You may not have to worry that your web business will be robbed at gun point, but you are still targeted by criminals. In fact, the most sophisticated crimes take place on the internet all the time. Cyberattacks are so subtle, that most just aren’t aware of all the security risks. To reduce the odds that you will be victimized, your web application needs a solid security plan.
A computer hacker’s motivation
While all hackers are criminals, not all are thieves. Not every troublemaker wants to steal identities or place false orders. Some just want to be annoying or show off. You may find hidden messages on your website or in your account registry from hackers letting you know that they have breached your security. There are also those that think it is funny to disrupt your business.
Regardless of the actual motivations of these pests, you must still treat every single attack as a serious threat. Your company’s information and the information of your customers and vendors is stored on your database. Identity theft is a real concern that is often overlooked until after a crime has been committed.
Your customers trust your website’s security features to protect their information. The last thing that your business can afford is for your customers to associate your products with victimization. While fraud protection may help to mitigate some of the damage done, your reputation can still be ruined costing you customers and sales.
Common methods used by hackers
Breaking into a secured website requires a lot of time and repetition. That is why hackers often rely on bots to automate routines. In fact, bots are the biggest culprits for committing computer crimes. Some experts estimate that half of all visitors to your website will be bots, and 95% of all computer crime is committed by malicious bots.
You could simply block all bots from accessing your website, but not all bots are harmful. Google uses bots to index websites and assign them a page rank. Restricting these bots from accessing your page will limit the effectiveness of your web application. Your security system must be able to distinguish between the two.
Hackers are also experts at reading computer code and testing systems for weaknesses. Cross site scripting techniques enable hackers to inject malicious code. Once that script is run, the hackers can manipulate your application to do whatever they want it to. Hackers can give themselves access to your database or grant themselves administrative rights to your system.
Protecting yourself
There are essentially four levels of protection that you can rely on: firewalls, access control, bot protection, and login protection. When combined effectively, these four methods randomize the routines for accessing your website and make it harder for hackers to gain access to sensitive areas of your system.
If a hacker learns your security plan, it is only a matter of time until you are victimized. That’s why it’s important to constantly update your security systems.
Photograph by Pixel Creatures