As the owner of an e-commerce website, you understand the significance of safeguarding sensitive information. You sell products online, and your customers entrust you with their personal details, including addresses and payment information. The importance of website security and website hosting cannot be overstated in this digital age.
In today’s landscape, where cybercriminals have become more intelligent and sophisticated in their attempts to commit online fraud and theft, the need to secure your website is paramount. Hackers continuously try to breach websites to steal valuable data. Protecting your website is not just about safeguarding your business; it’s about ensuring that your customers’ data does not fall into the wrong hands.
Is website security important?
Let’s say that you have a website that is used as a learning method or a hobby. So it might not have any information stored on it, but your personal data and information are still available on the website. Any hacker or cybercriminal can use this information to cause harm to you. They can also steal the hosting service allocated for your website and use it to host their own website, essentially saving their money and exploiting yours.
Now, if your website has visitors and their data is saved on the website, you also have the moral responsibility to protect them from cyberattacks. Not many people will actually think about this, but by signing up to any website, they entrust their data to the website. With that being said, you are responsible for the safety of their data and protection against innumerable threats.
Also, if the website gets compromised, the hackers might remove the data and use it to host a phishing or scam website.
We will discuss the harm that can be caused by a cyberattack on your website.
Financial losses
First things first, you will have to bear a financial loss because the money invested in the domain, web hosting, and other website-related features is not being used by you anymore. And if you had planned to earn money from your website, it definitely cannot be done once the website security is compromised.
Also, it can have long-lasting effects on your users; if they land on your website, they are unlikely to come back if they understand the website’s security is compromised.
Reputational harm
Website users will not be willing to share their information and do business with a website that is not concerned about the protection of user data. This will harm your reputation irreparably.
Search engine rankings drop.
Google doesn’t want its visitors to be directed to a fake or malicious website. If Google detects anything suspicious, it will display a warning for the visitor that something might be harmful up ahead. It is called Google Safe Browsing. So, upon seeing this warning, many users would quit the session, resulting in a loss of revenue.
We know that you are serious about your website and earning revenue from it, so we have listed down the steps that you can take to secure your website from malicious attacks and prevent data from being misused.
Steps to Secure Your Website
The list of steps to increase website security is never complete. The threats are constantly evolving and getting more technologically advanced. You need to make sure to follow these steps, or the website’s data will be at risk.
Isolate your website on its own server.
Try to opt for a VPS or a cloud server. We understand that the website is new, and you will try to save money wherever you can, but try to manage a VPS or a cloud server.
Performance will be more than enough, and all the resources might not be completely utilised. But the most important part is that, from a security point of view, you will have a website that is highly secure.
Shared hosting allows all the websites on the same physical server to share resources, databases, and the same IP address.
Use strong passwords.
When you have invested a lot in getting the hosting server of your choice, protect it with the toughest passwords to crack. Never use simple combinations such as “12345” or ‘your name’. Try to generate a password that is a mix of two or more names and a mix of important dates or numbers. Also, use special characters wherever possible.
Secure your site’s configuration files and backend.
The website’s backend is the hacker’s primary target. There are many things you can do to make backend access more secure.
- Change the default login URL.
Changing the default URL will not prevent attacks from happening, but it surely will make illegal access to your server tougher for the hacker. Try and come up with some difficult-to-crack backend URLs.
- Enable two-factor authentication.
Two-factor authentication, or 2FA, is one of the most widely used security protocols. In addition to the username and password, it requires you to submit an OTP shared with you on the registered mobile number and email address.
It eliminates the chances of your password getting stolen and your account getting hacked. When you have 2FA enabled on the site’s backend, it will send you a code every time you try to login. This will even notify you that someone other than you is trying to login to your server.
Restrict access to the backend.
If your website is accessed by multiple people who work from different locations and devices, it is best if you restrict access to the backend to your IP address only. If anyone from a different IP address tries to login, they will not be permitted to gain access. Although if you have to travel a lot, this would not work for you as you would not be able to gain access to the backend.
Protect your site’s main configuration file.
Most of the websites have a main configuration file that contains the most important settings and information, such as a database login.
You have to make sure that this information is not visible to the outside viewer, and they cannot misuse the information. You can also restrict access to the file. If you don’t want to go with this approach and restrict access, you can also try to edit the permissions.
Employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF).
A web application firewall is security software that is installed on the server and acts as a barrier between the website and the internet. It protects against cyberattacks, including SQL injections that target the database, XSS scripting, and many more.
It is not a one-stop solution, but any good firewall will provide protection against most cyberattacks.
Keep everything updated.
Software is made to require regular updates with bug fixes and patches because of how it is built. This will make sure that the website is as safe as it can be. It’s likely that most of the software on the computer is designed to handle hacks and is regularly updated with security fixes.
If you don’t keep these apps up-to-date, hackers will have a big way to get into your website and steal important data and information. HostDistrict knows that the lock on your safe is just as important for protecting your website. It’s important to lock the safe all the way, even if there’s no money inside. Why? Because you have money in the safe too. In the same way, hackers should not be able to get into your website, even if it is brand new and doesn’t have much content yet. This is because you have spent time and money on it and its website hosting.
Leave feedback about this