In a world where we have an uncountable number of cyber breaches happening every day, cyber security is an indispensable ingredient in the success of your website and your business. Accenture Ninth Annual Cost of Cybercrime Study Report shows, the rate of security breaches has increased by 67% since 2014 and by 11% since 2018. The risks to website owners for as far as website insecurities are concerned to have indeed accelerated. There is a reason to believe that your website is no different from the rest; hackers will hit you if you let them. To stay a step ahead of all these, understanding what website security entails, why you must observe it and how to do it is of great essence. This article aims to help you understand website security and the most effective methods you should deploy to protect your website.
What is website security?
You have your website already functioning, or you are looking forward to creating a website soon, and that is why you are out to seek knowledge on Website security. The security of your website is in the same degree as your security. If you are not safe, you are in danger and must do all it takes to ensure you are in a safe environment. If you do not do it, your website is exposed to threats that could be fatal after an attack. Threats that could lead to loss of vital data, money or could even damage your standing and dispirit your customers from trading with you anymore. That is why understanding website security is a plausible step.
Website security is any activity to ensure a website can thwart any cyber-attacks launched against it and prevent unwelcome access to the website effectively. Website security protects your website against many cyber risks. Some of which are mentioned below:
Malware
malware is, in other terms, malicious software. It is specifically designed to harm a server and is used by cybercriminals to gain access to computer systems by brute force. There exist many malwares such as computer viruses, spyware, worms, and scare ware.
DDoS Attacks
Website security plays a significant role in fighting DDoS attacks. This is a denial of service attack; hackers aim at making your services unavailable to your clients either temporarily or permanently with floods of internet traffic.
Blacklisting
A cyber-attack may aim at getting your website blacklisted. This means that your website will be insecure to visit, and your clients will dread navigating in it, which may lead to loss of clients, a drop in revenues and profits and a general drop in business activities.
Defacement
Defacement occurs when a hacker visibly disfigures your content, visage or appearance of your website and interchanges it with his own. Usually, the hacker will replace your content with a malicious one.
There are several other forms of cyber-attacks that hackers will use to damage your website. Being aware of them all is an upper hand in being ahead of all cyber insecurities and ensuring your websites stay afloat. Security mechanisms on your website protect your customers from falling into hackers’ traps. These include encountering website redirects while on your website, malicious data downloading without their consent and phishing schemes.
Why is the security of your website critical?
Why do you always need your safety? You put out a fire while it is no use, look out for gas leaks, and even observe road security measures. Some dangers are associated with the failure to observe your safety; you might get injured, get unwell and even lose your life. The security of your website is as essential as your security. If you treat it with ignorance, you will be at the brink of a cyber-attack that could lead to catastrophic consequences, loss of your data, permanent or temporal failure of your business. Your clients could lose trust in your ability to keep them safe whenever they are online. Your website needs security. Below are the reasons why your website does.
- Running and maintaining website security practices are cheaper than post-cyber-attack. After hackers do what they have to do with your site, you lose everything; start-up shall be more expensive than a backup solution as a website security measure could have been. A cyber-attack could cost you tens of dollars in each minute you are down, yet averagely website security could only cost $1-2 in a day.
- Having website security measures in place protects your reputation and helps you compete favourably among the rest.
- Website security tools are essential in Search Engine Optimization. For instance, take the SSL certificate, which increases your rank on the search engine results page.
- Web hosting providers only protect the server your website is operating under and not your website. It, therefore, falls upon your duty to protect your website.
Understanding why security is essential raises the question of how to secure and protect your website effectively.
How do you safeguard your website?
You do not wish to get your website pulled down by a cyber-attack. Below are four of the most effective ways to secure your website from a cyber-attack.
Install an SSL Certificate
SSL [Secure Socket Layer] plays an intermediary and a security role in the data transfer between the server and its customers. Your clients will tell if your website protected with an SSL if it is HTTPS. The S at the end of HTTPS stands for secure. With an SSL certificate, crucial information that might be of interest to the hacker is transmitted securely. This information could be your own or your client’s login credentials, credit card numbers or social security numbers. SSL protects you and your clients from eavesdroppers; thus, communication between you and them will not leak. To do this, SSL ensures that all information is coded. Only a specific key will be needed to decrypt the code.
Your website needs an SSL certificate if you keep any of your client’s personal information. Moreover, search engines will degrade your website if it operates without one. Having an SSL certificate will help in improving your SEO ranking and improve your clients trustworthy with your website. If you value your websites and all your customers, then it is time to buy SSL certificate.
Install a firewall
Firewalls filter network traffics in your websites .They block unwanted access and malicious software from gaining unauthorized access to your software. A firewall provides your website with levels of security according to your priorities. It works on your computers data entry points. Only authorized sources or IPs will be authorized to access your website. You should always have your firewall on to function efficiently. Allow your security system to auto update your firewall whenever an update pops.
Take your Passwords seriously
Treating passwords lightly puts you at the brink of a cyber-attack. To effectively secure your website, you must realize that poor passwords practices will get you hacked easily. Set good password policies that will help a long way in curbing hacks. A descent password will usually be brief with a length of about 8 characters. These characters should consist of letters, both upper and lowercase, numbers and other special characters. You should change your password regularly and keep them secret. Sharing your password carelessly could lead to a security breach.
Use a Website Scanner
Having a website scanner on your site will ease the process of noticing an attack and having to deal with it. You at times may never know that your website was or will be compromised without one. Your website scanner looks out for things that shouldn’t be part of your website and gets you notified. It will be on the lookout for malware, viruses and other vulnerabilities. Deploying this means as a method of fighting cyber insecurity will greatly help in safeguarding your website.
Conclusion
Want your website to be secure as much as you value your own safety. This article has given you knowledge on what is cyber security, why it is important and how to keep it protected. Hopefully it will be of help to you. You can prevent all threats and beat hackers in their every attempt. Value your website security and your website will live to see another day.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.