Easy Tips to Keep Your Website Secure

Web and cyber security have become increasingly important in recent years. The aspect of threats and attacks has changed, but so has the number of users and businesses that rely on online services. In the 2010 National Security Strategy, cyber security was identified as a Tier 1 threat, just like terrorism, war, and natural disasters.

In this hands-on approach post, we will look at tips and best practices that you can immediately implement to improve the security of your website.

1. Updating Your Website's Technology regularly

The most common cause of a website's compromise is outdated, vulnerable software that provides cyber attackers with an easy way to compromise the site.

If you run a CMS-based website, such as WordPress, you must keep WordPress up to date and all third-party plugins installed, which must be updated regularly.

You must also ensure that the underlying platforms and technologies, such as the operating system and web server, like LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP), are updated regularly under vendor guidelines.

Your website hosting provider may implement some of the measures listed above.

2. Web Access Firewall

A Web Access Firewall (WAF) is not the same as a firewall installed on the hosting server. Instead, consider this a security guard standing between your users and your website.

Any web request made to your website will be routed through the WAF first. WAF will ensure that the request is not malicious and that the source of the request is not marked as 'blacklisted' in the databases of other security providers.

After completing these checks, the request is forwarded to your website. Many WAF providers will also conceal your server's IP address from web traffic. Therefore, a WAF will also protect your website from DoS (Denial of Service) attacks and DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) ( Distributed Denial of Service).

3. Inactive User Accounts

People's roles in the business change over time. Some of your users have left and are no longer employed by you. Every system accumulates a collection of users who no longer use the system over time. Websites are not immune to this.

Whether you have a CMS-based or bespoke website, you will eventually have users who no longer require access to your website. These unused active accounts can lead to a security breach. If you're using a CMS-based platform, look for a reputable plugin that can deactivate inactive user accounts automatically.

If you create a custom website, request that your developers implement security policies that require unused accounts to be deactivated after a certain period.

4. Insecure Passwords

We've all heard that no matter how many memos and emails you send out reminding your users to modify their passwords regularly, some users still use simple and easy-to-guess passwords.

A simple solution is to implement a password policy that expires passwords after a certain number of days, forcing users to change their passwords regularly and choose a strong password.

If you're using a CMS like WordPress or something similar, you should look for a plugin/extension that can do this for you.

Your web developers should be capable implement bespoke web development for you.

5. SSL Certificate

In recent years, this has become easier to implement. For example, an SSL certificate enables web traffic encryption between a user's browser and a website (or the webserver).

As a result, all traffic between the web user and the website is fully encrypted, making it safe from 'wiretapping.'

Most web hosting companies now include free SSL as part of their service.

To see if a website is fully SSL compliant, open it in a browser such as Chrome and look for a padlock in the address bar, which indicates that the SSL certificate has been correctly installed.

6. Secure and off-site Backups Regularly

Regular site backups are a no-brainer, and when it comes to having a secure backup solution in place, you should not skimp on quality.

Have off-site backups and your regular backups if you can afford them. This may also imply storing your backups outside your hosting provider's echo system.

It's a brilliant od idea to regularly perform a 'disaster recovery drill' to ensure the quality of your backups. Also, don't forget to use strong encryption to protect your backup files.

7. Vulnerability Scan/Assessment

A vulnerability scan involves running software through your website code to identify security flaws.

There are a few options for identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities in your website. If you have a CMS-based site, such as WordPress, you can use a plugin like Wordfence, which detects and reports vulnerabilities in the WordPress platform and third-party plugins.

You can also use a website scanner to scan your website regularly and report any vulnerabilities.

Regardless of the provider you choose, make sure that a vulnerability scan is not a one-time event. Instead, you must regularly scan your website for vulnerabilities and then mitigate the identified risks by taking appropriate actions.

I hope you find these tips useful and simple to put in place.

Security experts understand that 'Security is a Journey.' As cyber threats evolve, your web security measures will also need to grow.

Bottomline

You understand the importance of keeping your website secure as a website owner. We have provided some critical and simple measures to assist you. However, if you lack the necessary resources to investigate these complexities, hire the best web developers to do it for you!