Protect Website from Hackers and Malware - 6 Tips for More Security

Website owners must always be prepared for attacks from hackers on their online presence. But what measures can be taken to protect your website from hackers and malware? We have gathered 6 practical tips for you.

Which websites are affected?

Every website on the internet is a potential target for hacker attacks. Even if it's just a small homepage focusing on a niche topic with few visitors, the website can still become a target for hackers. Dynamic websites, created with popular software like WordPress or Joomla, are generally at a higher risk. Hackers have a much larger attack surface here due to the extensive and complex program code, compared to simple static HTML websites.

Why does your own website become a target for hackers?

Many webmasters wonder why their own site becomes a target for hackers, especially if it's a small website that doesn't store sensitive information like customer data, bank details, or similar data. However, hackers have various goals with their attacks:

• Data and information theft
• Hackers target websites to obtain usernames, passwords, or other information about the web server. Once such data is obtained, it can be used to gain access to other systems. Such attacks are particularly dangerous for website owners such as online shops, as not only their business is affected, but legal consequences can also arise.
• Hijacking
• Hijacking refers to the hijacking of a single website or an entire server. Hackers attempt to gain access to external platforms to misuse them for their own purposes. Hijacked systems are used as distributors for spam or illegal content, or serve as a base for further attacks to make it difficult to trace the hackers.
• Influencing search engines
• Visitors who come to a website through search engines contribute significantly to the revenue of a web project in many areas. Therefore, webmasters are interested in keeping their own site as high as possible and their competitors' offerings as low as possible on search engine results pages. Hackers gain access to websites to place links to other sites, improving their ranking in search engines, or even try to harm a competitor directly by changing the content.

How to Protect Your Own Website?

Every website's webmaster is fully responsible for its security. Visitors and customers must be protected at all times, sensitive information must be treated confidentially and encrypted, and the site must be as well protected as possible from attacks. The following tips help to increase the security of your own website:

Keep Software Up to Date

The most common reason for successful hacker attacks on websites is outdated web applications. Especially with dynamic websites that use content management systems like WordPress or Joomla, important upgrades are released at regular intervals. These upgrades not only bring new features but also close known security vulnerabilities from previous versions. Hackers specifically target outdated web applications as the chances of successful intrusion are much higher here. If additional software such as extension modules and plugins are used, they must also be kept up to date.

Use Secure Passwords

Another common cause of successful hacker attacks on websites is insecure passwords. While the use of complex passwords should be a given, most users still tend to use simple passwords like their own first name or simply the company name in businesses. Such terms do not pose a significant obstacle for hackers and are often cracked in a short time. When assigning passwords, it is essential to use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. In addition, secure passwords should be at least eight to ten characters long.

Use Secure Usernames

The same applies to usernames as it does for passwords. For convenience, simple usernames like 'Administrator' or one's own name are usually used instead of making it more difficult for attackers by choosing individual character combinations. If the username is not obvious, attackers must first discover it, which doubles the effort and significantly increases the security of your own website.

Secure Forms

Forms are a common vulnerability in websites. Popular features like contact forms, guestbooks, or comment fields that allow visitors to make inputs directly on the website and transmit data are often entry points for threats. When using such forms, one should be particularly cautious and secure them against automated requests using so-called Captchas (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart).

Use SSL Encryption

Using an SSL certificate enables an encrypted connection between the website and the visitor. This way, all data can be securely transmitted without unauthorized third parties being able to view it. Especially with sensitive data such as access credentials to the administration interface of content management systems, SSL encryption can contribute to increased security for your website.

Create Regular Backups

Make sure to create security backups of your website at regular intervals. If your data is compromised, the entire web presence must be deleted and restored. To save yourself a lot of effort in re-establishing everything, backups should always be kept up to date. Typically, the web hosting provider creates automatic backups for security, but it is essential to also create your own backups.

If you operate your own server, you can find more information on the Security topic in the following articles:

• Protecting Linux Web Servers from Hacker Attacks
• Protecting Windows Web Servers from Hacker Attacks

If you use WordPress for your website, also read the following article on security:

Securing WordPress web hosting

With the increasing use of the internet and the growing number of websites transmitting sensitive information such as bank details, passwords, and confidential documents over the network, the number of hacker attacks is also steadily increasing. Regardless of the type of online presence you have, every website on the internet can become the target of hacker attacks. Therefore, every webmaster should address the security issue and take appropriate measures to protect their website.