Cybercrime and hacking have become all too common in today’s online world, and even the statistics are frightening. In such a world, there is an ever-increasing need to protect ourselves, our private information and our data.
Website owners know this better than anyone. Today they have to be even more vigilant than ever before as they are responsible for other people’s data.
For this reason, running a successful website today requires much more than just creating one. You need sufficient security measures to stay one step ahead of malicious users and protect your website from increasing data breaches and hacks.
But how can you protect your website?
10 Ways You Can Protect Your Website From Hackers Immediately
As cybercrime increases, it is important to protect your digital valuables. Ways to achieve high-end protection include security plugins, regular updates, HTTPS, securing passwords and file permissions, backups, scans, firewalls, avoiding vulnerable plugins, and enabling 2FA. Applying these will ensure a secure website.
1. Use essential security plugins
Security plugins are essential to secure a website and protect it from hackers. Use them to your advantage and ensure that all communication between the website and its users is encrypted and secure.
These plugins can help prevent the information exchanged from falling into the wrong hands and protect you, your website and users from hackers.
Secure your website with the Sucuri plugin
2. Update everything regularly
When software developers notice vulnerabilities, they start working on updates to fix these gaps. Sometimes this can take weeks or months, but in most cases a security update is available to all users within hours or days.
Regardless of how long it takes for these updates to reach you, you need to update your software regularly to avoid potential threats to your website and data. Additionally, this doesn’t just apply to your server’s operating system. You should also regularly update the software you run on the server.
3. Add HTTPS to your site
With the older HTTP protocol soon to be retired, all website owners should start using the newer, much more secure HTTPS. Compared to the older HTTP protocol, the “S” in HTTPS stands for “Secure”.
The newer HTTPS uses encryption methods and adds an additional layer of security by adding SSL certificates. This ensures that the user goes directly to the website they want to visit and that no one else can do it.
Choose the right SSL certificate for your website with GoDaddy
4. Secure passwords and handle information responsibly
Since most people are lazy when it comes to passwords and often use the same passwords for almost every online account, it is incredibly easy for a hacker to gain access. If you’re using a “password123” or something similar, you’re doing it wrong.
Instead, use strong and long passwords with a mix of numbers, letters and symbols. You can also use a trustworthy password manager. This ensures that your passwords cannot be cracked through a simple brute force attack.
Secure your passwords with 1Password – the best password manager
5. Secure file permissions
Certain website files should only be accessed by specific users. A thorough audit of these files can provide you with additional protection against hackers.
Make sure you only give your website visitors the necessary permissions, as unnecessary permissions can be a major security hole for hackers to exploit.
6. Perform automatic backups
Suppose a hacker gains access to your website. In this case, they are likely to steal personal information to later rob users. Additionally, as much evidence as possible is deleted, often entire websites.
In addition, deleting the website can also be a way to prevent further damage.
That’s why a backup is essential. With it, you can quickly restore all data after the hack and rebuild your website. Consider setting up automatic and scheduled backups with Sucuri to prevent major data loss.
Secure your website with Sucuri
7. Scan your website regularly
Implementing data scanners can be of great value to website security. This involves scanning all data uploaded to the website as these files may contain malware that can infiltrate your website and wreak havoc.
Also, consider storing uploaded files in a separate location or drive as this can help prevent possible malware from affecting your system files.
8. Use a firewall
Firewalls are one of the most important aspects of protecting your website from hackers. They watch out for suspicious and bot-like requests and block anything that appears malicious. Adding a firewall can be a great way to increase security.
Although most firewalls allow users to change various settings and add exceptions, you should not do this. Get a firewall and let it do its job. Unless you are an expert in website security, you don’t need to change anything.
Protect your website from hacks and attacks with Sucuri
9. Avoid plugins with security vulnerabilities
Nowadays, the operation of websites is mostly automated and website owners mainly use plugins to help in such processes. However, plugins can pose a major security vulnerability as they can allow malicious users to access the website through them.
You should only use plugins from creators you trust to ensure proper website security. There’s a reason many of these aren’t free, because it takes a lot of time, effort, and work to make sure they work properly and are adequately secured.
10. Add two-factor authentication
The security of the website depends largely on who can access valuable information. Therefore add it Two-factor authentication (2FA) provides an additional layer of protection to ensure that only intended users can access certain parts of the website.
There are different versions of 2FA, including free ones, but using a trusted, credible and paid version can help increase the security of your website in the long run. It’s an excellent idea to implement this on any website with logins.
Improve your online security with LastPass two-factor authentication
Diploma
Being a website owner means more than just creating a website. You need to secure it to protect it from hackers and malicious users because you are responsible for your users’ data. That’s why we’ve examined the ten best ways to improve your website’s security and prevent malicious attacks.
Following these tips won’t protect you forever, as hackers are becoming more persistent than ever and are constantly finding new ways to break through our walls. Nevertheless, it will undoubtedly increase the security of your website and protect your data significantly.
