Most businesses have websites that depend on marketing their products and services online. As we think of getting traffic and leads from our websites, lets also make sure that they are secured free from malware and hackers.
Here are 9 tips on how to secure your website from hackers and malware.
1. Update your website regularly
Make sure your website’s software or content management system is up to date. When there is any new update for your website, install it as immediately as possible. Remember to back up your website before installing an update. Remember hackers are always on the look out for security loopholes. Make sure your give them none.
2. Use security plugins
Security plugins will protect your website from any intruders and hackers by creating a firewall. Make sure you also update the security plugins regularly as the updates are available. Most of the time, the updates from the security plugins have been enhanced with better security mechanism. You can also subscribe to a Website Application Firewall (WAFs) which can also help prevent attaches on your website.
3. Prevent users from uploading files on forms
When you need to collect information from your clients, you might need to create a form. Having a form that allows users to upload a file to your website becomes a security threat. A hacker can upload a malware on your website hence can cause harm to your business. You can limit the type of files that can be uploaded on the form which can fix this problem. If need be, set up an email address that users can send files to.
4. Install an SSL certificate
An SSL certificate essentially confirms that your website is secure and able to transfer encrypted information back and forth between your server and a person’s browser. SSL certificate are renewable every year to maintain the certificate.
When choosing an SSL certificate, you have three options: domain validation, business validation, and extended validation. Both business validation and extended validation are required by Google in order to receive the green “Secure” bar next to your site’s URL.
5. Use HTTPS encryption
After installation of SSL certificate, make sure your website now redirect to the https secured encryption. You can set this on your WordPress website under Settings – General where WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address utilizes the https version of your website. You can also redirect visitors to your website using htaccess file on your server.
6. Create strong secure passwords
Use a unique and strong secure password to access your admin dashboard and make sure you write it somewhere safe offline. A combination of letters, with a caps, numbers and special characters in your password is encouraged. Also make sure your password is not repeated on any other platform.
7. Rename your admin folders and change the default login url
Rename your default website’s admin folder to something that will be hard to guess. Hackers mostly use default admin folder as a loophole. Remember to also change the login url.
8. Keep error messages simple
When an error occurs on your website, make sure the error message is as simple as possible without showing your website’s root directory. Hackers can exploit the information given on error messages
This goes for anything from 404 errors to 500-type server codes.