We’ll provide you the information you need to keep your website secure in this website security guide. We’ll go through typical risks, how to defend your website from them, and which web hosting is the safest.
Website security is a problem that is rarely discussed, yet it is critical. Software, spam, and distributed denial of service attacks, which are intended to steal private user data or distribute nasty malware, are increasingly targeting tiny websites.
Let’s start with an explanation of how data flows from a user to a web server, and how this data transmission makes your website vulnerable to assaults.
Website Security Value
Before diving into how your website is vulnerable and what you can do to defend it, you should have a basic understanding of how data travels across the internet.
Web hosting refers to the storage of your website’s files on a server designed for rapid data transport. You could host your website, but it wouldn’t be feasible for speed or security without the complex networking and top-tier server technology that the finest web-hosting providers utilize.
When someone visits your website, they establish a connection with the server and begin temporarily downloading files so that the content may be displayed in their browser. Data is transferred to and from your server in packets, which are short data bundles that contain the necessary information for the transfer.
This exposes security flaws. An interception could reveal who is connecting and to which server they are connecting, and a spoofed packet could infect the machine or the server with malware.
Those two eventualities are improbable, especially with an encrypted connection, but the process demonstrates the need for website security. Web-based attacks endanger not just your website, but also your files and the information of your visitors.
At every stage of the process, there must be safeguards in place. Some information comes from your web host, some from the user, and some from you. We’ll start by looking at the threats that your website faces, and then we’ll discuss how to combat them.
Hazards To Website
Spam
Spam is irritating, and that is, for the most part, the worst aspect of it. Some spam bots, on the other hand, are more harmful and can overburden your server or land you on Google’s blacklist. The latter will be discussed later in this section.
Bots utilize comment spam to establish hyperlinks to other websites on your domain in the majority of cases. Backlinks are beneficial in Google’s perspective, therefore it’s employed to boost search rankings. This type of comment spam has been integrated into Google’s algorithm, and the URLs that participate in it have been buried. However, the issue persists.
Spam has two ramifications. The first is the issue of speed. If people must register to remark, your website’s user database can quickly get clogged. WordPress, in particular, is plagued with comment spam, but there are plugins available to help you combat the problem.
Spambots may upload harmful links, which is a much more significant issue. Other users may follow those links and download malware onto their computers. Furthermore, Google’s crawl bots might detect harmful URLs and flag your site as hazardous.
Spam should be avoided like the plague to keep your website functioning as quickly as possible and to preserve your users and organic search traffic.
DDoS attack
In recent years, DDoS assaults have gotten a lot more attention, thanks to Operation Payback, which attacked major credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard in protest of the US government’s attempt to restrict Wikileaks.
DDoS attacks are designed to prevent other users from accessing a specific website. Attackers flood a web server with traffic to take it offline, and they frequently keep the pressure up so that the host has a difficult time resuming service.
Spoof IP addresses or botnets, which are massive networks of slave computers that the attacker has remote access to, are commonly used in attacks. Protective measures have increased in tandem with the panic around DDoS attacks.
Though DDoS attacks normally target a single website, ensuring that the majority are unaffected, they can be part of a larger scheme in which the attacker follows up with malware.
Malware
The most serious threat to websites is malware. Malware is short for malicious software, and it is commonly referred to as a “virus” by many individuals. It is a major threat to you and your visitors, regardless of the name you choose.
For a variety of reasons, websites, much more than your personal computer, are prime targets for spyware. They can be used to get access to sensitive user data, consume web server resources, or display a message for the hacker, especially if your website receives a lot of traffic.
Malware is also employed for financial advantage in some circumstances. A hacker could obtain access to a user’s deep permissions and exploit them to put ads or affiliate links. In the worst-case scenario, a hacker exploits a website as a virus distribution platform by embedding links throughout it that, when clicked, download a dangerous package onto the visitor’s PC.
