Security measures to secure your website/app in 2019
Security of a website is absolutely necessary if you have an e-commerce website. Hackers even target simple websites. They find out the vulnerability and exploit it based on their target. Your website can be hacked for many reasons. It can be done to defame you and your website or make the website crash and go offline. They might have a target like stealing your data from the website like financial records, credit card details and other proprietary information. It can also be to use your host server to relay the webmail spam or to use it for serving illegal files. Your website’s host server can also be used as a botnet for DDoS attacks. They could hold your website for ransom by affecting it with ransomware. The results of your website getting hacked can be quite serious, so to help you with the security, we have listed a few measures which can help you to secure your website/app in 2019.
1.MYSQL attacks
These are injection attacks. To prevent these attacks, avoid the standard transact SQL because this can allow hackers to inject the website with a rogue code. Start using parameterised queries at all times.
2. Use the two level validation
Start doing double validation of the data which is accepted from the forms on your website. The data should be validated from both the browser and the server. This method will help you block the hackers which insert malicious code through the data being excepted from the form fields.
3. Uploading files on your website
If your website needs to allow visitors to upload images are files to your host server, you should allow at with extreme caution. Remove the executable permissions on the file that is being uploaded, and then the file cannot be executed. This is a form of double extension attacks. The image that the hacker upload to your website could be a malware.
4. Use the firewall
If your website is being maintained by yourself then you must deploy a firewall. Restrict the outside access only to the ports 443 and 80.
5. Password
Start implementing a strong password policy and make sure that it is being followed. Insist your users to have a strong password. Always keep the recommended password length to 8 characters with a mix of numbers and uppercase and lowercase characters. Advise them against using words from the dictionary. Use a hashing algorithm for storing passwords of visitors for user authentication. Also remember to salt the hash which will increase the security.
6. Use Website security tools
It is sometimes manually impossible to monitor and manage website security, and for this you need to use the website security tools. Some of them are free to use. You can also get the option of managing the tools as well as the option of Security as a Service models.
7. Don’t use http://
Start using https for all the websites. This will make sure that your users won’t communicate with other servers which are fraudulent. SSL Certificate (https) is becoming more and more important nowadays.
8. Separate server for storing database
It is suggested to use a separate database server or web server. They offer increased security to your data. Although it is a little expensive but it will pay off.
9. Keep software up to date
Always keep the software of the operating system and other application software updated. You should also update the anti-malware solution and the website security solution updated for receiving the latest patches and definitions. The website hosting provider must also keep their software updated, its however, not in your hands. Choosing a host which always keeps their software updated will be a solution to this.
10. Cross-site Scripting attacks.
A malicious JavaScript can be injected in your website to change the content of your page. They can then steal the credentials and the login cookie details of the users. This kind of injection must not be allowed to secure your website.
Every year there are more and more tricks that the hackers can come up with. There are many kinds of vulnerabilities in a website like click jacking, website URL redirection, CORS vulnerability, the file uploading vulnerability, etc. The solutions to those vulnerabilities are very easy to find. But you must first start with choosing a secure website hosting. It is the most basic thing to do. Secure hosting servers may cost you more but it is important for your website. There are some hackers who can use your website server mining bitcoins too. The data that is stolen from your website can be sold on the dark web for malicious activities. The malware that is needed to compromise your website can also be found openly on some websites, hence attackers with no skills can also attack your website. There are also hackers for hire who can do the task for people. These hackers ask for a ransom by encrypting the data on your website. You have to pay a huge amount to have your data decrypted. You also have automated attack-for-hire services which have the necessary malware to compromise your website.
