Making your own website hack-proof is a sensible step in the context of data protection, but also to protect your own work. Hackers can not only steal data, but also cause great damage to a website. This damage can destroy months or even years of work in one go. Securing the website from hackers should therefore be a priority for every website operator.
Basically, no website is safe from attacks by hackers. A big mistake, which unfortunately holds: The own website is so small and insignificant anyway that hackers will not be interested in it.
The exact opposite is true. If data can be stolen somewhere, then the hackers are also interested in it. Whether it is a small website from a private blogger or a large website from a corporation, does not matter in the selection.
Usually attacks are not limited to a single website anyway. Hackers like to attack across the board. The more websites affected by an attack, the greater the prospect of success. That’s why hackers try to spread their malware as much as possible. A selection based on the web page size would only stop. The mass makes up the result in the end.
One can of course never guarantee 100% security. Each website is basically a target of hackers and can be the victim of attacks. It is also irrelevant whether data is collected there or not. Hackers can also feed scripts into foreign websites that start automatic downloads or redirect visitors to another website. So: Every website can be affected and should be hack-proof accordingly.
The first step is the simplest, but also one that we keep mentioning, since it is still very often ignored: a secure password. No protection is useful if the password is “12345.”
In addition, when building your own website, care should be taken to use only building blocks from reliable sources. There are countless themes, plug-ins and editors on the web, but not all of them are safe. Select only secure elements and limit yourself to the necessities. Less is more when it comes to using safe parts.
A so-called website security check should be carried out at regular intervals. A program simulates a hacker attack. The program then displays the possible vulnerabilities and vulnerabilities.
In this way, problems can be addressed and resolved individually. Unfortunately, the hackers are constantly improving their methods. Therefore, a website security check is not sufficient. A problem that has been fixed today can already arise tomorrow. Therefore, these checks should be carried out in a certain regularity. It’s best to create some kind of memory for it.
Website security checks are available on the Internet free of charge from numerous providers. For example, WordPress Security Scan is available for websites running WordPress. Other providers include VirusTotal and SIWECOS.
Software is constantly being developed. This mainly includes closing security vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is important to update the software on a regular basis through updates and updates.
This applies to all forms of software. Not only the website or the server on which the website is located. Even the word processor on the desktop can become a security vulnerability at the end if it is not updated. Or the images stored on the hard drive with the operating system. If the operating system is not up to date, a virus sneaks in and affects an image. They upload the picture on their website and you already have the salad.
It is best of all to turn on automatic updates for any used software. This can be annoying, but not as much as a hacker attack for a long time.
You must know the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. You’ve definitely met several times. However, in the short form: http. Unfortunately, http is not safe because it is an unencrypted protocol.
Hackers can thus move between the website and the browser and read along. This is quite bad if you just enter your access data.
There is also the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Or: https. For this to be applied, an SSL certificate must be installed on the server. Most providers do this automatically.
Another security level is HTTPS Strict Transport Security or HSTS. This technology prevents hackers from bypassing or disabling https. Unencrypted requests from http pages are then no longer accepted.
For the security of your own website a little effort has to be invested. However, this makes more sense than having to fix the damage after a hacker attack. So, at best, provide strong encryption and current software to make it as hard as possible for hackers to reach their website.
