How to Secure & Protect a Website
How to Secure & Protect Your Website
Website Security is very important thing for any business .Although, it is a very complex and confusing process for some of us but securing the website is very essential. Today, we will let you know the simple and easy steps on HOW TO SECURE & PROTECT YOUR WEBSITE.
Before we start, I would like to tell you that security is not a onetime process as if you set it and forget it later. Above all, security is a continuous process and it requires the continuous supervision and assessment in order to reduce the risk.
Here, I will share some framework and security principles in a systemic way by applying which the business owners can mitigate the risk of hacking or any kind of malfunctioning on the website.
What is the meaning of Website Security & Protection?
In simple words we can say that Website security is the process by which we can secure our website from any kind of cyber attacks. Overall, it is an ongoing process and very essential to ensure that our website is secure and safe from hackers.
Why website security is required?
Website Security is very important for every business because no one wants to be their website hacked or blacklisted by Google or any other search engines. Having a secure website is essential for online presence of the business.
If you want a good amount of traffic on your site then you should have a secure and safe website. Not having a secure website can leads you in trouble.
If someone hacked your website and took the data of your clients in that case their will be heavy legal complications you have to face just because a insecure website.
Kinds of Web Attacks
Spear Phishing Attack – This type of web attack is basically target a person not a community together In this type of attack usually the hackers ask for your personal information such as bank account and pin number.
The hackers sent you an email which looks as real as you receive mails from your bank. When you open the link and go to the website which exactly a clone of your bank site and you fill the information and details of your account.
Sometime they don’t ask you for the details the moment you click on the link the hackers enter into your pc and take the important information they wants.
Whaling:- Whaling is as same as the Spear Phishing the hackers usually do the same things to enter into someone computer or mobiles. But the in this type of attack the hacker usually target the big companies and corporate they hack their company website and from their they enter into the clients details .
Sometime, they hacked their employee details and from their details they reach to the company its vice versa process.
Automated Attacks:- These kind of attacks are also known as Server – Side Ransomware Attacks.
In this attack the hackers usually attacks on the server of the website. The hackers enter into the companies website and breach the information.
These attacks take the full control of the computer and the user even did not allow to enter even basic commands .Automated attacks are much easier as compare to individual or other attacks.
Internet of Things Vulnerabilities (IoT) – In these type of attacks hackers attacks through the different devices which are links from your internet or WiFi connections. Any privacy security breach from any of the device such as mobile, laptop, desktop etc. the hacker get a chance to enter into your website.
Steps for Website Security & Protection
Website Security Framework
Designing a Web Security framework according to the business size helps in reducing the risk of security breach.
We have design a framework which is based on the standard frame work of (NIST) National Institute of Standard and Technology US.
In this framework we will discuss in details about the five main functions such as :IDENTIFY, PROTECT, DETECT, RESPOND & RECOVER.
|
Functions |
Categories | Subcategories |
|
IDENTIFY |
Asset Inventory &Management |
Web properties, server/infrastructure , modules extension, third party integrations, access points, nodes |
| PROTECT | Protective Technologies | Cloud based-firewall, application level firewall, server, application hardening |
|
DETECT |
Continuous Monitoring |
Server Level, Application level, User Level, Integration and changes level monitoring |
| RESPOND | Analysis &Mitigation | Deploy incident response team, develop incident report, effects of an event |
| RECOVER | Recovery Planning | Review the output of all phases, document and deploy , team review of all findings |
Identify
During this stage we will review and assess all the documents. We will divide the asset inventory and management into the following subcategories.
Once the list of all the assets have made then we can audit and defend those assets from the attacks.
- Web Properties
- Web server and Infrastructure
- Plugins, extension, themes, and modules
- By third party integration
- Through access points and nodes.
Protect
There are various ways by which you can protect your website from the hackers but the most appropriate way is to activate the web application firewall.
These firewalls applications will protect the website from hackers as hacking these kind of protected websites will not possible for the hackers.
