Blog

In today’s world, people operate mostly online. This is evident especially with the business people, both the small and the large business ones. They take their business to another level, not only to those that are close to them but also to those who are very far away from them. Technology has made this possible through the creation of websites, where people from all over can always access and get whatever product or service they want just in their convenience.

Website creation has truly helped a lot. However, it also has its own challenges especially if the process taken to develop it is not right. Many a times, people just want to do it the easy and the cheap way. For instance, they hire a cheap developer online to set up the website for them, and after some time, the website ceases to operate. In many occasions, you will find that some of these developers do not have actual training in website security as to make a secure website, and as a result, many security problems arise in the websites, plus of course the damages. It is therefore important that before you settle on any person in the name of a ‘web developer’, ensure they are a professional and a reliable one.

How can you make a secure website?

The truth is, a website that is not in any way secure is vulnerable and prone to viruses and hackers. It is the wish of every website owner to have a secure website, for in so, operations will be smooth and uninterrupted. Here are some of the tips you can apply so as to keep the hackers at bay.

• Always use strong and weighty passwords and keep them safe – it is time people change their passwords from the weaker, default or common ones to stronger ones. Strong passwords are very vital, when it comes to the security of a website. This is because they cannot be broken easily whenever the hackers try to steal or crack passwords for software and computers that normally use the File Transfer Protocol, to move files to a different computer. Also, it is important to keep them safe, so that not any Tom, Dick and Harry can access them.
• Get an SSL certificate to encrypt your traffic – if you are transmitting secure data to the user such as credit card information you need to encrypt it with an SSL certificate. You’ll need to ensure that it’s trusted by all the major browsers by getting it from a brand name certificate authority such as GeoTrust, Thawte or Comodo – check out some of them here. An encrypted website will also prevent the connection between you and your user from being intercepted by any man in the middle attacks. You also have the option to use the SSL certificate to validate your organisation so that even if you don’t have sensitive data the SSL certificate proves to your users that your website is genuine and not impersonating you.
• Get professional assistance from the experts – there are many big companies that hugely depend on their websites and cannot just do without them. To such companies, hiring firms that are well-versed with website security issues to alert them on such occurrences will always be of help to them a great deal. Such firms can always help them with;

1. Certain repairs after hacking
2. Monitoring for malicious activity
3. Scanning for security vulnerabilities
4. When blacklisted

• Register your website with Google’s webmaster tools – when you register with the Webmaster Tools, you’ll always be notified of the infections. For example, before your website is blacklisted the Webmaster Tools will always notify you in advance, so that you can look for a way of getting rid of it quickly. You will also be informed on the particular problem Google is noticing in your website. This will enable you clean up speedily then get back to Google’s good books.

This is therefore a wake up call to all website owners, those seasoned as well as those new to the industry, to be extra careful with the people that call themselves ‘web developers’ as they can affect the operations of their websites negatively, since not all of them are skilled enough to make a secure website.