Protect Your Website And Stay Safe From Hacker Attacks.

Are you also wondering why hacker attacks are increasing? Most websites today are based on web applications (also called web applications or web apps) into which content is inserted. In very few cases, you do any complex programming yourself.

Why Web Applications Are So Prone To Being Hacked

Web applications now enable professional, stylish, and comparatively inexpensive individual solutions for company websites. Web applications such as WordPress provide content management systems (CMS), blog solutions, forum software, image galleries, e-commerce software, calendars, social networking, and much more. With a variety of extension options (“plugins”), the functionality of your website can be expanded individually.

How To Protect Your Website From Hacker Attacks

Here, we will show you the seven most essential measures to protect your website from hackers:

Website Backup: Save all important data!

Because once the attack has taken place, it is often too late. A hacker attack can cause enormous financial damage to small and medium-sized businesses: access to valuable company information, data loss, production downtime, and, in some cases, even downtime. Systematically creating backup copies of all relevant company data is not easy and requires IT knowledge, including databases. It is, therefore, highly recommended to have regular website backups carried out by a professional.

Train your employees in data security.

Studies show that employees usually open the door for hackers to carry out a successful attack – out of sheer ignorance. To name just a few examples, apparent passwords are used. Or user data is left in the email inbox and not stored in a secure location. Or passwords, etc., are sent by email via an account whose password is “knitted” and, therefore, easy to crack. Cybercriminals’ tricks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The problem: Data security only plays a secondary role in many companies. Management often assumes that a firewall is sufficient to protect the company adequately. But it’s no longer just about protecting the hardware. Criminals are primarily after your susceptible company data! And with all the different internet applications, social media, apps, and cloud solutions your employees use the risk of attacks increases. The good news is that most company information attacks can be avoided if your employees are adequately trained.

Regular updates of your web applications!

Many websites with web applications such as WordPress run on outdated program versions. Hackers often specifically exploit vulnerabilities and the fact that many site operators do not care about website maintenance. The software developers are responding to the hacking efforts and closing known security gaps in new program versions. This is precisely why you should regularly download the latest version. In the newer WordPress versions, there is the option for the WordPress update to be carried out automatically.

Regular updates of your plugins!

The same applies to the plugins and other extension components. An example of such an “add-on” would be a plugin with which you can optimize the Google ranking of your website. Attention: Such additional programs are not updated with an automated program update!

Choose secure passwords and usernames,

i.e., at least eight characters – preferably with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Passwords are often used that are easy for you as a user to remember but easy for hackers to crack. Unusual usernames also make it more challenging to break into your IT system.

Secure text entry fields in blogs, guestbooks, and contact forms!

These are particularly often attacked with the help of automated programs (called bots from web robots). Bots programmed by hackers search the Internet for suitable websites. You are trying to misuse automatic entries in text input fields (e.g., comment fields and contact forms) and gain access to your IT systems. So-called captchas are a simple and effective way to protect against such bots.

Check regularly whether your website has been hacked!

Because you often don’t notice it for a long time because everything seems as usual – at first! There are free tools for this. When choosing a suitable device, it is best to seek advice from a professional.

What Goals Do Hackers Pursue?

These contemporaries try, for example:

• Abusing your website domain to send spam – in your name and usually without you noticing at first…
• Inject phishing software to access susceptible data, such as login or bank details.
• To trick your website visitors into downloading hidden viruses.

Did you know that the provider usually takes hacked websites offline for security reasons until the damage has been completely repaired? This means that your entire website is suddenly no longer visible.

Also Read: Best Programming Languages for Web Development