Website Security

Websites can be compromised anytime. After launching your website, you would take all the necessary steps to ensure its success, but might likely forget about one crucial thing: website security. Cyber-attacks are on the rise now, so you should be more vigilant online because it can damage your reputation and will also discourage visitors from coming back. All this can be prevented if you took effective measures to secure your website. Today, we will discuss some basics of website security to make sure that your site does not fall prey to a cyber-attack.

What is website security and why do we need it?

Website security is a measure or application taken to ensure that your website data is not exposed to cybercriminals and to prevent the exploitation of the website in every way possible. The websites of businesses and enterprises are always highly vulnerable; therefore, securing your site is necessary.  

One of the primary reasons why you need website security is that hosting providers claim only to protect the server of your website, but not your site. It is up to you to secure your website from any possible attacks. Also, cyber-attacks more often than not can cost small businesses hefty financial losses. On the other hand, securing your website before these unfortunate events occur can save you from the aforementioned loss. Protecting your website’s reputation and retaining your valuable customers should be your first priority. It has been studied that 65 percent of customers who had their information stolen by a site, did not bother to return to the same place. This can damage the reputation of your site drastically along with losing a substantial number of customers. Cyber-attacks and malware are difficult to spot as well. Cyber criminals are sneaky enough to enter your site and stay hidden; your website might be affected and you may not even realize it. There are malware attacks like Backdoor Attack, which allows the access to a site without the owner’s knowledge. Similarly, there are attacks like Cryptojacking, where websites are mined for cryptocurrency discreetly.

Therefore, it is paramount for website owners to provide utmost security to their websites so as to protect them from the above-mentioned things. Following are a few ways through which you can secure your website before falling victim to cyber-crime.

Choosing your web host carefully

Web hosting is basically a service which will allow an organization or an individual to post a website or webpage onto the internet. Simply put, websites are stored on special computers called servers. To view a specific website, one only need to type the web address into their browser, which then connects to the server and the desired webpages will be shown to them through the browser. Most hosting companies will want you to own your domain before they host your site. In case you do not have a domain, some they will help you purchase one. Some of the features to be expected from a hosting company are domain email accounts, FTP access and Wordpress Support.

Hosting comes in various types and forms. Firstly, most hosts offer a range of service packages which vary in terms of price and what you get for it. It is crucial to decide what type of web host you are going to use for your website. The most common types of hosting are: shared, VPS, dedicated and cloud hosting.

Shared hosting is the best type of hosting for beginners. As the name has it, shared hosting locates your website on the same server as a collection of other websites. The number of websites present in shared hosting completely depends on the setup and the host. The greatest advantage of using this server is that you can share the cost of the server with many other website owners. This splitting-up of operational cost makes shared hosting an affordable and pocket-friendly choice.  One of the most common problems faced while using shared hosting is one of the websites can hog a lot of processing power through a rise in traffic or a fault in the code, thereby rendering everyone else to compete for what remains and eventually ending in downtime – where the website is unreachable – or lowered loading speed.

Virtual private Server(VPS) hosting, also commonly referred to as next-level shared hosting, uses a shared environment, but has a very dissimilar setup. VPS enables all its websites to share one physical server which incorporates a multiple, separate virtual machines. The pro of the VPS is that it is more reliable than shared hosting. The downside is that VPS is comparatively more expensive and it needs more technical expertise so that you do not remove crucial files or software without being aware of it.

Dedicated hosting, as the name has it, means that you have a server all to yourself. This will come with its own set of pros and cons.  The biggest advantage is that it lets you customize it extensively. You are free to choose your own OS, hardware elements and the type of memory you want to use. The con is that it comes with a high cost. Also, it would give the feeling of putting all your eggs in one basket. If something happens to the hardware, then it will directly affect your site, putting it out.

Cloud Hosting, which is fondly termed as the future of web hosting, is basically the same as VPS, but instead of a physical server, your site is part of a large network of computers from which it can dynamically pull all the required power. This type of setup is becoming more common these days. The biggest advantage of cloud hosting is the scalability it offers. For instance, a traditional VPS can be limited by the capacity of the hardware it is working on. If the server has the capacity of 32 GB of RAM, then your site will have trouble accessing 64GB if needed. However, in the case of cloud-based system, instead of differentiating one computer into different virtual machines, it combines multiple computers into a powerful virtual server which then provides its resources on a required basis. Additionally, you only have to pay for the resources you actually want to use. This type of setup is also great to prevent security threats like DDoS attacks. (We have provided more information about the DDoS attacks further in this article.)  The con in cloud hosting is that the costs are sometimes unpredictable. During traffic spikes, there will be a considerable rise in your web hosting cost too. Some popular cloud hosting platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) are making waves in the cloud hosting industry.

