Tips to prevent hackers from attacking your website

You want website security but don’t know where to start? The article will introduce Hosting features suitable for small businesses, helping you prevent password guessing (brute-force) attacks and malware intrusion.

Necessary web security features

There are six core security features that web developers must know. Web hosting services typically offer a full suite of these features, although some may only be available as paid add-ons. Sometimes, a hosting provider only offers a basic version of a security feature in the current plan, while the full-featured version requires an additional fee. For example, HostGator’s free anti-malware protection is quite limited; To get comprehensive protection, you need to spend more money for Malware Protection or SiteLock service packages.

Below are the minimum features that web hosting service providers need to provide. The first two features mentioned below operate at the server level, so it is mandatory for the service provider to integrate them.

• Automatic server updates. The server operates based on the operating system, database, and platform control panel. Therefore, when hosting providers update operating systems and other server software, they fix potential security vulnerabilities before hackers can exploit them.
• Free SSL Certificate. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology encrypts plain-text data into unreadable code during transmission to and from your website. This prevents bad guys from eavesdropping on the data being transmitted, thereby avoiding the risk of customer information or administrative passwords being stolen.

The following four features are also essential security elements, but service providers do not always offer them for free:

• Automatically scan and remove malware.
• Web Application Firewall (WAF).
• Protection against brute-force attacks.
• Automatic daily backups.

Web security tips for beginners

If you are new to the online industry, your business will be a prime target for attacks. Hackers often assume that you haven’t set up defense-in-depth measures; So, let’s prove the opposite by remembering the following important tips:

• Restrict administrative access. Only grant website editing permissions to employees who actually need them.
• Use two-factor authentication (2FA). Require users to enter the authentication code from their phone next to the password when logging in to the website.
• Minimal data collection. Store only customer data that is absolutely necessary, such as email addresses for account creation. Never store sensitive financial information, credit card details or tax codes directly on a regular web server’s database. Instead, use third-party payment accounts with secure payment gateways like PayPal, Square, or Stripe. These services process transactions on their own highly secured network, helping to keep your servers secure and significantly reduce legal risks if a data breach occurs.
• Absolutely do not use “admin” as your login name. Change the default login name to a unique name to make it difficult for automated brute-force attack scripts to guess your login information.
• Remove plugins and themes that no longer work. Remove any extensions, themes or plugins that you no longer use. These old, neglected tools and possibly outdated components are vulnerabilities that can easily be exploited to insert malicious code into websites.
• Protect the comment area. Enable automatic spam filtering for your site’s comments section to prevent bots from posting malicious links to your site.