If you are an online business owner, then you must take steps to protect your websites. We all want our hard-earned money to be safe and secure when we entrust it to a third party. There are many ways that hackers can get into your site and steal information or cause harm, so here are four simple steps that will help keep them out!
1) Protect Your Domain Name
Your domain name is the virtual address for your website, so you want to make sure that it is protected. By adding security certificates and firewalls to your site, you can prevent hackers from attempting attacks on your servers.
The first step is to purchase a Security Certificate. This certificate will encrypt all of your information with an industry-standard SSL (secure socket layer) which keeps things safe as they travel through cyberspace between users’ computers and the server hosting the site. If somebody tries to access this data without permission or any sort of attack on it while in transit, they are blocked by what’s called “the padlock icon” at the top left-hand corner of most browsers when this type of security certificate is used.
This SSL Certificate will protect your domain name if you are using WordPress because the platform automatically installs it for you when purchased. It’s that easy!
2) Install a Firewall
The second step is to install a Firewall on your server. This works like an airbag in a car; if someone hits your site with more traffic than usual, it protects against DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks by blocking hostile IP addresses from entering or leaving data that can cause harm to the servers hosting the website.
You must ensure that all software updates are up-to-date and always use strong passwords – never share them with anyone else! As long as you do this, you will be well-protected from hackers.
3) Monitor Traffic
The third step is to monitor all of your traffic. There are many free apps that you can download which allow you to track the IP addresses, the number of users, and how much bandwidth they have used – even in real-time! You want to make sure that there aren’t any irregularities in activity on your website because this could be a sign of suspicious behavior. Installing one of these apps will help you keep an eye out for anything unusual or fishy so that you can detect irregular patterns quickly before they cause damage.
And if something does happen, then the app will automatically block certain IPs from accessing specific pages if someone has gotten hold of some sensitive information without authorization. This alone makes them worth installing!
5) Set your ITGC Controls
The fourth and final step is to set up your ITGC (Internal Threat Governance Controls). The ITGC controls will tell you where all of your sensitive data is stored on the website, who has access to it, and what rules they must follow. For example:
- Are there any pages that only certain users should see?
- Do managers have unrestricted access, or do they need permission from someone else before entering a page?
- Which IP addresses can view specific content under which circumstances?
These are just some examples of the types of controls you might want in place as part of your internal threat governance process. If something does happen, then this information will help with assessing the damage and figuring out how hackers got into the system so that it doesn’t happen again.
These four simple steps will help keep your online purchase sites safe and secure from cyber attacks like hacker bots, DDoS, or malware that can steal sensitive data or information and harm you in some way. It’s important to ensure that the site is protected at every level so that hackers cannot access it – not even if they try.
