How To Secure Your Website: The Top 10 Best Practices

By Author: Harry Smith
Total Articles: 16
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Securing your website is essential in providing customers with a safe and reliable experience. In this post, we’ll review the top 10 best practices for website security so that businesses can protect their online presence from malicious attacks.

1. Use strong passwords: Creating secure passwords should be a priority when setting up accounts used on your website. Passwords should be a combination of at least 8-10 characters with symbols, numbers, upper-case and lower-case letters. Additionally, it's important to update passwords regularly and use multi-factor authentication wherever possible.

2. Implement regular patching: Software updates often include patches for specific vulnerabilities or bug fixes — both of which are key in keeping websites protected against cyber threats. It's important to run automated scans for software vulnerabilities regularly and install the relevant updates as soon as they become available from the vendor to make sure your systems remain secure at all times.

3. Monitor user access: Having visibility into who is accessing what resources on your website ...
... is critical in detecting any suspicious activity quickly before it can cause damage or disruption operations. Establishing logging tools can help track user behavior — including data transfers, file creations/deletions, automated processes used etc.— so you can identify any malicious actions in time.

4. Deploy firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS): Firewalls provide an added layer of security by keeping external threats out; therefore organizations should deploy a hardware or software based firewall solution along with other measures of protection (e.g., IDS/IPS) to guard against cyberattacks.

5. Ensure physical security of servers: If your website relies on physical servers kept outside of the company premises then organizations need to take extra precautions measures to ensure only authorized personnel has access to them.

6. Utilize URL filtering solutions: URL filtering solutions restrict access to websites based on certain criteria (e.g., domain name or keyword) which can help keep employees away from malicious sites or prevent hackers from gaining entry into internal networks via an already compromised link.

7. Train employees regularly: Cybersecurity awareness training is another important measure that organizations should implement; educating employees about potential risks associated with common internet tasks (e.g., opening emails, clicking links) will increase their ability to spot suspicious activities and defend against unexpected attempts at compromising the network environment.

8. Put web application firewall in place: Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides an additional layer of protection for corporate websites by monitoring requests sent through the server environment, preventing attackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities attached with hosted applications like SQL injections.

9. Set up Secure Socket Layer (SSL): An SSL connection encrypts data between two points making it unreadable even if intercepted by malicious actors during transit -- ensuring any personal information shared over the internet stays confidential no matter where it travels.

10. Restrict access control list( ACL): Access control list are also very useful for restricting user privileges within an internal network; without proper restrictions users might unintentionally be granted administrative rights giving them power to execute risky actions that could compromise sensitive data & systems stored behind the network perimeter walls.

In conclusion, following these best practices will go a long way towards protecting businesses against common cyber threats while ensuring customer data remains secure across all facets of operations.