As a website owner, you may have a lot of questions related to how to keep your site safe. According to Forbes, in 2021 nearly three million dollars are already being lost every minute due to cyber crimes, and cyber crimes are anticipated to cost the world an estimated $10.5 trillion per year by 2025. With financial motive being the number one reason hackers and cybercriminals attack websites, it’s critical that website owners learn the ins and outs of protecting their online assets.
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In this post, you’ll find helpful information and best practices, as well as answers to questions that may have never even crossed your mind. By the end of this guide, you will be armed with the tools you need to protect your online assets.
Website Security is a Journey, Not a Destination
The first, and perhaps most important thing you must understand is that website security is not something you can quickly set up and then forget about. Unfortunately, new malware programs and threats are being developed every single day. As a result, website security is a journey, not a destination. You will need to implement both free and paid tools to lock down your professional or hobbyist website if you intend to keep would-be intruders at bay.
The good news is, there are some website security tools that offer automated technology such as malware scanning programs and vulnerability patching software. However, other defense practices will require that you put at least a little bit of effort into. Before we dive into the best practices and tools though, let’s explore some threats you will need to defend yourself against.
The Biggest Website Security Threats of 2021
According to multiple cybersecurity companies, media outlets, and blogs, the top threats to website security for 2021 are:
- Malware – or malicious software
- DDoS Attacks – also known as distributed denial-of-service attacks
- Spam
- SQL injection – also referred to simply as SQLi
- Cross-site Scripting – also called XSS
- Vulnerabilities
Now that we’ve listed what the biggest threats are, let’s go deeper into how to defend against them.
How to Defend Your Website Against Malware
Malicious software (malware) comes in many different forms, and one of the best tools for defending against it is a malware scanning and removal program. When shopping for this tool, make sure you look for one that automatically scans for malicious software and removes it the moment it’s found.
The reason automatic scanners and removal tools are so important is because when your website gets infected it can spread rapidly. If it’s not caught and eradicated in time, it can completely destroy your website. Regardless of whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional, losing all of your hard work can be devastating.
Types of Malware You Need To Be Aware Of And Defend Against
What are the different types of malware? The truth is there are millions of malware programs, but they all fall into these categories:
- Ransomware
If a cybercriminal manages to infect your website with ransomware, you will find that you are more than likely to be blocked from your own data. The files and data on your website will be encrypted, and you will likely receive a ransom demand in order to regain control and access.
The most frustrating part about this type of malware is that there is no incentive for the cybercriminal to actually give back your files and data after you pay. There is a high probability that they will simply continue extorting money from you until the point that you either refuse or can no longer pay, and even then there is no guarantee you will regain access.
That is why some law enforcement officials actually recommend you don’t pay, but you will have to accept that failure to pay will most likely end with you losing all access permanently to anything that was on your website prior to the attack.
- Fileless Malware
Fileless malware is particularly infuriating to a website owner because it doesn’t require code on the targeted website. As a result, it’s very difficult to detect. This is where paid tools come in handy. They are typically much better at scanning for vulnerabilities such as this and removing it when compared with traditional antivirus software.
- Spyware
Spyware is designed to steal sensitive data such as credit card or banking information. With one line of code, your website visitors can unintentionally download a program that infects their computer and begins stealing cookies, passwords, contact information, and more.
- Viruses
Viruses on a website are malicious lines of code that are designed to interfere with your website’s normal functions. And, they can be executed and downloaded unbeknownst to website visitors. If downloaded, your users could experience corrupted files, computer system crashes, stolen data, and more.
- Trojans
A Trojan is a type of virus. If a Trojan virus manages to get onto your website, it can install additional malware programs inflicting even more damage. And, if your website visitors click anything that downloads it to their computer or personal devices such as smartphones and tablets, it will appear harmless, but can deploy other viruses and cause irreparable damage.
- Worms
Unlike viruses which don’t self-replicate, worms do! These malicious programs are quite infections and can spread to multiple computers and devices before the user ever gets wise to the threat. And, by the time they do realize what has happened, it’s likely that their damage will be irreversible. From corrupted website files to stolen data, worms can wreak untold amounts of damage.
