Website security tips and tricks
As the world becomes more digital and websites are the main hub for your efforts (businesses and weddings alike), website security is crucial to your success. As a website owner you need to make sure that you take proactive measures to protect your online presence from any types of security issues.
You might be wondering.. What is the security of a website? How do I make my website secure? How do I make my website MORE secure and private?
In this blog post, I will discuss the common threats that your website faces and how to deal with them. First, discover why website security matters so much and how even small business websites and wedding websites need to be mindful of and take adequate security measures. Then, find the common website security threats and a clear action list that you can do immediately to ensure your website’s security. Lastly, find a list of security measures that your website provider should have in place so you know what to look out for. I mainly design websites using Squarespace so I also show you how easy it can be to have your security measures under control with Squarespace’s built-in security measures.
Why does website security matter?
Without proper website security measures you can find yourself vulnerable to various security risks and that can result in the loss of sensitive information, damage to your reputation, and even financial losses. Besides the obvious benefits of having security measures in place, ensuring your website’s security also aids your SEO efforts. Search engines are geared towards prioritizing websites with SSL certification and other built-in security measures and therefore reward you for being conscious of security.
It's very important to be aware of the potential security issues and proactively work towards ensuring the security of your website. I’ll walk you through the most common threats your website faces in the next chapter. Plus I’ll discuss how to deal with these security risks. Let’s get into these now.
Threats your website faces & how to deal with them
Hacking - Even small websites are being targeted by hackers trying to access your site by exploiting vulnerabilities in your website’s technology. So don't underestimate this threat even for your website.
How to deal with these threats? Ensure that your website provider and hosting platform has adequate security measures to monitor, reduce and protect you from everyday hacking threats.
Malware - Malware is essentially a type of malicious software that's designed to gain unauthorized access to your website or other digital assets. Malware comes in different forms and shapes so it’s hard to identify it as one single threat. Malware can infiltrate the backend of your website in case of technological vulnerabilities or from your own corrupted devices.
How to deal with these threats? Once more, it’s important that there’s adequate security measures in place by your website platform/hosting provider. But in addition to that, it’s also important to do your part in avoiding malware attacks. I’m sure you've heard that you shouldn't click on links or open any attachments in emails from unknown senders or visit untrusted websites - that also applies to ensuring your website security. While it may seem like an obvious thing, cyber threats are getting harder to spot and are engineered in ways that are ever more clever so make sure you keep your guard up.Phishing - Phishing is when attackers try to trick you into giving them sensitive information (login credentials, passwords or payment details) through various methods. Some common examples are hackers pretending to be someone from your organization or from an organization whose services you use. They’ll often pretend that there’s some emergency situation and that you need to quickly act to resolve it.
How to deal with these threats? Be cautious and suspicious, if someone reaches out to you saying that your website will be blocked unless you log in within the next few minutes from a link that they provide, then this is a major red flag. If someone creates urgency and demands action from you (that you’ve never previously had to do) then be very skeptical and it’s usually best to reach out to the organization directly using contact details from a source that you do recognize. If there really was an emergency then they’ll have ways to deal with it accurately. A rule of thumb is that you shouldn't give up sensitive information to anyone under any circumstances.
Denial of Service attacks - Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are a type of cyber attack where attackers flood your website's server with traffic, causing it to crash or become unavailable.
How to deal with these threats? Adequate security measures should be taken by your website platform/hosting provider.Data breaches & brute force attacks - Data breaches occur when sensitive information such as user data, login credentials, or credit card information is stolen or leaked. This can occur through vulnerabilities in your website's code or through social engineering tactics. Brute force attacks are a type of cyber attack where attackers attempt to guess your website's login credentials by trying different combinations of usernames and passwords.
How to deal with these threats? For both data breaches and brute force attacks adequate security measures should be taken by your website platform/hosting provider. Plus, you must ensure that you take all the recommended actions from your side to protect your access and data. That includes using good and unique passwords that are hard to guess, enabling two-factor authentication where possible and implementing any other safety measures that are available to you.Insider threats - Insider threats occur when individuals with authorized access to your website's systems or data misuse that access to steal or leak sensitive information.
