Many people do not think to secure their website as many assume that hackers do not care for websites, but a large percentage of website security breaches is to steal your data from which they can use your server as an email relay which is illegal in general. Hacking is regularly performed not always in the aim to exploit other website securities. Here are some tips to help your website be safe from hackers.
Keep software up to date
This is an obvious one which helps you keep all the software up to date, a piece of vital information in keeping your website secure. This applies for both the server operating system as well as the software. When your websites have security holes, hackers quickly take action and will try to abuse it for their own advantage. There are many developers like Composer, npm, etc., who can give you a package which can help protect your site and system. If you are managing your own server hosting then you have to make sure you are on top of this. You can check out our VPS vs Dedicated post to see which would work best in terms of security and how to deal with each.
Watch out for SQL injection
When a hacker uses a web form field to gain access to your database, it is called SQL injections. It is easy to unknowing insert a code that can go rogue and get information or delete the data. There are many ways to know if your website is being hacked, such as the changing of the URL parameters.
Protect against XSS attacks
An XSS attack is a form of virus which can infect your javascript and run into tour pages changing the page content. With this attack, the hacker could easily send scripts and can access users browser and steal their login cookies, which allows them to take control of the account. You can easily use the help of dynamically generated HTML which can make the change you are looking for. Another powerful tool is to use an XSS defender toolbox which limits the browser actions.
Error messages
Try to provide minimal errors to your user as this ensures that there are no secret leaks in your server. Try to provide minimal exception details which can help eliminate attacks like SQL injection. Also, keep detailed errors in your server log and show the information whenever necessary.
Check your passwords
It is crucial to have a strong password which can help your server and websites. Always remember that passwords should be stored as encrypted values using algorithms such as SHA. If there is any case of stealing using hashed passwords will limit the damage. There are many CMS providers who have security features built-in where you can use salted passwords and set the minimum password strength. You can also get a membership provider which is configurable and can also have inbuilt website security, which includes readymade controls and login resets.