The question of website security becomes more and more acute today. As a rule, a website launch is quite challenging, with many nuances to be considered. No surprise that the question of website security is often neglected, which leads to many problems. As a result, it turns out that the investment in website protection would be much less than the investment in the restoration of the full-fledged work of the once hacked site.
What Are the Consequences?
Inexperienced webmasters believe that the website hack is fraught with only its temporary unavailability in the network, just like users who think that using Cooltechzone is just useless for online protection. In fact, the consequences are much more serious than it might seem at first glance. Here are just the main ones:
- The reputation of the site and the quality of the work with it instantly deteriorate. In this regard, most of the audience can leave your online platform, making a choice in favor of a competing resource. Visitors are extremely demanding and if they do not like something, they will not wait when the issue is resolved;
- You have to spend a lot of money and time to restore the online resource. If a newly launched site is hacked, it will be easier to delete it. In other words, it will be much cheaper to develop a new web project;
- You should immediately work on the website SEO part, because the search engine may stop indexing some of its pages. Search robots are pragmatic, and they will not bypass even the slightest mistake.
How Can Viruses Infect Your Website?
Before you begin implementing any protection solutions, it is worthwhile to understand how viruses can get on your online resource and what purpose the attackers pursue when hacking web projects. It is hosting that does the major job when it comes to website security. That is why it is so important to choose long-running and successful hosting companies.
As a rule, there are several reasons for the website infection with viruses:
- Use of free hosting – Hacking such hosting is easier compared to its paid alternative. Their owners use basic protection tools that are defenseless against the latest hacking solutions. Even if hundreds of sites are subjected to attacks on free hosting, the management of the hosting company providing services free of charge will not be held accountable;
- The easy password to the admin panel. It is clear why we need to set up a complex password, which includes letters in a different case as well as numbers and special symbols;
- Storing passwords in the browser as well as in FTP clients. This is undeniably convenient but not safe. If this is the case, then the attacker’s access to the login data will be only a matter of time;
- The use of plugins and modules that have been downloaded from websites that use dubious fame. Similar modules and plugins can be found on the resources whose use is absolutely safe;
- Untimely update of site management systems. We recommend you to use only the latest version of the CMS. In each new product, the developer fixes old mistakes that could help the hacker in his illegal activities.
How Can You Protect Your Site from Hacking & Viruses?
If you want to rest assured about your website safety, you need to focus on the very first thing – to correctly select hosting for your resource. Instead of picking cheap offers and dealing with a lot of unpleasant consequences, choose a trusted and reputable hosting company. There are some other methods that will help protect your web project from viruses and hacking:
- Protection of access to the admin panel;
- FTP connection protection;
- Using only modules and plugins downloaded from well-known/ official sites;
- Resource protection against XSS attacks.
One of the proven methods of protection is the prohibition of access by IP address through the access file. After all, only a small part of Internet providers is ready to grant their customers an IP dynamic plan. If you have a budget for that, you can purchase a dynamic address.
Restoration of Website Work & Getting Rid of Hack Traces
Realizing that the resource was subject to destructive action by hackers, it is necessary to immediately take action. The slightest delay is dangerous.
The first step is to block access to the website. After that, on the main page of your online resource, place a banner informing users that the website is unavailable due to technical works. At the next stage, request a backup copy of the site, for example, its version taken a month or a week ago. As a rule, this will provide an absolutely “healthy” resource. To avoid relapses, immediately change all passwords and remove newly added plugins and modules from the site. Do not forget to warn the support service specialists about an issue. They will check the server where the site is located for viruses.
