Must-Follow Guidelines: How to Secure Your Business Website

Do you know that hackers try to get access to 30,000 websites worldwide every day?

Don’t simply throw open your website’s doors and expect visitors to walk in! Your website must be protected, which entails putting safeguards in place to protect it from hackers, bugs, and other sorts of harmful behavior that may be found online. If you do not take precautions, your data can be hacked, your website could go down, and you may lose money.

We have outlined the main guidelines that every firm should follow to maintain the security of their websites, in addition to employing DevSecOps by JFrog from the beginning of the website design and development process.

Keep Your Software Up-to-Date

Keeping the software on your devices up-to-date is one of the most critical things you can do to guarantee that the device or software program you use is risk-free. The period between software upgrades is directly related to the time it takes bad actors to discover vulnerabilities in the websites. This might have disastrous consequences, as WordPress discovered the hard way a year ago when tens of thousands of its websites were hacked.

Maintain the latest versions of any software and programs that you use for your website, whether it’s a content management system (CMS), browser, router, or virus protection software. When it comes to the security of your company’s website, frequent updates will provide you with greater peace of mind.

Select Your Website Host Wisely

Not all web hosts are created equal. Many site hosts do not invest nearly enough money in security measures. You should be able to get information about your service provider’s website protection approach. Examine if they independently search for and address any security gaps that may exist. There are several website hosting services that specialize in helping businesses that have spent millions of dollars improving network and system security.

Install an SSL Certificate and Always Use HTTPS

If you’re building your first website, you may think that data encryption is something out of a James Bond movie and that only major organizations or reporters investigating crimes need it.

However, if you want to get a good ranking on Google, you will need an SSL certificate. This is a requirement if you want Google traffic. Even if all you want to do is collect emails for a newsletter, you’ll need one of these.

If all of this seems excessive, keep in mind that there are legitimate reasons why everything is done in the shadows. Previously, your users sent any sensitive information to your server in plain text, even if it was encrypted. If such information fell into the hands of the wrong person, that person would be able to read everything. Any passwords, as well as bank and email account information, are included.

All of the sensitive information is contained in an SSL certificate’s layer of encryption, rendering it unreadable.

Set Strong Passwords

The provision of such a security precaution may seem self-evident, given that many people are aware that they must use difficult passwords; nonetheless, this does not necessarily ensure that this approach is always followed.

Although it is important to create strong passwords for web servers and website administrative accounts, it is equally critical to educate users on other best practices.

Even though some users find the need for a password inconvenient, the use of a password is a strategy that helps safeguard sensitive information. The requirement that a user’s password be at least six characters long and include a number, special characters, and a capital letter is a typical example of how these criteria are meant to work. Credit card numbers should not be included in passwords.

Back Up Your Website Regularly

Always have a backup of everything, just in case the worst happens. Back up everything, both locally and remotely, and do it many times throughout the day. When a user saves a file, it should be automatically backed up in many locations. If you just back up once a day, you risk losing the data from that day if your hard drive fails. Remember that every hard disc will ultimately fail.

Train Your Employees

Even the most reputable cyber security companies have been known to fall victim to sophisticated hackers; however, occasionally one of the staff members turns out to be the culprit. Even though your employees are specialists in their industries, they are still humans and hence prone to making mistakes that might expose your organization to intrusions, infections, and other types of damage.

To avoid such situations, encourage your employees to be on the lookout for suspicious conduct and to avoid clicking on dubious links or emails received from unknown senders at all costs. Phishing attacks, in particular, have the potential to deceive employees into granting unauthorized access to sensitive data like email addresses, phone numbers, or login passwords.

Scan Your Website for Vulnerabilities

It is critical to perform web security scans regularly to detect vulnerabilities in both websites and servers. You may assess the degree of security of your website using one of the numerous free tools accessible on the internet nowadays. These tools may be handy for a quick check, but they will not uncover all possible vulnerabilities on your website. When you employ a professional to do security scans on your website, you will get an in-depth view of the vulnerabilities that exist.

Deploy Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS)

The term “intrusion detection and prevention systems” (IDPS) refers to software that can detect and prevent attacks on your website. IDPS systems may run on the host computer or a network. Host-based IDPSs are programs that you download and install on the web servers that host your website. They monitor the traffic entering and exiting the system and may detect and prevent attacks. Both types of IDPS have the ability to effectively thwart attacks.

Monitor File Uploads and Downloads

If you want users to submit files, you must ensure that each file they post is under observation. It provides a window of opportunity for hackers, who might exploit it to upload dangerous files to your website or alter one of your website’s critical files. One possible solution to this problem is to disable all of the options on the website that enable people to contribute files. Hackers perceive this as an easy way to get access to the website and create damage. This not only harms the website itself, but it also harms the systems of the people that visit your website.

On the other hand, it will be impossible for all businesses to completely remove the ability for people to contribute files to their websites. Because so many service providers need access to their clients’ files or documents to run their businesses. Nonetheless, there are solutions for ensuring your website’s security.