9 Tips for website security

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Every day, an enthusiastic hacker tries to break through a company’s website security. Some do it for financial gain by stealing money or private information. Others do it simply for the bragging rights to other hackers who have tried this type of thing but failed. Whatever the reason, when a company’s website is hacked into, it can have disastrous repercussions, that is why you need to protect your company website.

Stay Updated

It is important that you stay up to date of all hacking threats. Even if you are not tech savvy, you can still gain a basic knowledge of what hackers can do so that you can protect your website against it. There are a variety of tech sites online with hacking news and what precautions you can put into place when necessary.

Strengthen Access Controls

If hackers can get into the admin section of your website, hackers can easily see everything that you don’t want them to. The first thing that you can do to keep hackers out is to make your user names and passwords something that cannot easily be guessed. You should limit the amount of login attempts to a certain number of times before the system locks. This should also be done even when it comes to password resets, as email accounts can be hacked as well. You should never send login details to employees via email. If an unauthorized user has gained access to email accounts, hackers can easily get this information.

Perform Updates Immediately

If you get an alert to update your software for security purposes, you should install them right away. The longer you wait, the longer your website is vulnerable to being hacked. Hackers scan thousands of websites a day looking for vulnerabilities. The sooner you install your security updates, the better.

Tighten Up Network Security

You may not realize it, but you can be providing easy access for hackers into your website. You should set up your website so that the logins expire after a short period of inactivity. You should also make sure that passwords contain numbers, at least one letter, and at least one symbol. You should also make sure that passwords are changed frequently and are never written down.

Install a Web Application Firewall

A web application firewall blocks hacking attempts on your website. It can also filter out other types of unwanted traffic, such as malicious bots and spammers.

Install Website Security Applications

Security applications are important because they can hide the identity of your website’s CMS. When the CMS is hidden, it can protect your site from automated hacking tools that scour the internet for websites that have vulnerabilities.

Hide Admin Pages

It is a good idea to use the robots_txt file to keep search engines from indexing your admin pages. If you are unsure of how to do this, an IT professional can help. If your admin pages are not indexed, it can make it difficult for hackers to find them.

Limit File Uploads

Even if your system checks each upload, bugs can still get through that can allow hackers access to your website’s data. The best way to prevent this is to prevent direct access to all uploaded files and store them outside the root directory. This may sound complicated for someone who is not tech savvy, however, your web hosting company can help you do this.

Do Not Use Auto-Fill Features that do not support 2 factor Authentication

If you leave your auto-fill feature on your computer open, you are leaving it vulnerable to an attack from any other user’s computer. While auto-fill does save time, this type of laziness can open you up to much more serious problems than not being able to shave a couple seconds of time from your work. Make sure you lock it down by setting it to ask for the master password each time its open and close it before you walk away from your computer.

Hacking is a common problem for businesses of all sizes. If you know how to protect your company website, there is less risk that financial and personal information can be stolen.

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CEO, Author of the #1 Risk to Small Businesses

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