Websites and web applications have become central to business outcomes in today’s digitized, experience economy. ‘ Is your website safe from cyberattacks and data breaches?’ is a question you must ask as a website owner if you haven’t already and the only answer should be “yes, it is!”. It can be a very costly mistake to ignore website security and may lead businesses to even shut down.
Hackers are attracted to data and websites of all kinds — simple blogs to complex business websites to high-volume e-commerce sites — contain good volumes of data. This puts all websites at a high risk of cyber-attacks with cybercriminals and hackers leveraging the accelerated development of technology to orchestrate new and innovative forms of attacks and data breaches. A proactive attitude towards security and investment in critical website security measures enable businesses to reduce their cybersecurity risks. So, there is a strong business case to strengthen your web security strategies and measures.
Is your website safe from hackers?
If your answer to the following questions is Yes, then your website is safe from hackers
1. Do you have an automated and intelligent web vulnerability scanner?
Only when vulnerabilities, gaps, and loopholes in the security are identified can they be fixed/ remediated. Automated & intelligent web security scanners/ vulnerabilities scanners enable you to detect known vulnerabilities and gaps, malicious activity, and malware on your website while also augmenting their knowledge base from attack history and global threat intelligence and scanning for those vulnerabilities as well.
Read more: How Automated Vulnerability Scanners Can Reduce Risks
2. Do you have a Web Application Firewall (WAF)?
Intelligent, comprehensive, and managed WAF s act as a shield against malicious actors and bad traffic and ensure that only good traffic and legitimate requests access the website. They offer multi-layered protection to the website. The best WAFs instantaneously patch vulnerabilities and loopholes upon detection until they are fixed by developers. If you do not have a WAF, you are essentially providing a free pass to hackers to attack your website.
3. Do you use CDNs?
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) ensure that the request for website content is met by local caching servers closest to the user rather than routing it to the website. With a WAF placed at the network periphery, any requests for un-cached content will have to go through the WAF. This way the attack surface is minimized, and downtimes and crashes avoided. By not using CDNs, you are leaving a large attack surface open to hackers.
4. Have you installed an SSL/ TLS Certificate?
SSL/TLS certificate encrypts and establishes a secure connection for data transfer between the user and the webserver. If you have not installed this certificate, you are providing an open invitation for hackers and attackers to snoop around and steal or compromise data.
5. Do you have managed and intelligent solution in place?
Not all vulnerabilities can be identified and not every aspect of security can be handled by machines, howsoever intelligent, and advanced. For instance, Slowloris attacks use seemingly legitimate requests to orchestrate the attack. So, the machine will be ineffective in this case, but a security expert can effectively analyze the real-time data to avert such an attack.
An intelligent and managed security solution, therefore, leverages both the power of automation, AI & ML as well as the expertise of certified security professionals for areas of security that only humans can handle such as business logic flaws, pen-testing, security audits, etc. The security experts build customized solutions and strategies for your website and also analyze security analytics to strengthen the website’s security further. They conduct pen-testing and security audits to test the strength of your security measures and identify loopholes.
Updates contain critical patches and not updating the software regularly increases your risks.
Unused and legacy features, parts, and objects on the website are a gateway for hackers to orchestrate attacks. So, if your website is not clean, you are susceptible to attacks.
How to keep your website safe and secure?
Web security is not a static thing and the approach towards it needs to be proactive, consistent, and continuous to maintain high levels of security. By choosing the right website security provider, you can do so. AppTrana is one such web security provider equipped with the power of next-gen tech tools and the expertise of certified security professionals to keep your website safe and secure, allowing you to focus on your core business.
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Originally published at https://www.indusface.com on August 21, 2019.
