With more businesses looking to cement their place in the online world, website security has become a concern.
According to a study by Accenture, hackers targeted 43% of small businesses, out of which only 14% were ready to defend themselves.
Statistics like this go to show how lightly most businesses take cybersecurity. Though CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla are doing their best to keep their platforms safe, users must also stay secure.
In this article, we prepared a set of seven tips that will help you understand how you can keep your website secure from the wrath of cybercriminals.
So, let us look at them:
7 Essential Steps to Improve your Website Security in 2021
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Keep your software and plugins updated
We can never stretch on the importance of updating software and plugins enough.
Software updates are issued to ensure that your website stays prepared to tackle cyberattacks.
Hackers are always developing unique ways to tackle security patches and compromise those websites that use outdated software.
Many CMS platforms also come with an automatic update system, so it is best to enable it if your platform has that option.
Software updates can be a make-or-break factor if things go south.
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Employ HTTPS encryption
HTTPS or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure encryption is necessary to protect your website’s URL. Through HTTPS, data gets passed securely without any chance of interception from hackers.
The ‘S’ in HTTPS can only be attained when an SSL or Secured Socket Layer certificate is installed on a website.
An SSL certificate is a security protocol that ensures the secure transfer of in-transit information by employing Public Key Infrastructure technology.
Absence of SSL results in data getting passed as plain text. Any third party can read the content you are sharing with your users.
Generally, users share all kinds of personally identifiable information (PII) on websites such as bank details, residential addresses, phone numbers, identification proofs, etc.
If hackers get access to all such information, they can steal it and sell it on the dark web.
With a plethora of SSL options available in the market, users are often confused regarding which brand of SSL to invest their hard-earned money in. Therefore, we suggest going for cheap yet superlative certificates from reliable CAs such as Comodo PositiveSSL, AlphaSSL, etc.
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Use Smart Passwords
We used to talk about the importance of strong passwords, but times have changed.
A strong password won’t help because you have multiple accounts to protect in today’s world.
Use a strong password for ten different accounts and remember each one.
So, to counter this and improve website security, you can use a password manager.
That will relieve you from the hassle of remembering passwords, but it will also enhance your website’s security by generating a new password every time you log in.
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Choose an Authentic Web Host.
What is the first thing you look out for when building your own house?
A genuine piece of land, right?
Think of your web host as that piece of land. If it is not reliable, you may lose all your data if it gets breached by hackers.
An authentic web host has a robust backup policy, offers SFTP or Secure File Transfer Protocol, does not allow any unknown user to access FTP or File Transfer Protocol, and keeps its software updated.
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Watch Out for Administrative Privileges.
Admin accounts are at the helm of every business. For example, all activities on a website are governed by a central authority called an admin.
Generally, admin privileges lie in the hands of a few trusted individuals in a company. They can decide who can access the company’s website and how.
But what if everyone has unrestricted access to admin panels? There is no better sight for hackers than having access to a website’s admin panel.
Thus, it is best to restrict access to admin panels by holding everyone accountable and regulating their authority.
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Backup Your Data
Bata backups are essential to keep data secure and readily available in a catastrophe.
Websites that do not have data backups can lose their entire business within a blink of an eye.
Hackers use advanced tools to crash websites. In addition, they may ask for ransom in return for website access.
So, to avoid such situations, it is best to be prepared. Use cloud-based technology for backing up your data. Also, enable automatic data backups.
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Use WAF and Anti-Viruses.
WAF or Web Application Firewalls are a plug-and-play security service that monitors all the data by setting itself in between the website connection and web server.
No amount of data can communicate with your server unless filtered by a WAF. Moreover, to boost Security, we also recommend you buy anti-virus software.
An anti-virus can stop viruses from infecting your system by quarantining them. In addition, anti-viruses help protect devices where you might have stored critical business data.
Both these protocols are essential for a business to install. In addition, they complement security technologies like SSL certificates in protecting a website from hackers.
Final Thoughts
Modern-day websites need modern-day security protocols to protect sensitive data.
Hackers lurk around the corner for websites that still use outdated security protocols and CMS software versions.
As a business owner, you must beware of how cybercriminals attack businesses. You must employ robust security strategies to ensure the swift conduct of business online.
It is best not to take things like password hygiene, web host security, data backups, WAF, ani-viruses, and admin privileges lightly.
All these things can help ensure the swift conduct of business without any hindrances caused by cybercriminals.
So, follow these seven tips given above and create a secure environment for your website.
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