Every company or organization should emphasize the safeguarding of confidential data that is kept online. With rapid advancements in technology, businesses become more internet-dependent, making them increasingly susceptible to cyberattacks. Hackers are compared to vultures lurking around, waiting to find a flaw to take advantage of. For that reason, website owners are constantly required to employ complex website security systems to mitigate the risks. The article discusses the 10 most useful tips for protecting your website from online cyber thieves.  

How To Protect Your Website

A digital padlock icon representing robust website security measures.

Website security strategies must be comprehensively planned. It would be crucial to determine the objectives an unauthorized party would want to achieve through your website. Gaining access to sensitive data, executing DoS attacks, corrupting web pages, or enabling the distribution of harmful software are only a few objectives. Consequently, websites at a significantly increased risk of being hacked are databases because the damages caused can lead to substantial financial repercussions, negative impact on customer relations, damage to the owner's reputation, or even legal complications.   

Ensuring your website security is equally vital whether you manage an e-commerce website, personal blog, or corporate site. 

Following are the top 10 techniques to protect your e-commerce website’s security:

1. HTTPS Encryption over HTTP

Improving the safety of your website comes from upgrading it from HTTP to HTTPS. Unlike HTTP, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) enables the web server to exchange information securely with the users' browsers. Because hackers are not able to easily capture sensitive data such as logins, credit card numbers, and other personal information, it remains secure.

Furthermore, as with user data security, HTTPS guarantees protection, especially boosting Google search engine ranking for websites.

Hence, the change serves both the secure Web solutions and its SEO features.

To do this:

• Your hosting provider or some other third-party company can provide you with an SSL certificate.
• You need to install the SSL certificate on your web server.
• All the internal links and resources should be updated to utilize HTTPS.

2. Update Software Regularly

If you are using a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, or even building a site from the ground up, you need to ensure that your software, plugins, and themes are current. An outdated cyber-criminal program is just waiting for an unprotected window to break in; consistent updating helps keep the window tightly shut.

To do this:

• For your CMS, set it to default to an automatic update. 
• Actively monitor for theme or plugin updates and apply them promptly.
• Monitor and track secure Web updates from relevant software vendors.

3. Foster Strong passwords and Utilize Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Losing passwords is one of the leading contributors to breaches within a website. Strong passwords alongside multi-factor authentication (MFA) provided for every user account, even for administrators and editors, form a formidable barrier to unauthorized access.

A strong password should include a minimum of 8 characters encompassing both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. A combination or phrase that is used commonly, or a person’s name, or an easily guessable combination should be avoided at all costs. For even better website security, having MFA enabled, which makes it mandatory for a user to provide two or more forms of verification before access is granted, also improves security.

Steps to follow:

• Assist users in utilizing password managers to establish and save strong passwords for different accounts.
• Implement a policy that enforces the creation of long, random, and complex passwords that seem impossible to ascertain.
• Enable MFA for critical accounts, including but not limited to your admin panel.

4. Ensure that Your Website Is Backed Up Consistently

If you are put in a position where data is lost or a breach has taken place, having a recent backup of your website ensures you do not have to waste hours, days, or even weeks trying to recover your data. These regular backups make it easy to restore the treasured data quickly.

Remember to back up the website files and database. Moreover, consider placing the backups in a secure Web off-site location where potential threats affecting your server cannot be reached.

How to do this:

• Use automated backup services from your hosting provider or other third-party services.
• Schedule regular backups (daily, weekly, or monthly) based on how often the content changes.
• Store backups in several different places (for example, the cloud and external hard drives).

5. Restrict the Number of Failed Logins

When someone tries out various words to access a website’s admin panel, it is known as “brute-forcing.” To aid in reducing such attacks, steps can be taken to limit the maximum number of attempts whereby a user must be locked out for an arbitrary period after failing to log in multiple times.

With a cap on login attempts, guessing your login becomes much harder for hackers.

