Cybersecurity is a threat to just about everyone in today’s digital-focused world, and businesses are no exception.
The rise in technology and digital use has led to an increase in cybersecurity threats –phishing attempts, data breaches, AI-powered attacks, and more. And because people are doing are more online, they’re more comfortable with their practices and are more likely to fall prey to these attacks.
To help protect both your company and your customers, having a strong and secure website is key. Without it, you are more vulnerable to dangers that can negatively impact business, relationships, and trust between you and your stakeholders.
To help mitigate these risks, let’s highlight 7 essential website security protections every business should implement:
SSL Certificates
An SSL certificate verifies a website’s identity and encrypts the connection, making sure that any sensitive data entered on the site (such as passwords, credit card payments, or identifying information) is harder to be found and stolen by hackers. Easy ways to tell if a site has an SSL certificate include looking at the link to see if it starts with “https://” or if there is a padlock icon in the browser.
These help ensure that any information your customers share on your site, as well as the information you enter and store in the backend, is more secure and that if it were to fall into the hands of scammers, can’t be fully interpreted and used for bad purposes.
A good tip for SSL certificates is also to turn on automatic renewals and payments for them, so you don’t have to worry about any potential lapse in coverage or having to reinstall them when they expire.
Authentication & Access Controls
One of the first steps in protecting your accounts and site is passwords. Requiring strong, unique passwords for your site can help guard customer and employee accounts, helping protect them and you. Turning on two-factor authentication is another good step because it requires an additional layer of verification if someone tries to get into an account.
Having role-based access on your site is about limiting who has access to what parts of your site and database. By limiting admin access and making sure employees can only get to the things necessary for their jobs, you’re making it so if an account is hacked the information they can get to is more restricted.
Requiring regular password updates, as well as periodically removing inactive accounts, will help keep accounts on your site fresh and more secure.
Regular Updates
Once you have your site built, it’s easy to leave it as is, move on to the next project, and forget about it. But doing that can lead to outdated software, themes, plugins, and more on your site. When this happens, these become easier targets for hackers to manipulate and gain access to your site and data because the security endpoints are weaker and more vulnerable.
To help avoid this, it’s important to make sure any software, plug-in, or third-party app you connect to your site is the most current version possible, and that it is fully secure. You also want to set up either automatic updates so things will go through when they become available or have a regular schedule to check for updates and push them through as needed.
Firewalls
A firewall (also known as a web application firewall) is a protective barrier between your site and the internet. It actively searches for and finds hackers and bad traffic coming to your site, then blocks and attacks it before it can actually reach anything.
By blocking these attacks before they enter your site, firewalls are helping protect your business early in the threat process. They also provide more security for remote access, so you feel more confident that your business, data, and site are safe for employees and customers.
Backup & Recovery
Part of a fully protected website and business includes having a plan in case things do go wrong. This is where regular backups and a recovery plan come into play.
Taking regular backups of your website and data is crucial in case something – or someone – ever attacks your business. How often these occur is ultimately up to you and what works best for your company. The more frequently you do them, the more accurate and up to date your information will be once you recover it.
You also have to decide where to host your backups – through the cloud, off-site, or a hybrid. Again, this decision is based off what’s best for your business – and what your IT team or external IT partner recommends.
The recovery piece of this is about how you access and implement your backups once you need them. Having a recovery plan your team is familiar with and knows how to implement can make all the difference when it comes to getting back online quickly.
Monitoring
Cyber threats can happen out of nowhere, but some grow over time. For both, continuous monitoring is key to identifying risks early and stopping them in their tracks.
Having an IT team – whether internal or external – who routinely monitors for bugs and threats and conducts security scans can help you notice unusual behavior early. This is a crucial part of your overall website maintenance because it makes sure you have the necessary safeguards in place, while also actively keeping an eye on potential threats you might need to boost your defenses against.
Compliance
It’s important that not only is your site secure, but that it also operates in accordance with privacy laws – whether that’s in general, location based, or industry standards. Making sure you have someone on your staff – or a partner you rely on – that understands these regulations, conducts regular audits, and ensures you have all the necessary protections to stay compliant is key. This includes using the right cookie consent checks, data collection disclosures, and more.
In today’s online world, website security is essential to protecting your business, your employees, and your customers. Cyberattacks are growing more frequent and sophisticated, and any vulnerabilities your site has can lead to negative consequences for everyone involved.
By implementing these seven key protections to your websites, you’re building a safer, more trustworthy site that you can rely on to help your business grow.
How We Can Help
At WePro, we do everything we can to take the headache and stress of IT and cybersecurity off the shoulders of our clients so they can focus on running their business. Whether that’s helping you implement new software, monitoring your already set-up systems, doing security checks, or a mixture of it all, we’re here to be your full-service IT provider.
If you’re looking to hire an IT service partner in Texas, send us a message! We’ll set up a free consult to learn more about your company, then get to work protecting you.
