A website serves as your business’s virtual office or store. It’s where people can go to learn more about your company, browse through and shop for your products and services, look up your upcoming events, and access any other relevant information you can offer.
Similar to a physical office or storefront, you should have the crucial security measures in place so that maximum protection can be placed on the important elements of your website. Hacked sites can suffer the following grave consequences:
- Loss of site control. Hackers may find a way to see and get your code.
- A poorly functioning website. Malicious individuals may employ ways to disable the different functions on your site so that links and actions won’t be able to work.
- Stolen data. Hackers can worm their way toward the place where you keep security information as well as your clients’ credit card information and other sensitive details.
- Eroded customer trust. When customers experience setbacks thanks to your hacked site, they will be reluctant to engage or transact with your brand again.
- Lost profits. Every Web user who avoids your website for fear of experiencing hassles because of the hack translates to conversions and revenue lost.
Fortunately, there are effective ways to beef up your website security:
- Strengthen your site’s access control.
- Use complicated usernames and passwords and change them regularly.
- Assign a limit to the number of login attempts/password resets within certain time periods.
- Set up logins to expire after a short period of inactivity.
- Do not send login details to people within your company through email because these can be hacked as well.
- Make sure all devices plugged into the network are scanned for malware every time they are connected
- Maintain a schedule for software updates. Skip these updates and you allow hackers a potential window of opportunity to pinpoint vulnerabilities that they can use to get inside your site.
- Remove auto-fill in your form fields. Any computer or mobile device that has been previously used to log into your site can be used by hackers to gain access.
- Utilize SSL. Make sure that there is an encrypted SSL protocol for moving site users’ private information between the website and your company database.
- Prevent search engines from indexing your admin pages. The robots_txt file can be used to hide your admin pages from search engines.
- Install both free security plugins and a Web application firewall.
Some simple and free (or even paid) apps can be installed to provide an added layer of protection to your site. Of course, the Web applications firewall does the heavy lifting in keeping your site secure; it is deployed before your server to receive and filter all incoming traffic (malicious bots and spammers can be weeded out here) and to block out all possible hacking attempts. The firewall you choose can be either software- or hardware-based.
About Jeremy Littlejohn
I love web design and marketing and have a passion in helping business owners enjoy a results-driven online business. I am a loving father and husband, and legitimate business man with high integrity.
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