Building and launching a website takes hard work, especially a business platform. One of the biggest threats to every website is cyberattacks and hackers. Even a well-designed network of web pages is at risk without good protection.
Your hard work will flop if your website fails or succumbs to cyberattacks. Fortunately, you can take precautions to make your site inaccessible to attackers.
Below, we will give you several security tips to protect your online business in 2023. Continue reading for these tips and the tools you’ll need to protect yourself.
#1 Learn How to Make Sites Secure Against Antiviruses and Malware
Hoping that you avoid viruses and malware is not enough to keep it secure. In addition, you need to have protection against antiviruses and malware.
Users who use a shared hosting plan are the most at risk. If other users on the same server can upload malware, your pages can get tangled with the issue. Your site could even get brought down.
Fortunately, your web provider is responsible for providing antivirus and malware protection. However, if you use a dedicated or VPS server hosting, you’d have to install protections manually. An excellent antivirus protection service is Avira, for example.
#2 Get SSL Certificates to Move to HTTPS
An excellent way to make a website secure is to use secure socket layer (SSL) certificates. SSL encrypts data between computers and servers. Without it, third parties could easily use the sensitive and unencrypted data shared in your network.
Having an SSL certificate is mandatory if you want security and protection. Before 2018, only sites that stored credit card information used SSL certificates. However, in 2018, browsers began flagging and warning users of sites without SSL certificates.
Also, having an SSL certificate is how you turn your database from using HTTP to HTTPS. The question is, how and where do you get SSL certificates? The easiest way is to get them from your web host provider.
#3 Create Data Backups
You’ll never go wrong with creating site backups. These backups work like a typical computer data backup. You can use the backups to restore the web pages as a last resort whenever disaster strikes.
Most web hosting services offer manual site backups for free. You could also get automatic backups. However, it’ll depend on your hosting plan or the service provider.
Know when your web hosting plan or company doesn’t provide backup services. Often, they’ll store the backup within a cloud, which is easier for you to access. Other hosting providers store backups in a server separate from your network.
You can get around this by saving a backup of your website on your PC or hard drive. You could even do it as a precaution if the web host’s automatic backup fails to work. Plus, you can be sure that a local backup has an uncompromised version of your database.
#4 Protect Against Distributed Denial of Service
One of the top cyber threats is the Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS attack. This type of attack floods traffic into your network. It uses a botnet, a malware-infected network of computers.
The increased traffic keeps visitors out and can disrupt your work. It slows down or even overwhelms the server. The good news is that most web hosting services today have DDoS attack prevention and identification tools.
However, sometimes, a simple prevention tool isn’t enough to keep DDoS attacks out. The best way to ensure you’re safe from DDoS is to use web hosting services with improved DDoS defenses. You can read about them on any web hosting service’s DDoS plan breakdown page or by asking directly.
#5 Apply a Web Application Firewall
Consider getting a Web Application Firewall or WAF. It filters, monitors, and blocks malicious web traffic. Often, this type of traffic records data of the visitor or owner.
The WAF moves into action before the traffic can even access your server. It also keeps data from leaving the web application, acting as a checkpoint between the web servers and the “outside world.”
Various web hosting services already provide WAFs in their plans. Some plans offer improved hosting security and WAFs at a higher cost.
You may also use WAFs to improve the hosting security offered by the provider. These improved WAFs can give you reports and analytics. This data can help you identify and fix any vulnerabilities in your system to protect your data.
#6 Be Smart with Your Passwords
Finally, be wise with your passwords. Never share them with anyone you barely know or can’t trust. If you must share the password, limit the people who learn about it.
Also, always change your passwords. Using the same passwords for everything is a huge risk that can ultimately become a problem. Once the password is compromised, everything else follows.
If you have a hard time remembering passwords, use password services.
Conclusion
As the website owner, you must be proactive with your security measures. You do this by using antivirus and antimalware protection, SSL, DDoS protection, and firewalls. It also helps create site backups and prevent sharing your passwords with unreliable people.
With that, we hope you enjoyed learning how to protect your website. Never let complacency put your website and brand at risk. Apply these security tips to protect your data, website, and visitors.