, do maintenance, or log in to your site can be used by hackers to infiltrate your website. Avoid using public and open wifi with devices carrying sensitive information. It is common for hackers to find their prey in wifi hot spots. Regularly use virus scans, clear histories, secure your passwords, and be aware of general security issues.
Web Security Tools: There is a large number of web security tools. While some provide an overall protection, there are some other tools that seek to protect certain web applications alone. Most of these web security tools are useful and can prevent the injection of malicious code into your website. Beware of malwares posing as web security tools, and research on the tool you are interested in before using it.
Check Logs: Very often, owners of hacked websites don’t notice any strange activity in their site. Do check where your traffic is coming from. Traffic generated from keywords associated with gambling, pharmaceuticals, or sex, without your website having anything to do with them is a common sign of web security breach. Try to find out where this traffic is coming in from or going out to. Contact us or any other web development firm for professional assistance, if you believe this is happening.
Backup: This tip will come in handy if your site gets hacked. Have multiple copies of your backup files in different devices. What you essentially need to backup are a prehack backup of your site and the list of IPs accessing your site. We recommend weekly backups and maintaining the last five backup files.
In case you are experiencing any other difficulty or think we have missed out any point, feel free to comment below. Contact us at your convenience if you need any sort of web security assistance.
