A lot of times, I heard my clients ask for SSL certificate and with that, they are just contented with security for their website. Keeping a website secured is far beyond the SSL certificates. Website security is a subset of web maintenance, the checks and the looks to ensure everything is fine and functional. When you keep a business website without proper maintenance scheme you keep it vulnerable to hackers. You may not think your site has anything worth being hacked for, but websites are compromised all the time at the slightest chance of ignorance.
Major Security Tips for All Websites
Keep software up to date
Every tool used in website development should be maintained. Ensuring you keep all software up to date is vital in keeping your site secure. This applies to both the server operating system and any software you may be running on your websites such as a CMS or forum.
If you are using a managed hosting solution then you don’t need to worry so much about applying security updates for the operating system as the hosting company should take care of this.
If you are using third-party software on your website such as a CMS, you should ensure to apply any security patches. Update to theme and plugins and many others will save a lot. Ensure you keep your dependencies up to date,
Watch out for SQL injection
Using the best code practices is very necessary for web applications as well as software development. Hackers usually penetrate the database using SQL injection attacks, which are attacks that uses a web form field or URL parameter to gain access to or manipulate your database. When you use standard Transact SQL it is easy to unknowingly insert rogue code into your query that could be used to change tables, get information, edit or delete data. You can easily prevent this by always using parameterized queries, most web languages have this feature and it is easy to implement.
Beware of error messages
Error messages can be seen as the cat that informs the rat how stuff is kept in the house. Ignoring or displaying sensitive information can be a risky practice in programming. Be careful with how much information you give away in your error messages. Provide only minimal errors to your users, to ensure they don’t leak secrets present on your server (e.g. API keys or database passwords). Keep detailed errors in your server logs, and show users only the information they need. It is advisable to always output a user-defined error message
Enforce a Strong Password Policy
Password policy isn’t just about the user but also how you choose to store passwords in the database. Enforcing salt algorithms, encryption, and hashing. On the users’ end, everyone knows they should use complex passwords, but that doesn’t mean they always do. In other to maintain a strong password policy, enforcing password requirements such as minimum characters, including an uppercase letter and numbers will help to protect their information. It is crucial to use strong passwords to your server and website admin area, but equally also important to insist on good password practices for your users to protect the security of their accounts.
Avoid file uploads
Allowing users upload gives a hacker the privilege to upload malicious files.
Allowing users to upload files to your website can be a big website security risk.
If you must allow uploads then you must be strict with file extensions and size as well.
lastly, ensure you have a firewall set up and are blocking all non-essential ports.
Use HTTPS (SSL CERT.)
HTTPS is a protocol used to provide security over the Internet. HTTPS guarantees that users are talking to the server they expect and that nobody else can intercept or change the content they’re seeing in transit. Using HTTPS can secure delivery over the internet. This means credit card and login pages (and the URLs they submit to) but typically far more of your site too. A login form will often set a cookie for example, which is sent with every other request to your site that a logged-in user makes, and is used to authenticate those requests. An attacker stealing this would be able to perfectly imitate a user and take over their login session. To defeat these kinds of attacks, you almost always want to use HTTPS for your entire site.
Now What NEXT?
Ensure your website maintenance practices is top-notch. You can employ the service of a webmaster to keep your website up to date and ensure all security policies are maintained
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