How to protect your business website from hackers

Making your company website live is like leaving your house open for intruders. Although not every person has malicious intentions, you need to think ‘security’ as some people will visit your site just to steal your data. To make matters worse, electronic thieves are invisible and quick.

Theft is not the only thing that hackers think about; some just want to destroy your records and reputation. Some of this damage can never be undone, so you should take some basic steps to prevent it. You can do the following to keep hackers at bay:

Stay updated

Make sure that you stay up to date with the latest hacking threats. Having some basic knowledge of what hackers are capable of can help you to keep your website safe. Use the information you gain to put new precautions in place if necessary.

Update everything

Doing an update may cost money, which means that some companies only do it when necessary. If the update is addressing security vulnerabilities, you should not delay in updating. Hackers usually search thousands of websites daily for any vulnerability they can take advantage of.

Because hackers usually network with each other, if one of them knows how to access your site, it will not be long before they all do.

Tighten your network security

Your employees and other computer users might offer easy access to your web servers. To avoid this, you should ensure that:

• Passwords are changed regularly
• Logins expire after a short while of inactivity
• All devices on the network are scanned for malware every time they are plugged in
• Passwords are strong and should not be written down

Install a web app firewall (WAF)

A WAF can either be the hardware of software-based. It sits between your data connection and web server to read all the information. Many modern WAFs are either provided as plug-and-play services or cloud-based.

The cloud-based version is placed in front of your server as a gateway for the incoming traffic. When you install this firewall, it will block all hacking attempts and filter unwanted traffic, including malicious bots and spammers.

Install cyber security apps

Although these are not as effective as WAFs, you can install some free or paid cyber security apps to make hackers’ lives more difficult. In fact, some free plug-ins are capable of providing an extra layer of protection by hiding your site’s CMS identity. The tool makes you invulnerable to bots scouring the web looking for weaknesses.

Hide your admin pages

The last thing you want is for your admin pages to be indexed by a search engine. To avoid this, you need to use robots_txt files to stop them from being listed. Un-indexed pages are harder for hackers to find.

Limit your file uploads

The upload of files is a huge concern because no matter how carefully the system checks them, bugs might still get through, giving hackers unlimited access to your data. You can solve this problem by blocking direct access to your uploaded files.

Make sure you store them outside your root directory and access them when necessary using a script.

Remove auto-fill form

When you enable auto-fill on your site, you are leaving it vulnerable to attacks from computers or phones that have been stolen. You should be careful not to expose your site to attacks that exploit a user’s laziness. Filling out a form is not that difficult unless you make it so.