The world of cybercrime is as active as ever and cybercriminals are always looking for a new target. It’s easy to think you’re safe because you’re a single person or a small company with a website, but that’s not true at all.
In fact, many cybercriminals prey exclusively on smaller websites and companies because they have weaker security. Large corporations can afford to pay for massive security measure, but it’s quite likely you can’t.
The question is: could your current website survive against a cyber attack? No matter who you are, your website is constantly at risk of being attacked for a variety of reasons. It could be a criminal trying to steal sensitive data or a group of people you offended. There are new types of attacks becoming popular every year, meaning you need to stay vigilant. Here are some things to consider for your website’s security and where you could improve.
DDOS Attacks
A very common type of cyber attack for websites is a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack. This is when a website receives so much fake traffic very quickly that the hosting server can’t handle it and shuts down. This can prevent other, real visitors, from visiting the website, open up parts of the backend side of the site to steal information, and lead to a website being down for a long period of time.
How a DDOS attack works is a person or group of people use multiple computers to send entry requests to the website in rapid succession, so fast that the server can’t keep up. Often, the moment it starts, it’s too late for a website owner to stop it. Prevention to a DDOS attack is the only solution for it.
If you run your own server, it’s important to have protections set up to prevent DDOS attacks. This could include setting up an alert if your website traffic spikes to an alarming level or if load times begin to slow because of higher traffic. While this likely won’t stop the DDOS attack, it will give you an opportunity to shut it down yourself before the attackers can break your site and gain access to your private information.
If you don’t run your own server, see what kind of protections your hosting service offers. If you’ve received a DDOS threat, contact your website host to see what they can do. This can include setting up a DDOS blocking wall that takes the brunt of the DDOS attack traffic before moving real traffic on, redirecting some traffic to another server hosting your site to spread out the strain, or shut down your website during the DDOS attack entirely.
Gaining Backend Access
A cyber criminal’s dream scenario is gaining backend access to your website. It can give them access to private data without you ever knowing they were there. If you’re a business site that stores customer data and credit cards, that means a gold mine of identities to steal that they can use for a long time.
First, make sure you have a strong password for any admin accounts for your website. That includes upper and lowercase letters, numbers, symbols everything you’ve ever been taught for making a good password. Then, if other people have admin access, make sure they have good passwords too.
Another way criminals gain backend access to sites is by encoding files into sites that later can be used to gain access. This could be in the form of a picture you find online for free and put on the site, or by a website designer looking to get back into the site at a later date. Finding these files are difficult because they often appear as normal files needed for the website.
Stay diligent on who has access to your website, know exactly which admin accounts belong to who, and change passwords regularly.
What to do if Data is Being Held for Ransom
The goal of most hackers to is to gain access to data, typically personal and financial information. While many will try to simply copy the information and move on, they might try to steal your data and hold it for ransom. Ransomware could lock you out of your website completely or steal your data, leaving you in the dark until you meet their demands.
Ransomware can come in many forms, such as an attachment in an email that moves through your computer till it finds what it wants to hold ransom (like your website) or by inserting it through a backdoor or even including it on a USB that they think you’ll use in the future.
Prevention is key when it comes to ransomware. Never open emails from strangers and be wary of new or strange USBs. Make sure other site admins or employees follow the same rules and are wary of suspicious situations.
Another good way to conquer ransomware is to have backups of everything. That way, you could purge your system and start fresh, hopefully without the ransomware in the system. Regularly backing up your website and data is a good habit to get into, both to fight against ransomware and accidental data loss.
Stay Vigilant and Up to Date
Cybercriminals are constantly evolving, meaning you need to stay up to date on all forms of cyber security for your website. Falling behind puts you and your website at risk, which if you do online business, also puts your customers at risk.
Make sure you have up to date security software and keep an active eye on your website. If something looks suspicious, like unusual spikes in traffic or an unknown admin user, investigate it. Catching the criminal early can minimize damage and prevent a catastrophe for you.