A Guide for Protecting Customer Information Online
Website security is serious business. You don't want to lose your site's visitor's data, and you don't want any hackers getting their hands on it either. Luckily for you, though, website security doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming. This article will provide you with steps to ensure your site's visitors' data is safe and secure.
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Use HTTPS and HSTS (Strict Transport Security)
The first thing you should do to keep your site's data safe is enabling HTTPS on your website. This type of encrypted connection will help protect the connection between your visitors' browser and your server.
When you have HTTPS configured on your website, you may look into configuring HSTS as well. HSTS locks down a specific URL to always use HTTPS, and it tells the visitor's browser that anytime they go to that domain, they want to be using HTTPS from then on. This makes sure that even if you make a mistake in your configuration that causes HTTPS to break, the visitor won't be able to use HTTP on your site.
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Use a Content Security Policy
A content security policy is a great way to help prevent any malicious code from executing on your website. You can add the Content-Security-Policy header to tell the browser that it should only load resources connected to your domain name. This prevents external JavaScript or CSS files that you didn't upload from executing.
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Use Auto-Escaping for Outputting Data
When you output data that the user has entered into your website to HTML, you should always use auto-escaping. This will ensure that any harmful input the user might have used is escaped so it can't execute as JavaScript on your page.
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Use Cookies to Authenticate Users
A great way to authenticate users on your site is to use cookies. Storing a user's identification number in a cookie lets them remain logged into your website until they log out, which means if they accidentally close their browser or are attacked by a rogue script, it won't affect the security of their account. You can use cookies to ensure that even if they are using a public computer, they are the only ones who can access their account.
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Use CAPTCHA Forms
If you have any forms on your site that allow users to submit content, you should always have CAPTCHA enabled. This is an easy way to protect against spam form submissions, but it can also help keep bots from accessing your website.
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Use Google Authenticator
Using two-factor authentication is a great way to secure your website and ensure that even if someone has the correct username and password combination, they won't get in without the 2nd piece of information. Using Google Authenticator on your website lets you authenticate users without sharing their passwords, protecting both them and your site.
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Password Protect Your Login Page
You should always keep the login page on your site protected behind a password to ensure that no one except legitimate users can access it. This will help protect against brute force attacks on your database.
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Protect Your Database
One of the biggest threats to your website's data is an attack on the databases that store it. Using a firewall can help prevent any attacks on this server, and keeping database passwords protected will ensure they remain secure even if someone does break through your firewall.
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Keep Your Plugins Up to Date
Keeping your website's plugins up to date will ensure that any security issues they have are patched and don't allow any attackers to break through your defenses.
Conclusion
Keeping your website's data safe is a significant part of running a successful business on the internet. Following these nine steps will help you remain protected against large and small attacks and ensure that your visitors always have a safe and secure experience.