The greatest defense is to employ a malware monitoring service, which we’ll discuss in more detail later. Monitoring your website’s load times, files, and traffic can also assist you to determine if your files include malware.
Ways For Keeping Your Website Safe
Usage of firewall
In a word, the internet is untrustworthy. The server on which your website is hosted in secure, or at least we hope it is. However, it’s utilized to connect your online files to the rest of the untrustworthy internet. Going into it unprotected, especially when it comes to web hosting, allows dangerous infections to get a little too near for comfort. This is where a firewall can help.
Assume there’s a fire and you’re surrounded by a brick wall to keep it out. A firewall effectively achieves the same thing. Web hosting utilizes two types of security to protect your website.
Between your server and the rest of the internet are hardware firewalls. They tag packets when they enter the server to determine the source of the data. As this process continues, the firewall will be able to determine which transfers should be allowed and which should be blocked.
Software firewalls are recognizable to most individuals, especially those who use Windows. Incoming IP addresses, download rates, and transfer periods are all monitored by software firewalls. To prevent harm, traffic that does not fit within the lines drawn by the software is stopped.
You’ve probably seen a software firewall in action if you’ve installed software on Windows that connects to the internet.
When both hardware and software firewalls are utilized together, the best security is achieved. Because there shouldn’t be a significant security difference between the two, employing both ensures that traffic traveling to and from your website is secure.
Allow DDoS protection
DDoS attacks are aided by firewalls, which detect IP spoofing long before a simulated attack can be carried out. However, in the case of a botnet, each IP address is unique. A firewall can’t keep up since the traffic to and from your website appears to be legal, but it’s happening at a faster rate.
That is why DDoS protection, or more precisely, DDoS mitigation, exists. By overloading a web server with traffic, DDoS assaults attempt to bring it down. With a content delivery network like Cloudflare, the traffic can be divided up and distributed across a network of servers, absorbing the impact.
The CDN can safeguard your website from downtime by automatically routing traffic without blocking valid users. This is helpful because software-based DDoS prevention may prevent a sudden rise in traffic, even if it is justified, such as after releasing a new product or being highlighted in a prominent media outlet.
Install Antivirus and Clean Your Website
You can’t just install AVG and start working on your website, but there are dedicated website monitoring and cleaning solutions. Having one can mean the difference between a harmed and a healthy website.
Typically, they will cost you money, and the amount will be substantial if your website has already been hacked. However, some hosts, such as HostGator and iPage, include SiteLock protection as part of their hosting packages.
There are several additional choices if your host does not incorporate protection. SiteLock is a good option, but Sucuri or Cobweb Security are also viable options. Both offer free website scans as well.
Buying a program like that can be costly, but it has a lot of benefits. Constant malware detection and removal, complete hack recovery, blacklist monitoring, virtual patching, DDoS mitigation, CDN performance, and more are all included. Getting a protection plan should be all you need to keep your website safe if it’s within your budget.
Keep domain privacy
Your name, address, phone number, and other personal information are linked to and published publicly when you register a domain with WHOIS. You may be able to register with less information in some cases, however, this is dependent on the nation from which you are registering.
Unfortunately, private domain registration is a commercial service that is necessary for securing yourself and your website. No one will be able to search you up in the web database since the domain registrar will substitute your information with theirs.
If you choose to register a domain privately with GoDaddy (see our GoDaddy review), GoDaddy’s name, mailing address, phone number, and email will appear instead of yours.
SSL or TLS certificate
One of the most practical ways to protect your website and its users is to install an SSL certificate on your domain. Snoopers love unencrypted data transfer because it allows them to steal, intercept, or compromise your information.
When sharing personal information, this is extremely critical. An SSL certificate is required if you run an online store, for example. Your buyers’ credit card information, addresses, names, and other personal information are transmitted thousands of miles without protection if you don’t have one. Furthermore, selling things online without an SSL certificate is a definite method to be blacklisted by Google
