When you sit with the architect trying to envision your dream home, the emphasis lies on building a solid iron gate at the entrance to keep intruders away.
Similarly, when you go to a web designer in the hopes of building a safe website, you need to factor in the following tips while creating a secure website.
Many small and medium biz owners lookout for ways to build secure websites that can stand the test of time and tide and afford a safe shopping experience for valued customers. Read on to know more!
1. Make the switch from HTTP to HTTPS protocol:
Think from the consumers’ viewpoint, will you be ready to part with your sensitive details such as credit card, debit card digits without being assured of their security in transit.
Invest in a Secure Socket Layer or SSL certificate to assure the same. The installation of the same results in a secure padlock symbol before the address bar; this assures the customers that their PII is transferred in a secure encrypted tunnel and can only be decrypted by the intended recipient.
HTTP+SSL=HTTPS.
SSL is a security protocol that creates a secure encrypted channel for communication between two entities. An SSL certificate is available in various kinds and at different validation levels. Therefore, you need to choose the one that best serves your unique purposes.
If you have multiple domains and subdomains that you need to secure, investing in separate single-domain SSL certificates will be a costly affair. So instead, we suggest investing in the most premium yet cheapest multi-domain SSL certificate that secures upto 250 FQDNs (the number varies from provider to provider.)
2. Go for the Best Content Management System (CMS):
A website without the best CMS is like a human trying to function without a healthy skeleton.
It is the foundation for constructing your website, curating and managing future content in a user-friendly outlook! They should also come up with regular updates to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities. WordPress, Shopify, Joomla are a few names to reckon with in the industry.
3. Employ the Principle of Least Privilege when it comes to granting Access:
Remember, the more people have access to areas they don’t need, the greater the chances of the cat coming out of the bag. So restrict access to only those who need it.
For example, a blogger working for your site doesn’t need access to the home page or the payments page! This can also help build a secure website by not giving employees any more information that they need to get their job done.
Employing an appropriate privileged access management (PAM) tool can help to ensure that even if an account is compromised, the risk presented to your business is minimised.
4. Employ a website scanner to thoroughly scan for bugs and vulnerabilities:
Just like you conduct rain checks in your new house to test it out and fix any evident vulnerabilities, you must invest in regular scans of your website to check for and fix any issues that might need assistance.
Though many free tools are available in the market, it is highly advisable to invest in a paid professional website scanner to fix and eliminate different threats, including network, server, spam, XSS, SQLi attacks, and malware vulnerabilities.
5. Deploy Unique & Tough to Hack Passwords:
According to the findings of a 2021 GoodFirms Research, weak passwords are responsible for up to 30 percent of data breaches. And once your data is compromised, the cost of a data breach cannot even be fathomed!
Come up with hard-to-guess passcodes at least twelve characters long and an amalgamation of uppercase, lowercase, letters, digits and special characters. Also, it is always a good idea to use a reliable password manager to store all your passwords.
6. Invest in regular backups:
While you might have invested thoroughly in getting the best cyber security systems for your website, you still wouldn’t want to jump into the ocean without a backup!
Storing your data in both cloud-based and physical spaces will prevent you from starting from scratch in case of a cyber-attack or ransomware attack.
Parting Shot
Building a secure website is not as difficult as it seems. If you employ the right mix of the strategies observed above, your online webshop will rank high on SERPs and engender customer trust resulting in high conversion rates.
In addition, investing in the right SSL certificate will secure your customers’ PII and keep away those with malicious intents.
