How to Protect Website from Hackers – Best Tips!

The notorious hackers are the worst nightmare for many website owners, and they make up to the headlines all the time! Just imagine your website getting altered or your works deleted! Every website owner is constantly searching ways to protect the website from hackers.

With the increase in online business and selling platforms, the number of hackers increases day by day.  

The hackers are frequently on the prowl, and WordPress is a popular platform with great websites that is always at their target. According to reports, WordPress faces around 90,000 hack attacks in every single minute. They usually attempt unauthorized login, thereby creating hidden entry points that allow them to revisit and re-hack a site.

If you are a small business owner and think hackers would spare small websites; I must warn you are mistaken. Around 43% of data breaches happen to small businesses websites. So, cybersecurity is critical for businesses of all sizes.

Apart from data theft, stealing money and messing with website layout, hackers may also breach websites for many reasons. Hackers can breach your website and use your server as an email relay for spam or set up a temporary web server, typically to work illegal files. They can sell illicit products on your site or even include your servers to mine for Bitcoins.

Sometimes hackers simply aim to destroy your reputation, thus eliminating all your records just to put a sick message on your customers’ screens.

So it would help if you took measures to protect your website from hackers. Moreover, your website gets hacked, then fixing the issue at the earliest time possible must the foremost priority. Your website can be flagged with a warning in search results which is detrimental to the website reputation. Google can also blacklist your website, or a web host may suspend your account if the hack is not fixed.

So if you are worried about hackers, then here are a few tips and simple web security measures that can save your website from hackers.

Install a security plugin

A new website without any security measures could be more prone to attacks. However, WordPress offers endless possibilities to enhance its functionality with several themes and plugins. Several free and premium WordPress Security plugins can fight against hackers and protect your website. So, you must install a security plugin on your WordPress website to prevent website breach attempts. WordPress security plugins automatically scan your website every day to detect any suspicious activity. It can show you any alerts if it finds any suspicious activity or malware on your site. These plugins come with an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that is built to protect WordPress. The firewalls actively defend your website against attacks. Some plugins also prevent brute force attacks by banning hosts and users with too many invalid login attempts.

Even if your website is hacked, these plugins can indicate the breach and help you clean it up instantly and get back to business.

Update your Software 

Keeping your website up-to-date is a vital step to keep your website secure. Hackers prowl thousands of websites per hour and scan for any vulnerabilities to break-in. Continually upgrading your software prevents any weak points in the software.

You must update the server operating system as well as all the software you use on your website.

People using a managed hosting solution have a fair advantage as the hosting company will take care of security updates.

Beware of error messages

It would be best if you took utmost care while displaying error messages such as those used for expressing a failed login message. The notice must be generic and avoid directing which part of the query is inappropriate.

You must only give out sufficient information and avoid giving any hints to API keys or database passwords present on your server. You can preserve comprehensive errors in your server logs while displaying only sufficient information to users. Providing full exception detail can make SQL injection easy for hackers.

Passwords

It is a known fact that to maintain security and protect website from hackers, you must use complex passwords with a minimum of eight characters. A strong password must be a mixture of alphabets, both uppercase & lowercase, numerals, and symbols. Strong passwords can protect your server and website admin areas. It would be best if you also took care to store the passwords as encrypted values, such as by using the Hashing algorithm. Hashed passwords are a great way to provide extra security to passwords and are also a way many modern authentication systems use.

Hashed passwords are difficult to attack, decrypt and also minimize any damage that occurred during an attack. 

Install an SSL Certificate

SSL refers to Secure Sockets Layer. It is an essential certificate required to ensure secure data transfer between your website and its users. The data can be personal data, credit cards information, contact address or any other crucial sensitive information. SSL certificate will change or intercept the content so that hackers cannot decrypt it.

Earlier, an SSL certificate has always was necessary for eCommerce websites only. However, since the update of Google chrome in 2018, SSL is essential for all websites. With an SSL certificate, your website address will move from HTTP to HTTPS protocol that ensures security over the Internet.

The SSL certificate website will display a green lock image and ‘https’ in the browser bar. The visitors always look for SSL certification in the website, and if a website does not have an SSL certificate installed, website visitors are sure to bounce back. 

Moreover, Google has also announced that using https has some added SEO benefits, and they will boost you up in the search rankings. 

Stay updated

So there were some of the technical tips to protect the website from hackers. Another way to look out for hackers is to read online blogs and resources to stay updated. Several blogging websites share information about hacking threats. You can get a basic idea also. Follow updates to stay up to date. Becoming aware of hacking can help keep you alert and also protect your website against it. The Hacker News is one such website that offers the latest hacking news, news on cyberattacks, computer security, and many other essential topics.

We hope you enjoyed our article and it is useful for you. Has your website ever been hacked? What steps did you take to solve the issue? Do comment and share your story in the comments section below.