One of the biggest threats to your business isn’t the economy. It’s not more competition. It’s hackers trying to bring down your website and steal your data.
Attacks happen to large and small companies every single day. Unfortunately, about 60% of small businesses that are hit with a cyberattack fail to make it six months after the attack.
There’s a lot at stake to keep your website safe and secure. You want to make sure that you know of the various security vulnerabilities that hackers can expose.
What are the most common security vulnerabilities among websites?
Read on to find out.
Table of Contents
1. Easy to Guess Password
One of the largest data breaches to date is the Equifax breach. Over 143 million records were exposed when hackers gained access to their systems.
The breach was subject of many investigations and cost the company billions of dollars. One research firm found that one of the company’s databases in Argentina used one of the most basic login credentials. The username and passwords were ‘admin.’
That’s right, a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate used the most basic login information on their databases. They may as well give hackers the keys to the candy shop.
Believe it or not, this is a common occurrence among large and small businesses. They want something easy to remember in the sea of passwords that they have to remember. Yet, by having simple login information, it’s easier to guess passwords and put your site at risk.
The best way to guard against this is to use a password generator that creates strong passwords and store them in a password app like LastPass.
2. Failure to Update
You’re likely to use WordPress as the content management system of your site. WordPress is great because you can build a site without being a coding expert.
Plus, there’s a plugin for every possible feature and optimization you could want. There’s one for SEO, installing code in your headers, making your site faster and more.
Of course, there’s one for security, too.
These plugins and the WordPress core are updated frequently. Developers will often discover security flaws or new ways to improve the performance of the plugins and core.
Using an older version of software leaves your site vulnerable to attack because you’re running software that has security holes. You need to update your site regularly to ensure that you’re running the latest version of the software.
3. SQL Injection
WordPress runs on a SQL database. Hackers can inject code into your database that takes over your site. The malicious code can override commands in the SQL database, giving hackers full reign to your website.
They can then take information like passwords, login information, and customer data for their own purposes.
4. Remote File Inclusion
Some businesses use their websites for customers and vendors to upload paperwork, like contracts or health information.
Hackers can use this upload ability to upload executable files. Once these are activated, your site is toast. The best protection against this attack is to disallow anything from being uploaded to your site.
If you must have documents uploaded, you’ll want to install a script that can tell when malicious software or code has been uploaded to your site.
5. Not Using HTTPS
More sites are using HTTPS because it creates trust with visitors, and it can help with SEO.
The real reason why you want to use HTTPS if you don’t already is security. HTTPS uses secure socket layers, which secures the connection between your site’s servers and the visitor’s web browser.
6. Redirection of Pages
Your backend file directory contains your site’s pages. Hackers can get into your directory and redirect pages to other, malicious pages.
One large healthcare organization was hacked, and payments were redirected to a hacker’s own site, designed to look like the healthcare site. When customers made payments, those payments went to hackers.
It’s not just payment pages that people can be redirected to. They can be sent to sites that have malicious software that infects your customers’ devices.
7. Secure Your Emails
Did you know that email is still used by hackers successfully? It’s actually the most common way that security systems are breached.
It turns out that the biggest security vulnerability isn’t your website itself. It’s your employees. You want to make sure that your employees are educated on security threats and phishing emails.
You also want to use secure email ports when setting up your email accounts.
8. Open WiFi Networks
Does your business offer public WiFi as a courtesy to customers? That can put your website and network in jeopardy.
Public WiFi is great until it’s hacked because it’s not secure. A skilled hacker can get into the backend of your network and cause a lot of problems.
The best thing that you can do is to offer WiFi, but have it password protected. This gives you more control over your network.
9. Lack of Security Audits
Have you ever performed a security audit of your website and network? What you don’t know can hurt you in the case of website security.
An audit will give you the information you need to expose and plug up security vulnerabilities. Security audits can be performed by an IT consultancy. They’ll take an objective view of your website and networks and give recommendations to keep your systems secure.
Expose and Fix Your Website Security Vulnerabilities
So much of your business depends on a functioning website. When your site is taken over by hackers, you can lose your search rankings, revenue, and productivity. Most of all, you lose your customers’ trust in your company.
That is something that you can’t recover from and why businesses shut down after an attack. The best way to prevent an attack is to know the top security vulnerabilities and how your site can be attacked.
You should also perform an audit to see how your site’s security can be improved.
Finally, you should install a WordPress plugin that works hard to keep your site secure. Take a look at our plugin and buy it today.
