Approximately 45 websites a day are attacked by hackers. Online nasties are all set to do website hacking on every website that seems fragile to them. One wrong move and they are trapped by the hacker. Within minutes, the whole website authority is transferred to someone you’ve never seen! But, what about a normal blogging site? A nascent blogging website with a few subscribers isn’t vulnerable because it hardly fetches some money. Is it also in the hacker’s hit-list?
Obviously! Every website is on the hit-list of a hacker. When a website gets hacked, it is not just the loss of money but huge damage that costs Google rankings and traffic. Furthermore, repairing a hacked website is time-consuming and expensive. Since hackers create ‘invisible’ hacking areas, it makes the website fragile to hacking again! Does this problem have a solution?
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Yes, it does have a solution! Just like every problem is meant to be solved, the issue of hacking exists just to get debarred. If you’re reading this line, it means you’re curious to know how to block the pathways that allow a hacker to get hold of the website. We’ll be discussing some serious tips that will debar your website infected from malware and getting hacked. Just for information, by the time you end reading this write-up, there will be at least 3 websites that’ll get hacked.
How Websites Get Hacked?
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Do you know how a hacked website looks like? Most probably you don’t have an idea because yours is not hacked yet. Though there are no set signs, there are patterns that tell whether a website is hacked. Take a look:
Ransomware
This form of website hacking is like abducting a person and demanding a ransom. Similarly, a hacker hacks the website by invading the security. The threats to withhold the data or block its access until the demand is fulfilled.
Gibberish Hack
The gibberish hack includes auto-created webpages with multiple keywords inserted. The gibber hack primarily aims at increasing the website ranking but after clicking the link, it connects the user to another webpage saying Error 404.
Cloaked Keywords Hack
This type of hack is a sophisticated version of the gibberish hack. After hacking a website using the CKH pattern, the hacker doesn’t violate anything but the text displayed on the webpage.
Phishing
This is another version of the scam used by hackers. They tend to acquire personal details of all clients of a website by masquerading as part of the prime website.
Denial of Service (DoS)
It is one of the most harmful website hacking issues. When a website is hacked by the hacker, he can easily crash it at the peak time of receiving traffic.
Malicious Virus
Malicious viruses and codes are the most common threat to websites. When a virus invades the website, it alters everything, right from graphics to its accessibility.
So now, the question arises on how to protect the website from getting hacked?
Since the IT industry is ever-evolving, it would be a cakewalk for many hackers to get hold of websites. But website development solutions also include everything that can prevent a website from getting hacked. What are those website development solutions that construct a hard-to-break iron wall between the website and hacker? Let’s read ahead.
1. SSL Certification Acquisition
Acquiring an SSL certificate is a sign of website security. It protects the data safe while transferring between the user and the website. If yours is an e-commerce website, it is suggested to acquire the SSL certification immediately. Since such websites collect personal information of the visitor, the SSL encrypts the data while transmitting it securely. In simpler terms, a hacker cannot invade and hack the website. Furthermore, owing to Google’s stringent policies, websites without SSL certification are getting penalized.
It is not hard to get the right kind of SSL certificate as the website structure covers a number of domains. If you need a single certificate solution for all subdomains then, a single wildcard SSL certificate is enough for your website. It allows to add further subdomains in the future without charging any extra cost.
2. Bodyguard Passwords
When your website is protected by an uncrackable password, a hacker cannot break the wall to get hold of the website. Strong passwords are often overlooked because we tend to set up a password that can be remembered easily like a dear one’s name or code. Here’s the deep pitfall we dig ourselves. As per a survey, nearly 45% of major websites, across the world, get hacked because of a weak password. Most of the passwords were easy to recall or common like ABC123, Name@789, ABCD12345 etc. If you or anyone you know uses such passwords, suggest them to change it immediately. Though there are endless tips about strong passwords, here’s something you can do:
- Never use personal information in passwords (DOB)
- Craft a long password with the unrelated but memorable phrase
- Keep the password case sensitive
3. Keep a Backup
The above two steps will surely contribute to keeping your website protected from getting hacked. But would you take the security of the website for granted? Nah. So, running regular backups on the website is something that sounds good. When you run the website backup, it is making a carbon copy of the entire website. It includes every bit of information and imagery. There are four kinds of backups regarded as perfect in professional website development solutions providing company. They are:
- Automated backups- since many security breaches are caused by human error, maintaining automated backups can reduce this.
- Off-site backups- Hackers-wouldn’t-even-imagine level of security is proffered in off-site backups. This backup also prevents the backup cycle from hardware failure.
- Redundant backups- What about having backups of backups? Sounds freak! This backup stores the data on multiple servers instead of one.
- Regular backups- This is the most common (and perfect) backup process of a website. It includes data backup on a daily basis.
4. Your Website Should Stay Updated
The IT industry is ever-evolving. Companies release software updates as soon as they fix bugs. Since many websites are supported by website builder software, handling any issue is their call. But, there are many who do not use website builders. For example, WordPress- a noted CMS platform, is frequently updating its plug-ins. If you do not update those plug-ins, your website simply becomes outdated and vulnerable to getting hacked!
However, be cautious while choosing and installing WordPress plug-ins. Any professional from the IT industry can conceive such plug-ins with poor or excellent quality. The ones with the poor quality might contain malicious contain can depreciate the security of the website and invite invasion and become the reason for the website hacking.
5. The Shield of Anti-malware Software
This would sound funny but talking about website security remains incomplete without anti-malware. An excellent anti-malware to the website carries the load of doing the hard work for the website. By incorporating one on your website, you can stay assured of the best security. It performs all essential functions like:
- Web scanning
- Detecting & removing malware
- Sandboxing
- Behaviour monitoring
Keep Your Website Protected
Throughout the write-up, we discussed all possible website development solutions that help in protecting the website from getting hacked. Website security is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Even a minute loophole can drag it into the dangerous pitfall. To avoid all problems related to website hacking, implement the above-mentioned tips that will combat against website hacking.