Setting up a website is a good thing to do somewhat easy but all efforts have to be put in place to secure all activities on the website. As an administrator or as a visitor/user, one has to be certain that all submission on the website is highly protected from getting into the wrong hands. Ofcourse website building is easier than you can ever imagine,it still does not change the fact that security maintenance is something not to toy with. Great attention has to be paid to web security at all times.
Always be selfish when it comes to securing your company’s and customer’s data. Whether your website takes online payments or personal information, the data visitors enter into your site must only get into the appropriate channel.
Here’s a few way of protecting the integrity of your web users and also protecting you the web owner/administrator;
1. Keep your software and plugins up-to-date
Very important to keep an up-to-date version of your software to avoid being comprised by hackers or bots. Update often comes with enhancement and vulnerability repairs. A good one if your website come with an automatic update but if not it becomes incumbent on you the web owner/administrator to put updating of software and plugins as top on your priority list.
2. Use SSL
You have to be able to give users of your website some for of guarantee that their information are in safe hands. This help ensure confidentiality and protection and ofcourse these users will always come back. SSL is Secure Socket Layer. It transfers visitor’s personal information between the website and your database while encrypting these information to protect it from others reading it while in transit.
3. Adopt HTTPS
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a protocol used to provide security over the Internet. HTTPS prevents interceptions and interruptions from occurring while the content is in transit.
For you to create a secure online connection, your website also needs an SSL Certificate. If your website asks visitors to register, sign-up, or make a transaction of any kind, you need to encrypt your connection.
It denies those without proper authority the ability to access the data.
4. Use file type verification
Hackers try to sneakily get around whitelist filters by renaming documents with a different extension than the document type actually is, or adding dots or spaces to the filename.
5. Set a maximum file size. Avoid distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by rejecting any files over a certain size.
Scan files for malware. Use antivirus software to check all files before opening.
6. Rename Files
Automatically rename files upon upload. Hackers won’t be able to re-access their file if it has a different name when they go looking for it.
Keep the upload folder outside of the webroot. This keeps hackers from being able to access your website through the file they upload.
7. Choose a smart password
Many applications, websites and programs now employs the use of passwords so it’s very possible to use the same password that’s really simple to avoid forgetting. Birthdays, first son’s name, one’s name or even spouse’s name are used as password. A significant mistake to make in the use of passwords because guessing becomes so easy for the hacker. Avoid the use of personal information to create passwords. Not even your name with 123. Smart passwords leave your website secured from the human accept. Smart passwords are long and should be at least twelve characters, every time. Your password needs to be a combination of numbers and symbols. Make sure to alternate between uppercase and lowercase letters.
Never use the same password twice or share it with others. A constant change of passwords after months of use is also advised. For example, you might use a 14-digit mixture of letters and numbers as a password. You could then store the password(s) in an offline file, a smartphone, or a different computer.
8. A secured web host
Host your domain names with companies that offer security features for better protection of your data. Be certain that all these are checked before making up your mind about your web hosting;
Does the web host offer a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)? SFTP.
Is FTP Use by Unknown User disabled?
Does it use a Rootkit Scanner?
Does it offer file backup services?
How well do they keep up to date on security upgrades?
9. Constant backup
Site backup is adequately one of the best ways to protect your websites. It is crucial to recovering your website after a major security incident occurs.
Keep your website information off-site. Do not store your backups on the same server as your website; they are as vulnerable to attacks too.
Choose to keep your website backup on a home computer or hard drive. Find an off-site place to store your data and to protect it from hardware failures, hacks, and viruses.
Another option is to back up your website in the cloud. It makes storing data easy and allows access to information from anywhere.
10. Monitor user access and administrative privileges
Giving your employees high level access to your website is the appropriate thing to do but you have to be weary of compromise. Restricts access as much as possible and when you do give this access to users be very careful to record and monitor the access. Keep track of who has access to your CMS and their administrative settings, make a record and update it often.
11. Use firewall and up-to-date antivirus
Firewall reads every data that passes through your website and ensure that all entries are safe and for the unsafe ones it blocks it.
12. Tightened network security
Web security is not the only thing to focus on. As much as it has been tackled, also ensure your network security is analyzed too. The use of office computers can create a unsafe channel to your website. Incorporate login expiry, have the system prompt users of constant change of passwords and also ensure all plugged devices are properly scanned for malwares.
Owning a web site extends beyond finding a domain name and hosting it. You must be ready to protect the website itself and also the users of the websites. Pay close attentions to the point highlighted above and constantly be on the look out for anything you can do to ensure 100% data protection.