- Rootkits
Rootkits are designed to grant website access to unauthorized users. With a rootkit malware program, a hacker can completely take over, and you’ll never even realize it until it’s too late. Like fileless malware, they are incredibly difficult to detect, and without really good malware scanning and removal tools they can keep doing damage for a long time.
- Keyloggers
Similar to spyware, keyloggers are designed to track keystrokes. Using this information, a cybercriminal can figure out passwords and login credentials. Data retrieved can then be sold to third parties to commit additional crimes up to and including identity theft, drained bank accounts, and maxed out credit accounts.
- Bots and Botnets
Bad bots are designed to carry out a task automatically. Some are designed to harvest data such as contact and financial information, whereas others are designed to spam websites with fake comments and reviews. A botnet is a network of these bad bots all tasked to commit various cybercrimes – one of which includes launching a malware attack on unsuspecting website owners. Botnets are often used to inflict DDoS attacks.
How to Defend Your Website Against DDoS Attacks
A distributed denial of service, also known as DDoS attack, involves using hacked networks and bad bots to flood your website with traffic, typically bad traffic, causing the website to shut down. Most servers anticipate a certain amount of traffic to come to a website, and so when the servers are flooded with requests to get to your website, they can’t handle it and your website crashes as a result.
These website crashes not only make a website unavailable, they can annoy your customers and in the worst cases make them wary of ever visiting your domain again. Bottom line – DDoS attacks can result in revenue losses of about $130 to nearly $430 a minute!
The best method of defending your website against a DDoS attack is to use a web application firewall, also referred to as a WAF. A WAF is designed to block bad traffic and only permit good and legitimate traffic through. When combined with a malware scanning and removal tool, you have added two layers of website security to fortify your digital home.
How to Defend Your Website Against Spam
The best tools for defending against spam are:
- Anti-spam plugins
- CAPTCHA
- WAF
Spam can tank your website’s ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs) and devalue your website and lose credibility within the eyes of search engines such as Google. If you are using a CMS, such as WordPress, anti-spam plugins such as Akismet are built to help filter out comments laced with spam.
Spam bots as mentioned above are constantly crawling the web looking for websites to flood with comments, and these plugins help to prevent them. Additionally, you can turn on your comment moderation to prevent comments from automatically being approved to go live on your website.
Another means of preventing bots from spamming your page is to use CAPTCHA which requires your users to enter text or click an image to prove they are not a bot before proceeding to leave a comment.
Finally, implementing a WAF can prevent spam bots from being able to access your websites in the first place.
How to Defend Your Website Against SQL injection
Defending against SQLi or SQL injections is best done with tools such as vulnerability detection and patching programs. These attacks happen when a malicious SQL statement is added into what is referred to as a “user input field” – typically through a contact form.
Once the statement is “injected,” a cybercriminal can use it to sneak into your website’s backend and steal, modify, or even destroy information and data. In the worst cases, the bad actor will use the statement to take full control of your site.
How to Defend Your Website Against Cross-site Scripting
Unlike SQLi, Cross-site Scripting (XXS) attacks don’t require the use of a user input field to wreak havoc. Instead, malicious code is placed into the web page directly. Vulnerable areas in a website that hackers will exploit include, but are not limited to feedback forms, search fields, forums, and cookies.
The best tool to defend against XXS is a WAF. It’s also critical that you update your software on a regular basis, but we’ll cover that in a moment. Finally, you should sanitize your input fields. For example, using qualifiers as to what a user can input (i.e. only typing in 9 digits for a phone number with a specific format required). This is also referred to as data validation.
How to Defend Your Website Against Vulnerabilities
What are website security vulnerabilities? Simply put, they are weak points in your website’s code that a bad actor can exploit in an effort to sneak into the backend of your site. The best tool of defense is vulnerability patching software that automatically looks for and patches vulnerabilities. A WAF can also be useful as it will help prevent bad bots from scanning your website looking for vulnerabilities in the first place.
Additional Threats to Website Security
While we addressed the biggest threats, I promised an ultimate guide to website security. Therefore, we can’t move on until we discuss other threats your website could also face. These include:
Broken Authentication/Unauthorized Access: This happens when a hacker guesses the password of a website visitor’s account. Requiring multifactor authentication is a great way to minimize this threat. Another way to prevent cybercriminals from getting in is to encrypt passwords in transit and/or in storage so that a hacker can’t view login credentials in your website’s code. Finally, you should implement automatic logout timers that log users out after a given amount of time have lapsed.
