How to Protect Your Website from Common Cyber Threats
Regardless of the size of your business, cyber threats can be a real problem. Furthermore, the industry of your business doesn’t matter as long as there’s something valuable for the hackers.
Whether dealing in products, cryptocurrencies, or services, you can be a potential victim.
This is why it’s essential to implement proper cybersecurity protocols to protect your website from wrongdoers. Thankfully, many minimal and affordable measures can go a long way.
This article explores the most common cyber threats and the most effective methods to protect against them. The landscape of cyber threats is evolving quickly, so you should implement the basic techniques and keep up with the latest cybersecurity trends.
What are cyber threats?
In short, cyber threats include malicious software in cyberspace that aims to cause harm. Motivations behind cyber threats include financial gain, data theft, or simply causing disruption.
Cyber threats can be targeted towards governmental institutions, individuals, or businesses. Regardless of their target, they can cause significant harm if not dealt with properly. The major problem with cyber threats is that they’re constantly evolving.
Luckily, cybersecurity software and methods are also evolving. For example, early anti-virus software was based on signature-based detection, meaning only recognized viruses could be found and destroyed.
Nowadays, software can recognize all types of malicious code. With the rise of artificial intelligence, anti-virus software is becoming even more powerful and capable of identifying and removing security risks.
The most common types of cyber threats
A common type of threat would be ransomware attacks. This type of attack can be conducted through multiple mediums. This type of malware, once installed on your computer, overtakes your storage and encrypts it.
In order to remove this encryption, the virus requests money, thus the word “ransom.” You can remove this malware by paying the sum, although this rarely works, or through finding expensive decrypting solutions.
However, the best way of protecting against ransomware attacks is by avoiding them.
The following common type of cyber attack is brute force. This attack tries out endless combinations of letters until it guesses your password. The best way to defend against this cyber threat is by avoiding using weak passwords and multi-factor authentication.
Brute force attacks can sometimes be enhanced by dictionary and social engineering attacks. Dictionary attacks involve trying out common passwords and words to crack your password. On the other hand, social engineering attacks involve manipulative tricks to obtain sensitive information.
A social engineering attack can revolve around hackers exploring the names of your pets, family, and partners to use their names as a brute-force method. They can also use manipulative tricks to get you to reveal sensitive information to them.
One of the most interesting cyber threats is the watering hole attack. The watering hole refers to a place commonly visited by the victim. Just as predators in nature stake out watering holes where their prey gathers, cybercriminals identify and infect websites that specific groups of users trust and visit regularly.
Methods to protect your website
The field of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and there new threats are continually emerging. You must have the basics covered, but keeping up with the latest cybersecurity trends is also recommended.
The list below explores the most common and effective methods to protect your website from widespread cyber threats. Each method varies in costs and complexities, yet the losses associated with cyber threats are much higher than any of these measures.
Security plugins
Depending on your content management system and backend, you should find the proper security plugins to defend your website. Security plugins can help with denial-of-service attacks, allowing you to block malicious traffic.
Overall, security plugins can help against several different malware types. However, checking whether you need to obtain free or paid versions of these plugins is important.
Employee training
If your business has multiple employees, you should ensure that they have sufficient cybersecurity knowledge. Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone in your company must be a cybersecurity expert.
However, they should be able to recognize suspicious emails and phishing attempts and know what links to avoid. According to data, most cyber risks unfold because of human error.
Cybersecurity training also helps defend against cyber threats such as brute force attacks. This type of attack exploits weak passwords, and cybersecurity training should help employees understand how to create strong passwords and why MFA is important.
Select a good hosting
Choosing a secure website hosting platform is one of the most important ways to ensure website security. This includes picking a hosting with a good reputation and the most minor compromises in the past.
The following criterion would be picking hosting options that already have some security measures. For example, they use colocation management software to protect your website infrastructure.
It’s essential that your hosting complies with regulations in the region in which you operate. If there is a data leakage, even if it’s the hosting’s fault, your website and business will suffer the consequences.
Other security features you should look for are supported SSL certificates, firewalls, and regular monitoring.
Implement multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) allows employees and users to log in to their accounts using multiple methods. It is another method of protection against brute-force attacks.
Even if an employee’s password is compromised, MFA makes this obsolete, as the bad actor will still have to authenticate using another method. Standard authentication measures include authentication tokens, biometrics, and SMS codes.
This additional layer of security protects your website from numerous malicious actors.
Regular backups
Backing up your data is essential, even for your personal needs, let alone your business. Regular backups ensure that your data can be easily recovered.
In the context of a website, backups can help you return to a previous version of a website if something terrible happens. For example, your developer updated your live version of the website while it still wasn’t checked for bugs.
Backups can also be helpful in worst-case scenarios. One of the points of data regulations, such as GDPR, is losing data. You can be eligible for additional fines if your users can’t recover their data. Regular backups can save your reputation a bit in bad scenarios.
Cybersecurity is essential for website owners
Cyber threats like ransomware can lead to direct financial losses for company owners. However, problems can occur from other types of cyber attacks, such as brute force, watering holes, and social engineering attacks.
Regardless of the type of cyber threat you’re faced with, a data leak will certainly lead to fines and reputational blows. It’s essential that you implement robust cybersecurity measures to minimize the risk of cyber threats.
About the author: Veljko Petrović
Veljko is an IT student who has successfully combined his passion for technology with his exceptional writing skills. As an emerging specialist in cybersecurity, he has completed several courses and has been published in notable blogs in the industry. In his free time, Veljko enjoys weightlifting, reading, and programming.
