Things to know to secure your website effectively

Currently, websites are attacked in many different ways. However, most businesses are still not properly aware and quite indifferent to the security of their website. This can come from the following reasons:

Reason 1: Your website has nothing to be hacked. I only post the company's product introduction, no one will hack. But actually hackers always have different reasons from small to big to hack into websites like yours.

Reason 2: Your website is using very good technology. Make sure no one hacks. Maybe you're right, but maybe you're lacking. The holes in the website always appear even though people have been trying to fill them for decades. But it is still there and no one will say 100% that it is not attacked.

Reason 3: I don't care if the website is hacked or not. That proves you are underestimating the role of website protection as well as the risks that may be encountered.

Therefore, if you want to spend more time on the business to increase profits, you should consider choosing a technology partner to accompany you in website security.

Regularly update website application software

As obvious as this may seem, making sure all software is up to date is vital in keeping your site free of the dangers that are always lurking. This can apply to both the server operating system and any software you are running on the website including a CMS or forum, when a website security vulnerability is found in the application software, hackers will always looking for ways to take advantage of their vulnerabilities.

If you are using third-party software such as a CMS or forum, you should ensure that you already own a different secure version. Most product vendors have a notification mailing list or RSS feed outlining any related website security issues.

So, in addition to fixing bugs or glitches, software updates often come with security enhancements. No software is perfect. A lot of cyberattacks are automated. Criminals use bots to scan vulnerable websites. If you don't update to the latest software versions, it will be easy for hackers to identify and target your website before you can do anything about it.

SQL injection security

SQL injection is a technique that takes advantage of the query vulnerabilities of unsafe websites on the web, this is a very popular attack technique and its success is also relatively high. A weakness in a website's source code can reveal the root access of web servers and from there hackers can attack other network servers.

The most common SQL injection prevention is made up of two components. The first is to regularly update and patch all the servers, services and applications, then produce and use the source code well and test the website source code to not allow the existence of SQL commands. unusual signs.

Security website with XSS

Cross-site scripting (XSS) attack or malicious JavaScript attack on your website, then runs in the user's browser and can change the website content or steal information to send back to the attacker .

Another powerful tool in the XSS Defender toolbox is the Content Security Policy (CSP). CSP is a property that your server can return to your browser to limit how JavaScript is executed in your website, for example not allowing running any scripts that aren't hosted on your website. your domain, disallow inline JavaScript, or disable the eval() function, which makes it harder for hackers' scripts to work with, even if they could populate your site.

Security with website error messages

Be careful with the information you display in error messages, providing only minimal errors to the user to ensure that secrets are not leaked on your server (e.g. API or base password) data). Don't provide complete exception details as these can make complex attacks like SQL injection easier, store detailed errors in your server logs, and show it to other users. users know the information they need.

Prevention and handling of DDOS attacks

DDoS attacks deny access to users trying to access a particular website. Basically, hackers use fake IP addresses to overload servers with traffic. This has taken the site offline. Although DDOS attack cannot steal data or damage the structure of the website, it also brings a lot of disadvantages and difficulties when encountered. So for DDOS you need to prepare in advance and have a plan. processing can be deployed immediately.

Set a highly secure password

If hackers get access to your password, they'll try other things like bank accounts, social media accounts, etc. If you've kept the same password across multiple accounts, it's basically you are giving them the master key to your Internet life. Everyone knows they should use complex passwords, but that doesn't mean they're always ready to do it.

It is very important to use strong enough passwords for the server and admin area, but also emphasize good passwords for your users to protect the security of their accounts. Enforcing password requirements such as a minimum of about eight characters, including one letter and uppercase letter will help keep their information safe in the long run.

Besides, you also set up a two-factor password for all your online working tools, from email accounts, hosting accounts, website admin accounts. The psychology of hackers is to choose sites that are negligent and have little defense, they will attack first, sites with high security, too difficult to pass.

Limit file uploads to the website

Allowing users to upload files to your site can be a risk to website security, even if it only takes a small step to change their avatar. That's because any file can contain a script that exploits vulnerabilities on your website when it's executed on the server.

If you use a file upload form, need to know how to manage all the files, if you allow users to upload images you cannot rely on the image extension or mime type for verification that the file is an image because they can easily be tampered with, even opening the file or using functions to check the image size is not sufficient evidence, most definitions The image format allows storage of a description that may contain source code executed by the server.

The recommended solution is to prevent direct access to the uploaded files together. This way, any files uploaded to your site need to be stored in a directory outside of the webroot or in the database as a blob.

If your files are not directly accessible, you will need to create a script to fetch the files from the private directory and deliver them to the browser. Image tags that support the src attribute are not direct URLs to images, so your src attribute can point to a file delivery script that provides you with the correct content type in the HTTP header.

Secure with HTTPS

HTTPS is a protocol used to provide security over the Internet, HTTPS assures users that they are interacting with the expected server and that no one else can intercept or change the content they are viewing.

Without HTTPS, hackers could change the information on the page to collect personal information from the people who visit your website. For example, they can steal logins and passwords from users

Furthermore, you can improve this security even further by combining your HTTPS with an SSL (secure gateway layer) certificate. This is required for e-commerce sites as users are submitting sensitive information such as credit card numbers, names, and addresses.

Website Security Tool

You cannot prevent attacks on your site manually. Instead, find online tools and resources that will monitor website security for you

There are many free and commercial products available to help you with this. Some tools worth noting:

Netsparker (which has a free version and a paid version) is good for SQL injection and XSS testing.

OpenVAS the most advanced open source security scanner, good for checking for vulnerabilities but it can be difficult to set up as it requires an OpenVAS server to be installed, OpenVAS is part of Nessus before it becomes available. into a closed source commercial product.

SecurityHeaders.io (free online test), a tool that quickly reports website security (such as CSP and HSTS enabled or configuring a correct domain name...).

Xenotix XSS Exploit Framework, a tool of OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) includes a series of XSS attack examples with which you can quickly confirm whether web page input is vulnerable to Chrome, Firefox , Coc Coc and IE or not.

Hopefully the above tips will help keep your website and information safe, there are many CMSs with website security features available, but it is still necessary to be knowledgeable about common security vulnerabilities to can proactively protect your own website.