Common Website Security Issues
Website security basically refers to the protection of organizational and personal public-facing web sites from cyber Attacks. Why should concern be taken about website security then? These attacks affect all facets of data security, confidentiality, availability, and integrity and can very gravely harm the reputation of both the website owner and the website. The following text will explain why you should take into consideration website security.
As mentioned, website security is a major issue, especially for businesses. This is because every business website is an online storefront that interacts with and requires visitors to provide their personal details. These visitors are essentially the prospective customers of your business. If they are under attack from malicious software, your reputation is at stake.
The most common method of attack for cyber criminals and other hackers is to infiltrate employee websites by compromising their internet security accounts. This gives them access to personal information stored in these websites. In most cases, businesses that store confidential or sensitive customer data in their websites are more prone to attack. Some of these websites include banks, shopping malls, secured websites such as government websites, schools, colleges and hospitals, teleseminars, forums and other venues that allow members to give and receive comments.
If you do not take great measures to secure your website, your personal data as well as your company’s information will be a victim of these hackers. There are many ways in which these hackers can infiltrate and compromise websites. Some malicious software programs are able to bypass usual website security measures and directly send their payload to the targeted websites. The result is that websites get hacked regularly and security measures that should have been in place are not implemented.
It is important that businesses take the initiative to enhance website security. The first and foremost thing that they need to do is find out the vulnerable websites and fix the vulnerabilities that they find. When websites get hacked, the entire system gets compromised and can be attacked from different angles. For instance, when the hackers find a vulnerability on a website that contains sensitive information, they can use it to extract and sell the information. They then use the information to launch further attacks. If the vulnerabilities are not fixed, then these hackers have full access to the internal systems and can remotely control the operations of websites.
Website owners have to work closely with their IT staffs and make sure that their systems are updated and that all the necessary software and tools are installed. By patching up websites when they are being attacked, businesses will reduce the number of cyberattempts that they will face. Not only will their systems be protected, but so will their customers’ information because they won’t be vulnerable to attacks. A majority of attacks on websites are successful because the attackers know the weak spots of a business website.
Another common attacks on websites include SQL injection, cross-site scripting, URL harvesting, and application execution. These are just some of the more popularly known web application security issues that can happen to a business website. In fact, some of the biggest website security issues that have recently been discovered require application patches in order to be repaired.
These attacks are not only dangerous for the website owners, but also for the visitors who come to the websites. When cyber criminals hack into a website, they are able to steal confidential information from the website such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account details. This information is transferred to the attackers immediately. This makes it impossible for the website owners to prove that the attack did not take place unless they perform a massive data backup of everything that the website has stored. Most victims of cyber attacks are not aware that their information has been stolen until they try to make a payment or contact the website owners to report that their accounts have been hacked.