Another type of hosting model called Hybrid Cloud Hosting, which allows organizations to provision dedicated servers and shared cloud servers and storage on the same network. It consists of a minimum of one private cloud and one public cloud.

Notably, most web hosting service providers offer two kinds of hosting to its clients: Linux Hosting and Windows Hosting. Generally, Linux type of hosting is compatible with PHP and MySQL, which gives support to Wordpress, Zen Cart and phpBB. On the other hand, Windows hosting uses Windows as the server’s operating system by offering Windows-specific technologies like ASP, .NET, Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL server (MSSQL). The type of hosting service you choose depends largely on what kind of technology your website generally needs.

On the whole, it is advisable to use VPS as a medium to host your website. Shared hosting should not be preferred if you want your website to remain secure and perform exceptionally well. If it fits your budget, then you should opt for cloud hosting especially AWS.

Use Multifactor Authentication

Multifactor Authentication is a method of authentication where a computer user is given access only after two or more pieces of evidence – something which only the user knows – are presented successfully. Identity theft is on the rise these days, so staying cautious online is a must.  Personal Identification Number (PIN), passwords, or personal challenges, physical tokens like smartcard or software certificate and fingerprint or iris scan can be considered as methods for multi-factor authentication. Apart from requiring your username and password for logging in, providing one of the security token mentioned above will add an additional layer of security to your website.

Creating strong passwords is also a part of making your authentication stronger. It is one of the most important and obvious part of website security. Creating a strong password and ensuring that your website is not easily accessible is a necessary step. Using a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols is paramount while creating your admin password. Make sure your password is at least 12 characters long. It will be smart to avoid using the same password twice and not writing down your password in digital form and storing it somewhere in your computer. Instead, use the old-school method of writing down your password on a piece of paper and carrying it in your wallet. This is much more secure method than saving your password digitally.

Another important tool for securing your website while logging in is the use of reCAPTCHA. It is a free service from Google which offers to protect websites from spam and abuse. The “CAPTCHA” is basically a Turing test which will distinguish between humans and robots. By adding it to your site, you can block bots and automated software making it easy for your users to enter your website. Different types of the Google reCAPTCHA are used which help in the authentication of the user.

DDoS Protection

The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is one of the malicious activities where a hacker tries to disturb the normal traffic of any server, service or network by bombarding the target or its surroundings with a lot of internet traffic, more than what the server can handle, so as to ultimately render the site as unavailable. The main goal of the target is to exhaust the resources of its target. The 7^th layer of the OSI model, which generates the web pages on the server side and delivered on account of HTTP requests are usually targeted by the attackers. Even when a DDoS attack fails to crash a website entirely, it can substantially slow down your site and make it almost unusable.

You can protect your website from a DDoS attack by taking steps to prevent one. Studies reveal that nearly 66% of the DDoS targeted sites are attacked more than once. By depending on a Web Application Firewall, you can secure your website from a DDoS attack and make sure your customers enjoy access to your website.

Protection from SQL Injection

SQL injection attacks are those when an attacker uses a web form or URL parameter to gain access to your database and manipulate it.  Using standard Transact SQL can unknowingly insert bad code into your query, which further on can be used to change tables or get information and even delete your data. Parameterized queries can help prevent these unfortunate attacks. It is also better to continuously monitor SQL statements from database-connected applications. Ensure you also invest into a patch management solution to avoid the vulnerabilities and exploitation in SQL statements.

Use SSL Certificates

Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) is known as a digital certificate, is used to create a secure link between the a website and the browser of the visitor. By making sure that data that is transferred between the two is safe and secure, the SSL prevents hackers from stealing private information of the user. An SSL certificate is a symbol of how trust -worthy your company actually is. If you are a business owner, then it is a hallmark for your customers to realize that it is safe to do an online business with you.

The best part about SSL certificates is that it encrypts sensitive information, provides authentication and provides trust. It is also used for Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, as in order to accept credit card information your website, you must properly use an SSL certificate. The disadvantage of SSL is the high cost of it. The performance of the SSL is another disadvantage too. The server needs to encrypt your information, so it will take up more server resources than unencrypted information.

Conclusion

With the increase in cyber-crime, it is absolutely necessary for website owners to adapt security measures so as to not fall prey to online risks. You can risk damaging your reputation and also lose your money. Apart from the above-mentioned web security measures, one should also make sure that their Content Management System (CMS) has installed updates to plugins and core software in a timely manner. Other measures you can take is protecting your site against XSS attacks, using HTTPS and web security tools like Netsparker, OpenVAS, SecurityHeaders.io and Xenotix XSS Exploit Framework.