Has your website been hacked? Keep on reading…
A nightmare scenario for every website owners out there is to have their website where they invested much time and effort to be hacked. The worst case scenario is to have your website thoroughly hacked and you’re unable to even enter or log in. Data and personal information could have been stolen and the chances of a malware being passed through other visitors of your website are very likely. Fixing the damage will also take a lot more time or you may not be able to repair it all. Most likely, other visitors will steer away clear of your website in the future even if you have secured it and fixed any holes. So how does a website get hacked in the first place? Here are the most frequent reasons for hacker attacks and how you can prevent them from happening.
The main reason for a website to be hacked is because it has weak to no security defense installed. Another glaring issue is that your host server is vulnerable to online attacks; this could be a huge problem because if one of the sites they host gets attacked, chances are that the hackers can possibly be able to get access to all of the providers clients. Being vigilant and reporting any disturbances and irregularities to your host provider is one way to make sure that the provider is not the one that’s infected by a virus.
Always review the feedback of a server provider before registering and if they have a history of being hacked then look elsewhere for a better host server with better security measures for their clients.
Often times the problem originates from the hardware itself rather than the website. Viruses can be hidden within files in the computer that is only activated once you go online and log in a website. To prevent this, install the best and latest antivirus program and do a routine scan every couple of days or so. FTP and SSH using computers should be regularly scanned and you should leave off unencrypted passwords in FTPs. Always connect to a trusted network and if given the chance, use SFTP to browse the web as it can encrypt passwords being shared through computers.
Passwords are also targeted by hackers and are one of their main methods of hacking. Finding out the password could take only a matter of time for the more experienced hackers, having a simple password doesn’t help your cause either. To prevent this from happening, use a mixture of capitalized, numerical and symbols as your password. A seemingly random combination of characters work best and changing them every week will add to your defense against hackers. Always use your own combination rather than opting for auto-generating a password. As intricate as these auto-generated passwords may seem, it is still generated by a program and that makes it possible to be traced. If your website has been hacked before, thoroughly search for any new accounts made as this may be used as security hole for your website to hack again.
Content Management System or CMS are often used to easily manage your website and sustain properly doing task. A huge problem with the CMS is that it is one of the most vulnerable parts of your websites. It can easily be hacked if you’re not able to apply sufficient defense and will always present cracks for malwares to crawl into. Preventing this can be done by not giving any information to what version of CMS you currently have installed, conceal your directory structure and by not letting multiple application share your database information. A bad encoding can also lead to a hacked website, always scan through your custom CMS to see any imbalance or let a professional handle this part. Any 3rd party plug-in should be systematically reviewed and read any feedback it has from other users before installing it.
There is no full proof way to make your website 100% secure from malware and hack attacks. Sooner or later your website will get compromised, the best method is to always monitor your system, keep changing your passwords weekly and do not install any unknown applications.
