Your website is the fundamental component of your online presence. Regardless of whether it’s for your business, an individual portfolio, or for a side hustle blog, it’s likely to be the focal point of contact between your brand and the audience you’re trying to reach. A well-built site will attract and convert customers in any industry. However, you must not think your site has anything worth being hacked for, but websites are compromised all the time. The majority of website security breaches are not to steal your data or mess with your website layout but instead attempts to use your server as an email relay for spam, or to set up a temporary web server, normally to serve files of an illegal nature. Anyone of those occurrences could be devastating for your brand, so here are a few of the ways you can prevent hackers from gaining access to your site.
- Keep your software updated.
Regardless of the platform on which you chose to host your site, updates are a persistent fact of a webmaster’s life. Check regularly for updates to your server’s operating system, plugins, and other software.
- Always use a secure password
It is important to use secure passwords. A secure password is ideally made up of multiple random words along with figures and special characters. That way, it’d be a difficult task to guess or break it with a brute-force program. To make things even easier, you could use a password-management app, which will likely suggest choosing complex passwords, saving them, and having them be filled in automatically so you don’t have to remember them. Both free and paid apps are available for secure password lists.
- Beware of error messages
Be careful with how much information you give away in your error messages. Provide only minimal errors to your users, to ensure they don’t leak secrets present on your server (e.g. API keys or database passwords).
- Use a secure host
Choosing a secure and reputable web hosting company is very important to your website security. Make sure the host you choose is aware of threats and devoted to keeping your website secure. Your host should also back up your data to a remote server and make it easy to restore in case your site is hacked. Choose a host that offers ongoing technical support whenever necessary.
- Back up your data
Back up your site regularly. You should maintain backups of all of your website files in case your site becomes inaccessible or your data is lost. Your web host provider should provide backups of their own servers, but you should still back up your files regularly. Some content management programs have plugins or extensions that can automatically back up your site, and you should also be able to back up databases and content manually.
- Hire security expert
Developing a relationship with a firm that provides security services can be a lifesaver when it comes to protecting your website. While small things can be taken care of on your own, there are many security measures that should be handled by an expert. Companies providing security services can regularly scan your website for vulnerabilities, perform full website security audits, monitor for malicious activity, and be on hand whenever a repair is needed. You and your team must always be vigilant in protecting your website, and these practical tips represent only the most basic methods. Never stop seeking security protections for your website. Don’t let the bad guys win.
