4 Tips on Securing Your Business Website from Cyber Attacks
Security has been a chief concern among users as of late, thanks to pervasive news coverage on countless data breaches and other malicious online attacks. For businesses, this expresses the importance of applying security measures to your website to avoid compromising both your business’ and customers’ data; otherwise, you risk losing billions of dollars due to cybercrime.
What is the impact of cyber security on businesses?
Cyber attacks come in many forms, ranging from data breaches to social engineering, malware, ransomware, DDoS attacks, and SQL injections. What’s most alarming is that research has shown that 65% of these attacks are targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses.
Aside from the economic losses following a cyber attack, the impact of cyber security on businesses is grave and far-reaching:
- Cyber attacks can damage your businesses’ reputation, consequently diluting customers’ trust and loss of sales.
- Losing crucial corporate information could harm you and your customers.
- Any disruption to your business, especially following a severe cyber attack, could impede your online operations.
- With the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in place, there are legal consequences following a cyber attack, and this not only affects businesses in the UK but worldwide as well.
What are ways to make your business website more secure?
1. Use SSL/HTTPS encryption
At the most basic level, your business website should have an SSL certificate, denoted by a URL with an HTTPS. SSL encrypts all data (e.g., passwords, credit card details, etc.) that passes between a web server and browser, and ensures that this information is protected against hackers. Additionally, HTTPS encryption is a major ranking signal for SEO, which was confirmed by Google a few years back.
SSL certificates can be conveniently bought through your domain registrar, such as GoDaddy and Namecheap. There are also dedicated SSL certificate providers such as Comodo, GlobalSign, Digicert, and Entrust.
2. Update software regularly
As hackers often target security vulnerabilities in older versions of software, it’s crucial to regularly update any software you use on your website. This also includes plugins, extensions, or apps.
Not doing so could potentially put your website at risk of being compromised by security bugs that have already been fixed in newer software versions. In some content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, it’s also important to remove the version number of your website from your source code; this can be done by installing a plugin.
3. Enforce password security
Nowadays, having a strong password may not be enough to safeguard your website. Hackers use automated software that uses brute force to obtain website login information. This usually generates a high volume of consecutive login attempts to your login page.
You can minimize your risk for brute force attacks by limiting login attempts and enabling two-step authentication. It’s also advised to customize your login page URL to something unique and hard to guess, instead of the standard /admin or /login. This way, it would be more challenging for automated software to find your login page to access in the first place.
4. Use a CDN
Another common yet preventable cyber security problem are DDoS attacks. This type of attack happens when hackers use botnets to send a massive amount of traffic to your server, rendering it unresponsive and inaccessible altogether. At this point, hackers can gain access to your website.
Using a content delivery network (CDN) can help prevent DDoS attacks by detecting unusual amounts of traffic to your server and avoiding server congestion and outages; it also helps in optimizing your site speed. Popular CDN providers include Cloudflare, Incapsula, Akamai, and Limelight.
In conclusion
Website security is often overlooked by many business owners, either because they fail to realize the immensity of its impact on their business or simply because they lack the right resources.
If you’re not sure where to start, whether you already have a business website in place or still planning on having one, Ilfusion has the expertise to create and revamp websites that are not only functional and well-designed but also stringently secure.
If you want to know more, give us a call at 888-420-5115, or send us an email to [email protected].
Tags: cdn, cyber attacks, cyber security, encryption, HTTPS, sslCategorized in: Articles