Perhaps you have experienced a malicious assault on your site in the previous 12 months, want to know about website security? In 2019, there were an estimated 1.473 billion data breaches that resulted in over 164 million sensitive records exposed. Many of these were from well-known companies like Marriott, Capital One, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Larger companies are often targeted for obvious reasons — they have access to more customer information like email addresses and credit card numbers. Nevertheless, it is not just big companies that are targeted. Hackers are targeting smaller businesses because their safety is a lot easier to break. Many do not have the tools to secure their networks or else they fail to maintain their applications up-to-date.

Before we take a look at how to procure a website, let us consider why it has to be a priority when it is not already.

Is the staff fighting with maintaining your infrastructure protected?

Why Does Website Security Needs to Be a Priority?

An estimated 30,000 websites are hacked every single day. If your site is not protected, you might be distributing malware or giving hackers access to sensitive information regarding your customers.

Here is how a compromised site could affect your business:

It Affects Your Reputation

Consumers don’t take lightly having their sensitive data stolen.

70 percent of consumers indicate they would quit doing business with companies that have undergone a data breach. A breach suggests that a firm has not done enough to safeguard customer information.

Implementing a data breach may have a negative effect on how customers perceive your business. They might even opt to take their business elsewhere.

It Affects Your Search Rankings

Google actively takes steps to protect its users from malicious websites. If your website has been hacked or contains malware, Google displays the following warning and restricts visitors from entering:

Instead of risk getting their computer infected, many visitors will click on the back button, and that means that your search traffic will endure.

Google is always analyzing your webpage against dozens or perhaps hundreds of possible competitors. This is a crucial procedure in which they examine equally content strength and safety.

That is not all — Google has eliminated over 80 percent of hacked sites from the search results in a bid to fight spam. If your website gets hacked and you also do not fix it instantly, you risk getting your website fully removed from Google’s search index.

It Affects Your Revenue

An insecure site finally impacts your bottom line.

If your site does not exude confidence, visitors will be unwilling to purchase. They do not need to risk their own personal data being vulnerable. Here are the best security extensions for chrome that will increase website security for your browsing and even the admin panel too.

96 percent of individuals utilize search engines to get legal counsel. If your site is removed, you will not be seen in Google for your target keywords and you’re going to drop a significant traffic source.

Bottom line: Site safety issues over. And taking it badly may provide your company a competitive edge online.

Let us look at the way to safeguard your site and guard your customer information.

How to Secure a Website

Every company is a potential target, which means you need to take a proactive approach to secure a website. Here’s how to make sure of website security:

1. Install an SSL Certificate

Users are not as likely to socialize with websites that have lax safety measures.

An SSL certification is a kind of digital certification that produces an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. It provides authentication, which means the information that you send is being led to the ideal server rather than to some hacker.

An SSL certificate additionally safeguards your clients. It ensures that their private data is sent over a secure community.

Browsers like Safari and Chrome exhibit a lock icon for protected websites in the address bar. Take a Look at the illustration below about the BloomCU site — you can view from the lock at the address bar which the Website uses an SSL certificate to safeguard their information.

An SSL certificate costs about $50 annually and takes a couple of hours to approve. After everything is installed, your customers may safely access your website.

Along with overall safety, SSL has compounding advantages to your website rate and reputability.

As stated by Ardent Growth, among the crucial advantages of an SSL is that it utilizes HTTP/2, raising site rate while procuring data.

That means that clients will have a more protected interaction with your website whilst experiencing quicker website rates, which can be a win-win situation.

2. Keep Your Software Updated

More companies are using platforms such as Twitter to power their sites — they are simple to use and supply a lot of functionality. You are able to produce a full-fledged site within a day even in the event that you don’t have a lot of technical expertise.

However, the simple fact that WordPress has numerous installments also makes it a target for hackers. If your software isn’t up-to-date, then you are placing your company and clients in danger.

“Hackers target vulnerabilities found in older versions of software. Make sure to update to the latest software to patch all security holes.”

Be sure to also update your plugins as they’re the largest source of vulnerabilities in WordPress:

Having a lot of plugins can’t just slow down performance, but also opens your website to more potential strikes. Simply install those plugins which are absolutely crucial and eliminate those you are not using.

3. Enforce Strong Passwords

Strong passwords are important since they act as a primary line of defense. They make it more difficult for hackers to get unwanted access to a single account.

But despite the incidence of information breaches, a poll conducted by Avast discovered that 83 percent of consumers have weak passwords. They do not include all the following within their own passwords: numbers, uppercase, and lowercase letters, and unique characters.

Many consumers also don’t produce passwords that are at least 10 characters long and over half use the identical password for multiple accounts.

Suggest means for consumers to install a powerful password whenever they produce a brand new account. You may take it a step further by placing minimum password strength demands.

4. Schedule Website Security Audits

No matter how vigilant you’re, things can pass through the cracks you may forget to upgrade your applications or renew your SSL certificate.

Conducting routine security audits permits you to recognize and address vulnerabilities before hackers take advantage of those.

The application also checks for website errors and obsolete applications.

Just enter your URL and click on the “Scan Site” button. After a couple of minutes, you’ll see the following:

This particular site is using an outdated version of WordPress. Down the page, we can see that the site is free of malware and injected spam, but other issues were detected:

Address any problems that the instrument finds on your website immediately. Make it a habit to conduct safety audits on at least a weekly basis.

Do not overlook the remarks section of your website. Comment spam not just affects the general user experience, but may even include your clients. Unsuspecting visitors may click on links that lead to malicious websites.

Utilize SEO tools to audit spam onto your site and take action to eliminate them.

5. Choose Secure Web Hosting

Inexpensive web hosting may help you save money in the short term. However, it might wind up costing you in the long term if your supplier does not provide fundamental security attributes.

Select a web hosting provider that provides 24/7/365 network monitoring and firewall security to prevent any known threats. The provider you select should likewise have top-notch 24/7/365 customer service that is prepared to help should any problems arise, night or day.

6. Consider Cloud Migration

It is your choice to make sure that their information is secure.

One alternative is using cloud migration — shifting on-premise information to your cloud. Maintaining data from the cloud supplies a safe environment for client information.

Cloud suppliers build their storage options to satisfy rigorous industry standards and government regulations, which makes them safer than information centers. Quite a few cloud suppliers also have built-in safety tracking and data copies.

7. Hire Website Security Experts

Maintaining a proactive approach is very important for site security. That usually means installing an SSL certificate, upgrading your software, and scan your website for malware.

However, what if there are additional safety problems with your website? It is ideal to allow the experts to handle those problems.

There are a lot of businesses that provide website security options. They often scan your website and immediately address any vulnerabilities. Many also offer detailed audits, which means you understand how they are keeping your company secure.

You might even use platforms such as Toptal to operate with licensed freelancers who focus on security. Toptal includes a rigorous vetting procedure to make sure you’re working with qualified specialists.

Make Time to Focus on Website Security

The significance of site security can’t be stressed enough. A hacked website could damage your institution’s reputation and place your clients in danger.

Show your clients that you take safety dangers badly by implementing the steps outlined here. They are also able to help your organization gain a competitive edge over the ones which aren’t assigning safety.

Author Bio: 

Jeetu Gupta is a product engineer by profession and loves blogging while he gets free. He is editor of The Tech Trend. You can reach him or write to us.