Stop Your Website From Being Hacked
Although you can’t stop your website from being hacked, you can substantially reduce the vulnerability of your site to malicious hacker attacks.
Since most hackers target websites with vulnerabilities such as weak passwords, out of date third party applications, old anti-virus software or software that is out of date; you can stop your website from being hacked just by being proactive and implementing some basic preventive measures.
Most website owners fail to recognize the fact that it only takes a few simple steps to provide a higher level of security for their websites.
These easy to follow steps require NO special software of programming knowledge to implement and are general enough to stop your website from being hacked regardless of it’s type or size.
Although NO level of security is 100% effective, here are some things you need to know to stop your website from being hacked.
- Secure Passwords
Protect your admin panel, FTP account and email accounts with secure passwords.
Create the most difficult password possible, using combinations of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols that are at least 8 characters long.
The more obscure and complex you can make your password, the more difficult it is for a hacker to access.
- Updated Software
Older versions of blog content management software are usually insecure, so keep your software up to date.
Hackers target older versions of WordPress, Joomlia, PhpBB, SMF, and other types software to infiltrate their security vulnerabilities.
It is extremely important to make sure that the software you installed on your own is updated to the latest version as soon as updates become available.
In most cases, you can subscribe or sign up to a mailing list for the software you installed and you will immediately be notified when new security updates or new versions of the software are released.
Software and web applications that are out of date are the primary reason why websites are easily compromised.
- Start Using Encrypted Services Whenever Possible
Start using encrypted services like SFTP in lieu of FTP for more reliable file transfer and management.
Host your webmail application on an SSL enabled port and use SSL encryption for anything that needs a username and password.
Make sure you configure encrypted connections in your mail server when sending emails from a remote machine to your server.
- Minimize the use of third party add-ons and scripts unless they are secure
Before you upload and install a new plug-in, widget, or other module to your WordPress site, read the reviews on it and think about if you really need it.
Over 70% of hacker attacks are caused by insecure plug-ins and scripts written by mostly unknown developers. If you haven’t yet researched the code and you didn’t write the code yourself, do yourself a favor and don’t install it on your website.
- Backup Your Data On A Regular Basis
Never rely on your web host to keep backups for you. Start making your own backups if you don’t already do so and save them on an external hard drive, flash drive, DVD, tape system, Iphone or MP3 player.
Whenever possible, you should never let your visitors know that your site was hacked.
By changing the server password or even your server, and then immediately uploading a backup of your website; you can be online and functional within a very short period of time.
- Make Sure You Have A Good Hosting Company
Having a reliable hosting company can help stop your website from being hacked. Reliable web hosting providers are the first and best line of defense against a potential hack attack.
At a minimum, your hosting provider should do their best to help protect your websites from being hacked by providing hardware and software firewalls, using the latest up to date versions of Apache,PHP or other software and by providing excellent customer service if and when your site does get hacked.
All web hosting companies protect their servers and your website to some degree, however
a hacked website doesn’t mean that they are exclusively to blame.
A hacked site means that there is some form of vulnerability in the content of your web site and that there is a good possibility that it could be your own fault.
It could be as simple as having an easy to crack password or a bug in your script.
You as the website owner can stop your website from being hacked by being aware of the general protection and security issues such as creating secure passwords, changing them on a regular basis, running virus scans, clearing your browser history, safeguarding your data with routine backups and maintenance, etc.
You can be sure that just as the sun comes up tomorrow morning, hacking will be with us till the end of the computer age.
But by following the simple steps outlined above and taking some of these precautions you can stop your website from being hacked or at the least, decrease the risk.
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