Does your website security have as many holes in it as the English defence?
Jun28Written by:
2010/06/28 08:29 AM 
It’s the 2010 FIFA World Cup, round of 16. England just made it through by the kin of their teeth. They play Germany. Oh dear, they get slaughtered 4:1. Their worst ever. Germany go through. Why?
The main problem as I see it was that their defence was exposed. They had more holes in it than a sieve. Germany penetrated their defence at will.
Can users penetrate your website defences at will?
John Terry looked like he had no clue. Upson looked like he was a school boy with no strength and speed. If anything it was the bad England defence that let them down.
We love and hate football. We can criticise all we like when our team loses. But translate that to your website and blog. What would happen if some attacker were to find their way through your security just as easy as the Germans did with the English soccer team.
Web security
Do you know the level of your sites security. Most have their sites hosted and put their security in the hands of their hosting provider. You should not be complacent and leave it there. The responsibility is on you to check the level of security and test it.
The last thing you want to do is to find your site or blog hacked. Believe me, it’s happened to me before on this very blog.
You have to be more vigilant if you are making use of the following
- User logins
- Third party software, plug-ins, third-party commenting
- Ecommerce
- Shared hosting
Security Document
Do you have a security document that your readers can read. This is one that surprised me because I don’t. At least we should as our hosting provider for their security document. Check that and if we agree to it, have that posted to our web site.
A visible security document will go a long way to install trust in our readers. Especially if we are sitting in the ecommerce game.
Security Checklist
Here is a quick security checklist for you to go through.
- Login pages should be encrypted
- Data validation should be done server-side
- Manage your Web site via encrypted connections
- Use TLS (Transport Layer Security) instead of the older SSL
- Connect from a secured network
- Keep your workstation secure
- Use redundancy, keep a backup of your site for quick restore.
- Keep anti-virus up to date, or make sure they are from your hosting provider
- Make sure the firewall is up to date
Conclusion
Living in South Africa we become very security conscience, especially on a physical level. But we fail to translate that same awareness to our website. Most security breaches are nothing more than maliciousness. But that bit of website graffiti can damage your site and reputation.
Be aware that people are wary of ecommerce and giving their credit card details over the net. Put their minds at ease by employing strong security.
Image credit: purpleslog
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