The challenges of website security are one crucial factor which we must discover. It is the first step towards blocking malicious attacks. Not just your site, but your visitors as well.
What is Security in the Web
Web security is any action or application taken to ensure website data is not exposed to cybercriminals or to prevent exploitation of websites in any way. However, web security is not offered for free. You, of course, must shell out a certain amount for it. Harsh though it may sound, but in reality, nothing is free in this world. Well, “almost” nothing.
Web Security Protects Websites
- DDoS. These attacks are responsible for slowing down or crashing your site entirely. Therefore making it inaccessible to visitors.
- Malware. Short for “malicious software,” malware is a prevalent threat. Hence it is for stealing vital data, making your site easily accessible to criminals, and a lot more.
- Blacklisting. What happens in blacklisting is, your site is not on the results of the search engine. Moreover, what appears is a warning which discourages visitors if the search engine detects malicious software.
- Exploits in Vulnerability. Hackers can have access to a site and also to its stored data. They do this by tapping on weak spots on the website.
- Defacement. What happens in defacement is, hackers, replace the content of your website is with malicious data or content.
It does not only protect your site but your visitors, too. In other words, it protects your visitors from:
- Stolen data. From email addresses to payment information, cybercriminals frequently go after visitor or customer data stored on a site.
- Phishing schemes. Phishing does not just happen in email. Some attacks take the form of web pages that look legitimate but are designed to trick the user into providing sensitive information.
- Session hijacking. Some cyber-attacks can take over a user’s session and hence force them to take unwanted actions on a site.
- SEO Spam. Unusual links, pages, and also comments can be put on a site to confuse your visitors and drive traffic to a malicious website
Web Security Challenges
More Modern and Updated Methods of Web Attacks
Hackers are on the lookout for every possible vulnerability in websites. Many now work as groups with sophisticated software designed specifically to seek out and exploit outdated software, flimsy firewalls, unencrypted databases and many other areas of the target. It only takes a single point of entry for a hacker to get in and corrupt a site or steal valuable data.
Web hosts, CMS platforms and virus protection suites regularly update to protect from the latest threats. The problem is a threat sometimes has to occur before updates are developed to protect against it. Hackers do not give up easily. Or better yet, most hackers never give up.
Numerous Websites are Affected Daily
It is easy to think it will not happen to you. With millions of websites, what are the odds yours will be targeted? Over 30,000 sites are infected daily, and 80% of those are legitimate websites and not malicious URLs. If that is not enough, the Web Application Security Consortium had discovered 34 types of web security threats. They are designed for compromising a site’s data, site integrity and user data as of 2012, and that number is only growing.
Threats That Web Visitors Bring Along
You do not have to protect your site from hackers. Often, visitors download malicious software unknowingly. Hackers then use the software to try and penetrate places by posing as a legitimate user. This is even more dangerous when you have a membership site. Gaining access to yet a single login can be enough for data thieves to take over your databases.
Attacks come from all directions. It is one of the biggest challenges with website security. It is no longer enough to protect from one or two areas. Your website needs to be locked down as securely as possible, even from your visitors, without affecting site performance.
In Conclusion
Cybercriminals have always posed a threat. Today, however, they have upgraded and modernized their strategy, resulting in very alarming and devastating damage. IT experts are keeping up with them, even staying a step ahead to counter these cyber-attacks and therefore keep everything safe and secure – from the website to its visitors.