If you own a website then you know that one of the most terrifying things that can happen to you is getting all your work altered or entirely watched out by a hacker.
As a web development company in India, we have seen many breaches and hacks. At this point in time, you might be thinking why would someone come and attack your tiny website. However, it is only a myth that hackers just target big businesses. A report has even found that small businesses have become the victim of a total of 43% of data breaches out there.
The point to be noted here is that whatever amount of hard work you have put into your website, you would want it to be secured. This means that it is highly imperative for everyone to take the required steps in order to protect their website.
As a recognized provider of custom website design services in India, it’s our job to help you with that. This is why we have created an easy four-step list for you to secure your website from hackers.
These steps include a little bit of technicality but many of them are such that you can do them on your own without getting your developer involved.
1. Installing security plug-ins: if you have built your website using a content management system that is CMS then you can enhance your website with security plug-ins. This will ensure that the plug-ins actively prevent any hacking attempts that I made toward your website. All of the main CMS options come along with security plug-ins and the best part is that many of them are free to use.
For WordPress these can include Sucuri, Wordfence, Bulletproof Security and etc. For Magento or they can include Amasty and Watchlog Pro etc. The security extensions for Joomla can include JHacker Watch, Antivirus Website Protection, jomDefender, RSFirewall and etc.
2. Using HTTPS: as a consumer, you probably already know that when you are providing any kind of sensitive information to a website you should look for the green lock image and HTTPS in your browser bar. HTTPS indicates that it is safe to give out any kind of financial information on that particular webpage.
Apart from this, an SSL certificate is crucial as it secures any kind of transfer of data like credit cards, personal data, contact information and etc between the website and the server. Not only has this certificate always been important for any kind of e-commerce website but now it has become more than crucial to have it since Google released a chrome update in 2018. In this update, Google alerts the website visitors if the website lacks an SSL certificate to be installed. So, if you don’t have one your website visitors will move away to another website feeling insecure about using this one.
3. Keeping your website platform as well as software up-to-date: when you use a CMS along with all its useful plug-ins as well as extensions it is a fact that it offers you many benefits but it is also true that it brings a lot of risk in. The primary cause of any kind of website infection is the vulnerabilities in its CMS’ extensible components.
As many of such tools have been created as open-source software programs their code becomes easily accessible to great developers as well as malicious hackers. This means that hackers can pore all over this code and look for any kind of security vulnerabilities that will permit them to take control of your business website and exploit any platform or prescription weakness that they find. The only way to protect your website from such hacking is to make sure that the website, as well as the software, is up-to-date including all the CMS plug-ins, apps, scripts that you have installed, etc. Even as we provide website development we need to make sure of the same.
Also read: Top Programming Languages in 2022 for Web Development
4. Ensuring that the passwords are secure: although this point seems like a simple one, it is a crucial one too. When setting a password we are always tempted into keeping it easy for us to remember. This is also why studies show that 123456 is still one of the most common passwords. This is where you have got to pull yourself up and make that effort of figuring out a truly secure password for your business website.
This means that it should be long, include a mix of special characters, numbers, as well as letters, and it, should not be easy to guess. One of the best tips is never to use something related to your personal information like your birthday or your kid’s name. Because that would mean offering the password on a silver platter to a basic hacker. When you think of secure passwords you need to make sure that it’s not only your password that is secure but everyone else’s passwords who have access to your business website. So make sure that you Institute requirements for all website users which forces them to use a great number of characters and types of characters in their passwords. Holding them to a higher standard of password will eventually pay off.
Although this list was small and simple there are other steps that you can take with the help of your developer to ensure the security of your website. However, if you have not even begun securing your website then these simple steps will ensure to do so. If I told you to think that the steps are also something you cannot do on your own then make sure your developer gets involved and helps you out with the same.
Above all, remember, that even if you make a great website for your business, it will not bring you success, if it is hacked on its way! Therefore, as you make the dream business website, keep ensuring that its security is still intact!
Our goal at InfoCrats is to build the perfect website for your business that reflects your brand value, vision, and culture. To request a quote, fill out our contact form here!