Detect
Regular monitoring is very important for any website security . You can done the monitoring by
- DNS Records
- SSL certificates
- Web Server Configuration
- Regular Application updates
- Keep an eye on user application process
- To file the integrity
Respond
Just like every business have a plan to execute similar every security monitoring have a plan in place to respond.
So, whenever the security monitoring is being done its says that a proper plan to revert on that should be there.
The proper plan includes:
- Selecting an incident response team or person
- Reporting of incident to review findings
- Mitigating the event
Recover
Recovery is happen when all the plans are in process and doing well. In recovery plan we usually refer to discuss our security vendors to improve on the risk areas.
To recover one should have the proper communication strategy with the vendors and the users and also should have the proper backup plan also.
HOW TO SECURE YOUR WEBSITE
Below are few simple steps by using which you can secure your website.
Use Secure Passwords: Every website require some credentials to login and the id and passwords are the most important thing which any website depends on. The weak passwords give the chance to the hackers to breach the security and enter into the website.
Most of the time people choose to have a same password for all the accounts because it is easy for them to remember
But having same passwords for every account will be easy for the hacker to know. It is always recommended that the password should be very strong.
If you have remembering problem or know that you will forget your passwords you should write it down somewhere.
Make sure that the password will be very difficult so that no one can crack it.
Always use security protection while opening the mails:
Most of the time the hackers try to enter into your site through your e-mail or your employee’s email.
Always ensure or trained your employees that before opening an email they should run a security scan because ,
if they don’t do this and click the email sent by hacker then the virus in that email will enter into the computer and breach the security.
Hence, using the protection before opening an email is always recommended.
Install Software Update: Keep operating systems and software. Running efficiently with regular updates.
After all, many of them require a complete system restart and some installation to save time. You need to install those updates which require at that time to keep your system secure.
Choose a secure Website Hosting Service: Choosing a secure hosting server plays a very important role in website security. Always, choose your server wisely. Before taking any domain from a hosting site always check their security field. Have a look and asses the other customer’s website also.
Make sure that they include the backup option. If in any case you loose your website due to hacker than it will be easy to rebuild the website through backup.
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Take a secure SSL Certificate to Keeps the Information Protected:
The “https” stand for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Any Webpage using this html is safe.
Those pages available on the server are secure and protected. Any page which is asking for payment or login information needs to be on these pages.
Limit user Access and Permission: Most of the time website code is not easy to be accessible but the users are easy target. Recording IP address and all activity history will be helpful in the analysis later.
Files and Folder Permission: This step ensure your every file define a permission to open . It depends on you which file or folder you want to lock.
There are 3 type of permission a folder can ask
- Read
- Write
- Execute
In the section of numeric values set the permissions to these options
644 for individual files
755 for files and directories
Run Regular Website Security Checks: A good security check can identify any potential issues with your website. To ensure the safety of your website use a web monitoring service to automate this process. Monitoring service program me make this process easy and secure.
Regular or weekly update the website Platforms and Scripts: If you are using the word press then make sure that you are using the most updated version.
If not, then update your version by clicking on the button on the upper left side of the screen. You also needs to check your plugins and tools.
Install the Security Plugins: There are several options in this all depends on the type of website you run.
Security plugins prevent hackers to enter into your website. These plugins ensure that no one can take the advantage of them.
Keep an eye on XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Attacks: An XSS attack is the type of attack when a hacker inserts malicious code into your site, which can change or even steal the information.
Prevent XSS attacks by inserting a CSP header into your website code. CSP stands for Content Security Policy. It limits the amount of Java Script on your website.
Be Aware of SQL (Structured Query Language) Injection: SQL it’s a type of code that manages and allows people to search for the information. If you have a search form on your site then hacker can enters some terms into the data base and enter into your site. To avoid this make sure that you use the secure forms and parameterized queries.
I hope, now you understand the concept and importance of website security and the steps also which are involved in the entire process.
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