Broken Access Control: This occurs when a user is given more access than they should be able to have and can manipulate or alter your website’s backend as a result. This can also occur when credentials that should have been deleted are still active and exploited. Limiting access to all users is your best defense against this threat.
File Upload Exploitation: If you allow files to be uploaded to your website, you could be inviting cybercriminals to load malicious files that can later be used to break-in. The best way to defend against this is to sanitize/encrypt every file that comes in – this way, if they load something, they won’t be able to find it again at a later time. And, limit the size and types of files that can be loaded as well for added security.
Install an SSL Certificate For Added Security
The acronym SSL stands for “Secure Socket Layer,” and they are essentially tiny files that encrypt your data on your website. Acquiring one of these certificates can help you in two ways:
First, it adds an “S” to your address. Instead of http://www.myamazingsite.com, it will be https://www.myamazingsite.com. That extra “S” stands for security, and lets your customers and visitors know your website is valid.
Second, an SSL encrypts the data transmitted and received on your website. This can help you prevent cybercriminals from being able to read any data on your website. In lieu of readable text, they will receive gibberish that is useless to them. To learn more about SSL certificates, and to determine which one is right for you, read this guide.
Methods for Defending Your Website Without Tools
You likely noticed many of the threats referenced in this guide can be partially mitigated without tools. However, the practices referenced below should not be used by themselves if you hope to have the best chances of preventing intruders from getting in.
It’s best to use both paid and unpaid methods in tandem to have the best chance of keeping bad actors out of your website! Now let’s explore the various ways you can defend your website that don’t require shelling out a lot of cash on paid tools, shall we?
Change Your Passwords and Admin Usernames
This is a simple thing to do, but amazingly far too many people use default credentials. Update your passwords to something longer than six characters and throw in some upper and lowercase letters along with numbers and random characters to boot. Also, change your “admin” to another name and delete the default admin user because this is the first account a hacker will try to guess the password of since it will give them full access to everything.
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Use Multifactor Authentication
We addressed this in the broken authentication section, but what is it? Multifactor authentication is a means of using multiple methods to verify an authorized user. A password won’t be enough to get in. They will also need a phone number and email address, for example.
At a minimum, you should require two factor authentication for general users. However, anyone working on your website’s backend should be required to use multifactor authentication as it can deter cybercriminals from wiggling their way in.
Update CMS Software and Plugins
Believe it or not, exploiting outdated plugins and themes are two of the biggest ways cybercriminals can attack a website. These software updates usually include vulnerability patches of their own, and failure to update them is like leaving the doors of your home unlocked hoping no one will walk inside.
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Delete Unused Themes and Plugins
When people aren’t using themes or plugins anymore, they often forget to update them. Why would they, after all? The problem is, that leaves your website at risk. In other words – if you aren’t using it, just get rid of it.
Limit Access
There should be a very small number of people who have full administrative access to your website. The smaller, the better! Go through your user list and remove access to critical areas of your website from anyone who doesn’t need full access.
Backup Your Website
Suppose for a moment malware infects your website. Remember earlier when I said time is a factor to prevent the spread of infection? That’s where a website backup comes in handy! Simply by doing regular backups of your website, in the event an attack occurs, you can quickly load a clean copy and get back to business.
Where to Go From Here
We’ve covered a lot in this ultimate guide to website security. It can be overwhelming! But, using the ideas and tools in this post will help you ensure you can properly and effectively defend your online assets. However, keep in mind the warning at the beginning of this guide – these tools and practices are not intended to be set up once and then forgotten.
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You must be vigilant, proactive, and check in regularly to make sure there are no leaks in your security. As new threats are popping up daily, updating your security arsenal to combat them is imperative, so be proactive and prepare for them accordingly.
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Hello, I am a professional SEO Expert & Write for us Technology blog and submit a guest posts on different platforms- we provides a good opportunity for content writers to submit guest posts on our website. We frequently highlight and tend to showcase guests.
