5 Security Tips to Protect Your Website from Hackers

Having worked hard to build your website, the last thing you want to happen is losing it to hackers or identity thieves online. This, therefore, calls for definitive measures that will ensure that your site is protected. Below is a list of ways that you could employ to keep your site safe.

Use a VPN

Having your website live on the internet is equivalent to letting people into your house or office. The good thing about it is that you have the control over what they can and cannot access in your premises. This means that depending on the kind of visitors in your house you may need to conceal or reveal some of the things therein.

For your website the same thing happens, it is, therefore, paramount for you to take care of the type of information that you let different site visitors’ access. Keeping in mind that not everyone is straightforward, different people have different malicious intentions.

Using a VPN protects your data and information such that you can operate anonymously on the web. This gives you an excellent footing because it protects you from potential hacking and site identity thievery. There are different types of VPN apps that are available at varied speeds, price and ease of use. Be sure to pick the most appropriate of them to protect your site.

Use an antivirus

With the influx of internet users with different motives, no one can be sure of what tomorrow will bring. As the proverb goes better safe than sorry. Your website may mean a lot to you, but not everyone out there has the courtesy to respect your work. People have very malicious intentions. It is therefore advisable that once you have your site live to have a protection for the data that you publish on it.

Invest in a good antivirus software, this will protect your data and keep your website safe from possible malware introduced by malicious people or any interference. Several tech companies have antiviruses that are strong enough to protect your data online. They may differ from the features and the level of security they provide. Therefore, it calls for thorough scrutiny of the best antivirus to make sure that your site is safe. If this means visiting a ‘techie’ and asking several questions or a review of different software, then do it. A lot of information alternatively exists on the web. Be sure to conduct enough research before settling on a specific antivirus program to make sure it gives you maximum security.

Take care of your network access

Here is the tricky bit you might have protected your website with the strongest antivirus and the best firewall installations but leave loopholes when it comes to your internet access. If you are on wireless connection, be very careful on the internet providers that you allow your browser to use. The new technique that hackers use is going through the IP addresses connected to a certain network, with that they are easily able to hack into your system and steal your private information.

Therefore, if you work remotely or you need to use a shared network, be very careful to verify what other users are using the network for and whether or not the data shared is safe. Additionally, be careful while using Wi-Fi networks for example at the airport and coffee places. Always add these networks to the ‘public network’ option on your computer. This communicates to your machine that the specific network is not trusted. Consequently, the system will take appropriate action to shield your data from possible interferences such as hacking.

You also need to make sure that you update your passwords regularly. Use limited login periods and ensure that all the devices are scanned for malware before they are connected to the network that you are using.

Back up regularly

The thought of creating something awesome and then suddenly losing it is daunting. No one wants to build a website, then lose all the data within no time, and begin all over again. Without causing you too much fear, it is important to note that this is a possible scenario. A slight negligence on your website can cause you to lose all the data and information in it.

When such a dreadful thing happens, it brings people back to square one, and they usually might never be able to pick themselves up again from this downfall. This is because so much goes into setting up a website and losing it can be demoralizing. What can you do therefore to avoid this? Make sure that your website’s data is backed up well. Whether you do it on external data storage devices or in the cloud ensure you can retrieve all the data that exists on your website if you were to lose it today.

Several external storage devices exist in the market, be sure to buy the one that caters for your needs and the amount of data that needs to be backed up in your site. Also, you need to back up data regularly because you do not know when calamity will strike.

Toughen the accessibility

This will depend on the kind of a site that you have. Some sites are set up in ways that external users need not use the login so as to access them. However, for other sites, one will need to subscribe and create their profile to access the site. These kinds of sites are at a riskier position than the latter.

Therefore, to protect them from malware and potential hacking, you need to limit their accessibility. Limit the number of login attempts at a go. Also, limit the number of password change attempts and make sure that users provide the correct information every time they access it. This will easily create mechanisms to track fraudsters and hackers that might be pushing to gain access to the site illegally.

Conclusion

There are myriad of ways out here to protect your site and your privacy in this big data age. Whether you own a website or you are a site admin be on the lookout for ways you could keep your site protected.

Author Profile

Fernando BiZ: The Founder & CEO of ClickDo Ltd. Writes about digital marketing and SEO for local businesses in International corporation. You can read more on OM HQ blog for more of my writings.