How To Protect Your Website From Malware
With the advancement of technology, the internet and websites have become very significant tools for companies, organizations and personal use.
Most businesses have their own websites and also store or organize their data in the cloud.
With endless amounts of important information and personal data stored online, hackers and malicious software, called malware, threaten the security and operations of internet users in order to access this information.
If you have a website, whether it is for your business or personal use, and you want to ensure that it is secure and protected, then have a look at these methods of protecting your website from malware.
Tips To Protect Your Website From Malware
Automatic Backups
It is very important that you backup previous versions of your website as you update or make changes to it.
If your website does happen to get malware, you will be able to revert back to an older version of your website that is free of the malicious software.
There are many online services that provide a backup feature to make it easy for you. Your files can be backed up to a local device, such as a hard drive, or a server.
It is best to find a service that will automatically perform backups so that you do not always have to remember to do them and take time out of your busy schedule.
An automated backup service will also help you restore your most recent data, instead of only having a backup that you manually performed possibly weeks before.
Use Secure Passwords
Updating your passwords and using strong ones that are difficult to figure out is one of the most basic, yet effective ways to protect your website.
Using strong passwords for all your online accounts can help protect you from brute-force attacks, which is when all possible passwords are systematically checked until the right one is discovered.
Updating your password regularly can help you avoid having your password discovered and your website hacked.
One way to ensure your site’s security is to use a password made up of both upper and lower case characters, numbers and special characters. You should also use different passwords for different accounts or systems and update your login information regularly.
Regularly Update Your Content Management System
Content Management Systems (CMS) are tools, such as WordPress or Joomla, that help you to build your own website. It is very important that you check that the CMS you use is up to date, as hackers usually target out of date ones with vulnerabilities, which could put you at risk.
Make sure you regularly check for updates and upgrade to the latest version of your CMS. Some tools have an automatic update function so that you do not have to manually do it as often.
However, before you update, you should always perform a backup to ensure you can restore your website should any problems occur.
Set Up HTTPS (SSL) Secure Hosting
HTTPS is the secure version of regular HTTP, which allows the transfer or communication of data between websites and browsers. It is used so that communications are secure and encrypted so that confidential information can be safely transferred online.
HTTPS was typically used for websites that provided shopping services, banking, or any type of service where there were money transactions taking place, but now it has been increasingly more important for any types of websites, especially ones with sensitive information.
You can set HTTPS up for your website by installing an SSL Certificate for your website’s domain. The SSL Certificate will allow for an encrypted and a padlock icon will appear in the address bar next to your website’s URL to indicate that the site is secure.
Google even promotes the use of HTTPS and SSL Certificates, since online security is such a massive issue, and recognizes it as a ranking factor.
Find A Good Site Shield and Web Application Firewall
Another method of protecting your website is to use a Site Shield, which will regularly scan your website and detect any problems. It will also be displayed on your website so that your visitors can see that your site is safe.
Some Site Shields also come with a Web Application Firewall (WAF), which constantly monitors and checks your website for the biggest, most well-known threats and malware.
Having WAF protection for your website also helps you to get rid of the malware it detects by removing it so that your site stays secure and unaffected.
About the Author Jess Nielsen
Jess has spent years travelling the world full-time. Nothing else comes close to the reaches of this emotive activity...