How to do this:

• Install an extension or use the native settings of your CMS to restrict login attempts or use the “Limit Login Attempts” function for WordPress. 
• Use CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA to stop automated attempts of logging in.

6. Get a Web Application Firewall (WAF) Setup

The Web Application Firewall (WAF) functions as a sentry that supervises your website and the internet. Its role as a security guard is to filter and eliminate harmful traffic before it can reach your site. It is intended to stop hostile bots, SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other automated attacks against the website.

WAF is designed to filter out and block any harmful activity that, in turn, will ensure and mitigate threats to the website.

How to do this: 

• Pick a WAF service like Cloudflare or Sucuri.
• Set the WAF policies to block harmful traffic and set website security measures.

7. Improve Security for Your Website Hosting Environment

If there is no secure web hosting environment, then a website will also not be secure. Check that your hosting company provides and follows custom protocols, including software patching, firewall services, and encrypting stored data.

If shared hosting is being used, then there is more flexibility and security when moving to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated server for more granular control over security configurations.

How to do this: 

• Pick a good quality and known hosting provider that has better security. 
• Periodically check and update your server policies. These include but are not limited to Firewall rules and permission settings.
• Be sure your hosting provider has DDoS security and backup options.

8. Removing Unused Plugin and Theme Files

Inactive plugins or themes or any other extensions can pose a security risk to your website. While deactivated, the files take up space and can be used by malicious actors. Take time now and then to check your website and delete any unused plugins or themes. This will decrease the chances of your website being hacked. 

How to do this:

• Carry out regular checks on your website and delete any unused plugins, themes, or scripts from external sources.
• Remove plugins and themes that are no longer being developed or have no support.  

9. Adding Security Headers for Your Site

There are different types of attacks your website may be vulnerable to, such as content injection, Cross-site Scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and many more. Security headers are simply HTTP headers that help guard your site from such attacks. By adding them to your website’s HTTP responses, security will be enhanced.  

Some common security headers include:

• Content-Security-Policy (CSP): Helps mitigate XSS attacks by limiting the trusted content sources.  
• Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS):  Restrict browsers to only use HTTPS when connecting to your webpage.  
• X-Content-Type-Options: Stops browsers from treating files as a different MIME type than what they are.  

How to do this:

• In the configuration files of your server (e.g., .htaccess for Apache, nginx.conf for Nginx) add security headers.  
• Run a test on your site with the use of online helpers such as SecurityHeaders.com to find out which headers are missing.

10. Keep A Close Eye on Your Website Security and Traffic

Finally, the uninterrupted tracking of your website’s security and its traffic is crucial to prevent and respond to different threats. With the help of some security monitoring techniques, you can be notified in real time whenever some suspicious activities take place. Moreover, performing regular secure web audits to search for vulnerabilities that can be used against you is also smart.

How to do this: 

• Install security plugins (like Wordfence for WordPress) that will help you monitor your website for any malware, unauthorized login attempts, and file modifications. 
• Have frequent scans for website security performed with an automated system.
• Set up logging procedures for irregular activities and make sure to analyze the logs frequently.  

Protect Your Website With GO-Globe's Expertise

At GO-Globe, a reliable web development company in Leeds, we understand the significance of a secure web. Our team of specialists is focused on creating secure, scalable, and high-performance sites to safeguard both businesses and customers against any potential threats to online security.

Do you want to make your website secure against hackers?

Contact us now so we can implement effective security practices that keep hackers at bay and protect your online presence with professional web development services from our team of web development specialists.

Conclusion

Preventing your website from security threats and issues must be a priority for anyone who has an online presence, be it a single blogger, a small firm, or even a larger organization. Following the ten brilliant tips mentioned above will aid in the formation of a solid security infrastructure that will take care of website security, user information, and brand image.

Cyber security is a process, and therefore, it is very important to constantly be aware of the changes that happen and how to change the process. Along with a proactive approach to implementing cybersecurity measures, your website’s vulnerability to cyberattacks can be greatly minimized by strong security actions. Keep learning and be vigilant to make your website bulletproof.