By 2025, cybercrime will cost companies and websites a loss of up to $10.5 trillion; Which means that these crimes are steadily increasing. Because you rely on the Internet to manage your website, it is at risk of being exposed to these attacks at any time.
To prevent losses and loss of data, in this guide we will learn about a set of tips for website owners to manage their websites safely remotely.
Why should you keep your website secure?
The answer may be obvious, and tell me: “I want to preserve my money or my position,” but there are other dimensions to this problem. If you leave the website without insurance, this exposes you, as the website owner, to financial loss and having your confidential data stolen, in addition to the psychological effects that may result from that.
There will also be an impact on your customers and site visitors by stealing their data, including credit card information, email, or password.
It may also lead to the use of email or website servers in fraudulent operations, or to be part of an illegal file-sharing network, or to be used for digital bug mining, or even to malicious electronic attacks such as ransomware.
Invest in protecting your site
That the site is secure is certainly important. This is similar to an investment. You spend money in exchange for obtaining security, protecting your data and that of your customers, and maintaining your site. There must be serious steps in this direction. Represented by installing anti-virus protection programs on the computer.
Using firewalls to filter traffic to the site, while using content distribution networks (CDNs) to combat denial-of-service attacks.
It is also necessary to install some security plugins on your site , such as Wordfence, Jetpack, and others. Although you can obtain copies of these protection programs for free or illegally. But it is recommended to purchase the original version to be able to obtain security updates. Cybercrime is constantly evolving.
Tips to protect the website from hacking
Many website owners neglect the steps and practices that ensure the protection of their website. The causes of website hacking and fraud are always the results of the website owner engaging in unsafe practices.
For example, when the website owner neglects to strengthen passwords, updates the operating system, and anti-virus programs and relies on using public Wi-Fi networks.
In the following list you will find tips to be able to manage your site safely when working remotely.
Update everything
Updates always come with fixes for security issues, as well as enhancing the security of the programs or systems you use. Therefore, you must ensure that all systems and programs are running the latest version.
This includes updating plugins if you use WordPress, updating the operating system itself, firewalls, and the tools you use.
As for hosting, if you use a managed one, in this case you do not have to worry about updates, as the hosting company will update the operating systems periodically. You must also make sure to use original software, stay away from pirated tools, and allow automatic updates.
You may be interested in:
How to get WordPress updates automatically
How to update a WordPress site safely without causing any problems with the site
Use a strong password
Although the digital world tends to facilitate transactions and the user experience and make them as simple as possible, it is recommended to use a strong, complex and memorable password, consisting of a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters in addition to numbers. Therefore, we do not recommend that the password for your accounts be the same or “12345”, as this is an invitation for hackers to hack your site. Instead, it could be “1g2345aS” or something like that.
Here we mean the password that you use for your accounts, email, hosting account, WordPress system, or others. In order not to forget the many passwords for your accounts, you can use some specialized tools for saving passwords (password manager).
Passwords should also not be saved on any file on the computer or shared on social media platforms or email correspondence.
Secure the site’s login page
It is possible to exploit the site’s login page to hack it by guessing the username and password. In this case, some important steps must be taken to stop this type of attack.
For example, it is possible to use a strong password, as I mentioned earlier, or activate two-factor authentication, or block specific IP addresses from accessing the login page.
It is also preferable to change the link to the login page . For example, on WordPress, it is possible to access the login page for any site yourdomain.com/wp-admin, and here you can try changing the link itself to a word that is not guessed.
Secure the Wi-Fi network
It is important to secure the Wi-Fi network that you access, as it is a gateway through which your private accounts can be hacked. In this case, you will have to choose a strong password that cannot be guessed or hacked, as there are always people trying to access it. Another risk that arises from a weak Wi-Fi network is that it can be exploited by hackers to carry out some fraudulent tasks or, at a lesser extent, reduce the speed of the Internet.
You should also change the password from time to time and avoid using public Wi-Fi networks as much as possible, whether in cafes, restaurants, universities, or elsewhere. If you have to, hide the device from the Wi-Fi network.