How to deal with these threats? You should always be mindful of information sharing even within your organization. Limit sensitive and access information sharing, provide login details only to the personnel that absolutely need access to this information.Third-party vulnerabilities: Third-party vulnerabilities occur when vulnerabilities in third-party software or services used by your website are exploited by attackers to gain access to your website.
How to deal with these threats? Websites can get complicated very quickly with all kinds of integrations and code injections. Any third-party services you add to your website need to have adequate security measures in place. Be selective of the vendors you choose and only choose reputable, well-known, and industry leading vendors for your website.
What can you do yourself
Let me summarize the number of things that you can do yourself to ensure the security of your most valuable online asset - your website.
Be mindful of what links you click, what websites you open - always be cautious and think before you act.
Be suspicious and critical - don’t give up sensitive information (passwords, access information or payment information) to anyone under any circumstances.
Create good passwords - create complex and hard-to-guess passwords, do not reuse passwords across multiple platforms, enable two-factor authentication where possible and implement any other safety measures that protect your access.
Limit sensitive and access information sharing within your organization to only required personnel. Within larger organizations it’s important to implement training and policies for safety measures.
Keep your devices safe - don’t leave your laptop or mobile phone unattended, lock your devices when you’re stepping away from them, purchase antivirus protection and enable automatic updates as updates patch up any known security risks.
Keep regular back-ups of your website, especially after you’ve made any changes.
Be selective of the vendors you choose and only choose reputable, well-known, and industry leading vendors for your website.
Protect your own specific pages with passwords to restrict visitors from accessing them.
Ensure regular updates - any plugin, theme and software updates should be set to automatic updates, if possible, as they fix any known security issues.
Periodically inspect and scan website for malware and security issues - services that do that and security plugins.
What your website provider platform should offer
There’s a number of security measures you want to have for your website back-end. By choosing a vendor that provides built-in security measures you’re integrating safety into the initial set up of your website and it can go a long way for setting you up for future success. Let’s walk through the list of security measures that should be ensured by your website platform/hosting provider.
I mainly design websites on Squarespace so I will also mention the built-in capabilities that Squarespace offers to all its users automatically. This makes my life so much easier knowing that my website is protected by default.
General security measures - All reputable website platforms should have adequate procedures and measures to monitor, reduce and protect you from everyday hacking threats. You should be able to understand the high-level activities they do to ensure your site’s safety but also be able to access detailed information for their security protocols. Squarespace implements and maintains technical and organizational security measures to protect assets and data from everyday security threats. Squarespace also automatically updates all of its software to ensure that all users are running on the latest software version with the most up-to-date security measures.
SSL - One of the main things you should look out for for securing your website is to have a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certification. SSL secures the connection between the user’s browser and the server to prevent impersonation or stealing of visitors’ information. This is how you can ensure that your sensitive information, such as login data, personal information and payment information are protected. Squarespace automatically protects all domains linked to a Squarespace site with free SSL certificates to improve security.
Denial of Service Protection - All reputable website platforms should have adequate procedures and measures to protect you from denial of service attacks. Squarespace has security measures in place that are targeted specifically towards protecting you from denial of service attacks as well as mitigate the effects of such attacks.
Two factor authentication - Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection by requiring you to provide an additional form of identification, such as a code in your email or text message, in order to login to the site. Squarespace offers two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access to your account.
Login activity monitoring - In order to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your site, there should be measures in place for monitoring your login activity. Website providers can do this by monitoring your login location, what device you use and how many times you’ve attempted to login. Squarespace enables you to view a login activity panel to review your account’s active login sessions and spot any suspicious activity or devices that you don’t recognize.
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In summary, website security is a very important topic that shouldn't be neglected. I hope that the above information has been useful in both understanding what you can do yourself to ensure your website’s security, as well as understanding the security features that your website platform provider should ensure.
By implementing these tips from the beginning of your website design, you can set yourself up for long-term success and peace of mind. Best of luck and stay safe!
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