Securing Your Website is an Important Step to a Successful Business
When putting up a website, many people do not consider whether their site is secure or not. However, securing your website is a necessary step you need to take to protect yourself and it is not automatically done just because you have your website published. If you do not take this important step and your website becomes hacked, it will reflect poorly on your, your brand and your business.
Some Helpful Tips on Securing Your Website
Using open source scripts when securing your website is highly advised to keep hackers and spammers from preying on your website due to poorly written code. Sites like WordPress, Joomla and Magneto have such scripts, and you can use the scripts and then edit them to your exact liking.
Make sure you update consistently. Any time there is a new version of the script you are using available, get the update. They will fix any bugs in the script and are as important as full version upgrades.
Make sure you are using strong passwords on everything while securing your website. Your passwords do not have to do with anything personal, and probably shouldn't. Your passwords need to be a combination of numbers and letters and they should be at least ten characters long. There are even applications that can help you generate strong passwords and store them, as well.
Keep your administrator email that you use to log into your server or database totally separate from everything else and out of the public eye. This way, you won't be able to be scammed by any email phishing ploys looking for your administrator information.
Ensure that your database is password protected when securing your website. It is not required for you to do so, but there is really no reason not to for added protection since it does not affect the performance of your website in any way.
When you are completely done with installation, delete the installation is folder. Do this because it is entirely possible for a hacker to get into the installation folder and empty the database, therefore taking complete control of your website. If you know your way around your web server well, you can choose to rename the folder instead of deleting it.
Check that your web server is using secure FTP access, and limit the accessibility to folders. Never give anyone else root access to certain non-system folders.
Along with other tips in securing your website, make sure you read tech blogs regularly to keep up-to-date of any new bugs or vulnerabilities reported on the net. It will usually be a bit before a patch is available for any new problem, so having this information will be very helpful in keeping your site secure and up and running properly.