Use a secure browser
There are hundreds of browsers in the digital arena, but not all of them are safe or reliable. There are browsers that collect your data from passwords, email, and other accounts; To use it for illegal purposes, the result of which is that your accounts and websites are hacked.
Therefore, it is important to use secure browsers, and it is preferable to use open source browsers.
Make sure the sites you visit are secure
Before clicking on any link or entering a site link into the upper field, you must make sure that this site is safe and reliable and that it is the real site that you want to visit. Many hackers create sites similar to the real sites of the biggest brands.
For example, he may design a website similar to WordPress for you and then ask you to enter your email and password, after which he will certainly receive them and be able to access the site.
Also, if there is a suspicious email, do not open it. If you are already searching or browsing unknown sites, make sure that any link you go to is valid.
Use many emails
There is a saying: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” This also applies to securing your site and data. There should not be one email that you use for all your activities. This method will increase the possibility of losing all your accounts and projects on the Internet in the event of losing the primary account.
The best practice in this case is to create an email for personal use and another for the website and social media sites, according to the permissions and data contained in each email.
Use HTTPS
By using the HTTPS protocol , you will work to secure the site and encrypt user information, which often consists of sensitive data such as credit card and email data. It is also a sign that your site is safe, so users or visitors should not worry about using it. Recently, Google made the use of the HTTPS protocol or SSL certificates one of the factors it relies on in ranking sites on search engines.
Read also: Obtain an SSL certificate for free and link it to your website in the easiest way
Secure the website’s domain name
The domain is one of the main parts that make up the website, and if it is stolen, this means that you have lost your website. Therefore, there are many companies that sell domains that provide some protection features that increase the security of the domain and thus the websites. For example, when you purchase a domain name, you will be provided with a domain privacy service that enables you to hide your data (name, email, and phone number) from hackers and spammers by replacing it with third-party information.
In this part, there are also practices that it is advisable to implement if they are available with the domain company, such as two-factor verification processes, or keeping the domain for a specific period in the event that the credit card expires, with a warning about that.
Handle uploading files with caution
If your site allows uploading files (images, videos, etc.), there is a real danger facing your sites. Any file that is downloaded may contain malicious code that penetrates your site, after it is executed by the server. Many website owners may think that the file extension is sufficient to solve this problem, but I will tell you that it is easy to forge the extension and information of these files.
If you are using managed hosting, in this case the hosting company will be obligated to process these files and ensure that they are safe. Prevent direct access to it by placing it in an external file.
Modifying website permissions
It is known that the website consists of a group of files and folders stored on the server or hosting. There are settings that enable you to specify who can read, execute, or modify these files.
You can also do this by entering the file manager, selecting the file whose permissions you want to change, and clicking on the Change Permissions option. You can then specify the file permissions.
Obviously, a file that is denied access to users will be more secure than a file that users can modify and execute. We’ve previously talked about: Explaining how to manage and use member roles and permissions in WooCommerce securely.
Not all information is provided in user alert messages
When an error or problem occurs on the site, do not display a lot of detailed information to the site users. In this case, it is preferable to be content with a simple warning stating that the site is down. Without any information related to the error attached; This will tell attackers about the site’s weak points and then they will try to hack them.
In addition, many website owners add sensitive information to the error message, for example the database password. You should not provide this information and be satisfied with a simple and unambiguous warning so that visitors know what is going on.
Back up your site from time to time
Even if you follow all the instructions in this article, your site will be vulnerable to hacking at any time; For this reason, there must be a backup copy of the site to retrieve it again when necessary. It is possible to do this manually or rely on automatic copying provided by hosting companies, free or paid.
You may be interested in:
An explanation of making a backup copy of your site to secure it from any damage,
as well as 6 add-ons for taking backup copies of your site
Conclusion
Digital transformation and reliance on websites will not bring many advantages, but at the same time without taking some preventive steps it can be a cause of many losses.
Therefore, you must act with caution and implement all the instructions mentioned in this article to obtain a safe environment for developing your site. You may also need to know what to do if your site is hacked?
