Having a website is an effective way to generate traction and boost your online presence. It helps you connect with your target audience and enables you to showcase your solutions.
In this era of information, having a website has many perks, as it serves as a platform to convey your message to the masses and entice them with your offerings.
Your website may contain sensitive information about your business and your customers, making it susceptible to cyberattacks. So, you must take certain security measures and protect it from unauthorized access.
It will protect you not only from ransom threats but also from data leaks that may be a threat to your brand’s credibility.
Here are a few of the recommendations that you may want to consider when it comes to protecting your website from unauthorized access:
1. Avoid Website Vulnerabilities
If you wish to protect your website from unauthorized access, it’s essential to consider precautions at the development stage.
Lackluster framework choices, configuration errors, and poorly written code may give rise to a range of security vulnerabilities at the development stage, which can cause huge problems later on.
If you want to protect your data, you should choose frameworks that offer unparalleled security and help minimize the likelihood of security risks.
When designing your website, hire veteran developers who are acquainted with coding best practices and can mitigate common security vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and more.
You should also test your website before taking it live once the development phase is complete. It will help you identify security issues early on and devise viable fixes.
2. Stay Up-to-Date
To improve your website security, it’s essential to leverage the updated versions of the solutions you use to keep it up and running.
You should also use security patches to address potential server operating system vulnerabilities that may lead to information security problems in the future.
When it comes to content management systems, WordPress is the popular choice for website owners worldwide. But did you know that outdated versions of the platform caused 39% of WordPress website hacks?
Furthermore, third-party apps may also cause security issues for your website. We use plugins and themes to enhance the website’s performance and improve the visual appeal. But did you know that the plugins cause around 90% of WordPress vulnerabilities?
Therefore, it’s best to monitor software updates and use security patches to protect your website from unwanted access.
3. Install an SSL Certificate
Installing an SSL certificate is one of the basic protocols to consider when ensuring your website’s security.
An SSL certificate protects your website from unauthorized access by encrypting your sensitive business data and customer information.
Installing an SSL certificate has various benefits besides information protection. It helps you ensure regulatory compliance, cultivate authenticity, and foster trust in your respective industry.
Top security concerns regarding SSL certification (source: SERP Watch).
It also helps fuel your search engine presence and makes your website compatible with all leading browsers. Thus, you can easily protect sensitive information and attract more visitors.
4. Use a Strong Password
A common mistake online businesses make when getting started is setting a weak password to access their website.
Setting a password that’s easy to remember is good. However, you should ensure that it is not easy to crack or figure out by unauthorized personnel who may want to access your data.
A strong password may comprise a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. If remembering it seems like a problem, leveraging password manager solutions may be a viable approach.
52% of the users reuse the same passwords for multiple accounts (source: Comparitech).
Reusing the same password for different platforms or accounts is still a common practice that can make you vulnerable to unauthorized information access. Breaking this habit may also help improve your information security.
Your website’s password should not be traceable, which means it shouldn’t relate to the things that represent you, like your birthday, your pet’s name, your phone number, and so on.
5. Implement Robust Access Control Measures
Since we’re talking about unauthorized access to the information, it’s a no-brainer to have robust access control measures in place to enhance your website’s security and protect your sensitive data.
To keep your website up and running, you may have to give different users access. Not everyone may be security-conscious, so it’s best that you leverage multi-factor authentication.
It helps mitigate security risks, as users undergo a series of security checks to access the required information through their respective accounts.
Another excellent way to protect confidential information is to implement role-based access control. Here, you assign privileges to access information according to the roles and responsibilities of respective users. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access the information they need.
To keep your information safe, you can also limit the number of login attempts. Here, you revoke a user’s access privileges after a certain number of failed login attempts. It may serve as an effective countermeasure against brute-force attacks and keep your information safe.
You can also mitigate the risk of unauthorized information access by timing out idle sessions or implementing automatic logout protocols. These measures may prevent session hijacking and improve your website’s security.
Furthermore, you should allow only trusted users to access the server. This will ensure secure file uploads and prevent the execution of malicious scripts that may compromise information security.
6. Use a Reliable Hosting Service
Poor hosting service may also risk your website’s security and make your data susceptible to unauthorized access. So, always choose reputable hosting to keep your information secure.
When it comes to hosting services, GoDaddy is the market leader, with around 9.29% market share . However, you can choose any hosting provider of your choice. We have reviewed a variety of hosting providers and come up with a list of the top web hosting solutions you may want to consider.
A reliable hosting service ensures server protection at all costs and has robust measures in place to deal with hacking incidents.
Moreover, reputable hosting services always monitor the logs to track possible malicious activities that may cause problems.
A reliable hosting service provider would even collaborate with you to investigate suspicious activities in the past, which may help you identify loopholes and devise suitable fixes.
7. Integrate Secure Plugins
Plugins help maximize your efficiency and enhance the functionality of your website. They serve diverse purposes and help you achieve your set goals through your site. However, they may also make you vulnerable to security risks.
It often happens to businesses that have just gotten started and have to make do with a limited budget.
People often prefer using free plugins to save a few bucks without thoroughly investigating their options. What they are unaware of is that such plugins often accompany vulnerabilities that hackers may easily exploit to access the information.
Therefore, it’s best to use reliable plugins, as they perform better and protect you from security breaches.
Even if you choose to go with free alternatives, we recommend that you conduct thorough research before you consider integrating such plugins into your website. That’s the best protective measure for small businesses against security attacks targeting plugin vulnerabilities.
8. Conduct a Security Test
Putting your website’s security to the test before launching it may be a viable option to protect it from unauthorized access.
For this, you can hire a dedicated team, outsource the project to capable freelancers, or contact professional vendors to conduct the tests for you.
This is an excellent way of identifying vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit and checking your website’s resilience to cyberattacks.
Once the tests are done, the professionals may suggest security improvements that you should consider to protect your information and address the vulnerabilities in your web environment.
It also helps prevent such vulnerabilities from occurring in the future, ensuring that your information is protected at all costs.
These tests generally encompass a manual and systematic assessment of your website’s security and evaluate your preparedness to prevent or cope with hacking incidents.
9. Create a Backup
As the name indicates, this is more of a backup plan than a preventive measure to protect your information.
It’s an excellent strategy to deal with situations where someone has hacked your website and is asking for a ransom to provide its access back to you.
A common threat often received in these situations is that if you are unable to meet the demands of cyber goons, they will delete all your website’s data, leaving you with a blank canvas.
Having a backup is a smart move in such situations, as you already have a replica of your site. So, you can just deny the request from whoever has hacked your website, and even if they delete all your data, you don’t have to worry.
You can leverage the website’s backup you just created and effortlessly recover all your valuable data. That’s all it would take to get your website back to normal functioning.
Final Words
This article showcases our recommendations on how you can protect your website from unauthorized access and ensure information security.
If you have been concerned about your website’s security and want to prevent hackers from exploiting potential vulnerabilities, the recommendations in this article may be helpful.
By devising robust countermeasures, you can protect confidential business data and customer information, ensuring lasting relationships with them.
