Web security must be the greatest priority in internet marketing because of data, which is the lifeblood for internet marketing, needs complete protection without any compromise. The online operations are entirely dependent on the data that the business generates and includes all kinds of data including customer data as well as data related to business operations and administration. The moment you lose control of the data, you start losing control on the company.
Regardless of how excellent the marketing strategies might be, or how experienced the professionals are, success would depend on how well they can access data and make use of it. Data helps to understand the consumer and potential customer behavior in finer details that give direction to the online marketing campaign. It also provides valuable insight into business operations to assess the performance. Data theft is a big threat for any website as hackers are ever eager to break into websites and steal the data for improper use that can put your online business at risk. They have many tricks in their bags to trespass websites, and you must be prepared to thwart off any attempt of unauthorized access to data. In this article, we will discuss the web security measures that you must take to protect data.
Regular and timely update of software
Hackers are always preying on websites, and you must be aware of the vulnerabilities of your site to take proper security measures for protecting data. Most security lapses occur from any frameworks, software, third-party plugins, libraries or forums and CMS that you use on your website for its smooth operations but are not always updated. Therefore ensuring that all these remain updated is one of the most important steps in plugging the security gap. The biggest vulnerability arises from the codes of the open source software that everyone knows about, and hackers have easy access to it. However, the developer community is vigilant in discovering bugs and plugging security gaps by ensuring its speedy removal.
If you are using third party software on your website, ensure that there is no delay in new version upgrade immediately upon its release. Many CMS solutions have the system of automatic updates, which ensures that the system remains up to date always.
Damage from attacks of SQL injection
The experts at remoteDba.com will tell you that the highest impacting damage to websites and business operations happen from SQL injection that has affected most businesses in recent times. Leave businesses alone; even the US government has fallen prey to it. SQL injection targets databases that the hackers access by using fake URL parameter or fake code through a web form field. During the attacks, hackers send damaging SQL commands to database servers by routing the requests through query strings, input channels, files or cookies. By using the method of SQL injections, it is possible to delete existing user accounts, insert new accounts, change the contents of records, display restricted information and documents and can even go to the extent of compromising the operating system of the server.
Prevent SQL attacks
When you combine commands, contents, strings and much more, check the code of every page in relation to sources from users. When you vet the source code for security gaps and vulnerabilities, it enhances the protection. Use of parameterized queries is the best way of preventing SQL attacks because its implementation is easy and the feature is available in most web languages. Adding placeholder in SQL commands is the way to define command parameters, which you can replace later by user input. As you are setting the SQL code first and adding the input during execution only, the content is not divulged as part of query code. It signals the database that whatever is stored inside is not a code but mere parameter, and therefore it becomes difficult for hackers to dupe the system.
Strengthen your passwords
Passwords are the first line of defense in web security, and it is essential to use complex passwords that are not easy to imagine even. Stick to the discipline of using random and secure passwords for your website admin area and server and adopt good password practices among users that would minimize the chances of hacking. Follow the norm of forming passwords by using a combination of lower case and upper case letters together with numerical and particular case letters and stipulate a minimum length of eight characters. Use unique algorithms to store passwords in an encrypted form, which is used during the process of authentication. Salting the passwords is an accepted practice to minimize damage during password theft. Salted passwords make the task of hackers difficult as it takes much longer time to figure out the right passwords and this could discourage them.
Restrict upload of files
Uploading files pose considerable risk to security, and you must discourage it as much as possible by limiting users from doing it. When you upload files, it can contain potentially dangerous scripts or bugs that pass on to the system and makes it vulnerable for hackers to break through. Although you can check the uploaded files for the extension type or mime, this is not a reliable method for identifying the data that can cause harm. Limiting access of users to the uploaded files and restricting its execution is a better way of doing it.
Minimum permissions for activating web application
Rely on minimum permissions for enabling any web application to perform the tasks. Ensure that you never compromise the administrative account, because if it happens, it will expose the entire database system to hackers. Non-administrative accounts with a link to databases are equally vulnerable and need the same kind of protection, especially if there is sharing among databases and different applications. Use an account that has read-write permissions to databases that would reduce the extent of damage during SQL injections.
Having done your part, ensure that the web host has robust security systems in place because hackers often sneak through the vulnerable web hosts.
