A web page is not complete if you do not add the necessary security levels. According to Hootsuite, 82% of users immediately leave a page if they feel unprotected when visiting a website. Therefore, it is useless to have a nice and easy to use website if it is an easy target for hackers who can carry out possible cyber attacks.
The cybercriminals have a wide range of tools that they can use to attack you through your web page. The most severe dangers that you may encounter will be the access of sensitive data that is exchanged on your website, a virus or malware, or even send emails from your accounts using your identity.
Another important point to consider is that major search engines such as Google have increased the penalties for unsafe websites, therefore your website would have less exposure to searches due to lacking the appropriate security for your website. There are some fundamental measures to ensure your website is safe from possible cyber attacks. The following are some ways to protect yourself and help safeguard from a potential attack.
How to secure my website of possible cyber attacks?
- Add HTTPS security with an SSL certificate: The basic rule of how to know if a site is safe or not is to check if the beginning of the URL is “https”. Websites that have this have a padlock, and for this you need an SSL certificate. The typical connection where websites are hosted is HTTP, notice it is the same but there is no “s” at the end. This website would be open to leak any sensitive data of users such as users and passwords or banking information if it is an e-commerce.
Using HTTPS, an encrypted connection is established between the browser and the website therefore data cannot be intercepted. The SSL certificate is what will provide this encryption and you should only install it on your hosting, the way to do it will depend on the provider.
Another clear benefit is that by having these type of secure pages, search engines will give them a better promote them.
- Add a Security Seal to a website: Having a site seal is an extra layer of security because it acts as an antivirus for your page. These stamps can monitor your website under searches of malwares or viruses that may have been loaded by a hacker, and it notifies you so you can eliminate potential harm.
- Keep your website code updated: Just like you do with any application or software on your devices.
- Similarly, keep the platform and the scripts updated especially for the CMS (content management system) that you use.
- Change the prefix of the table in the database of your website: In the case of blogs like WordPress they have the default prefix “wp”, this can be changed and it will be harder for hackers to obtain information from your website.
- Place a password on the database of the site, thereby adding more protection to the information collected by your website.
- After having uploaded or updated the content of your website, be sure to delete the copy that remains in your device. Mainly since if you do not, any cybercriminal could access your computer and have access to your files, therefore save them in a secure place.
- It uses a CDN: A content delivery network consists of a network of several servers that are spread over different points between which the work and information is distributed. Its advantage is that if one server is attacked, the others serve as a backup.
- If your website is an e-commerce, you must ensure that your customers can trust it.
- Use robust passwords to access your website: Although it seems obvious, many people omit it, thereby making a hacker’s life much easier especially if they are seeking to access all site content, so you must protect it.
Although no measure is 100% infallible to avoid possible cyber attacks, the more layers of security you add to your website, the harder it becomes for hackers.