How can we secure our website from attackers? Today, the number of cybercrimes are rising rapidly and a majority of them are performed by hackers. It has become more challenging for website owners to protect their websites from these attacks because they do not have knowledge of specific techniques to avoid attacks. In fact, most of these attacks occur without victims even knowing it. Hackers use several types of techniques to compromise websites. Some use simple tricks like logging on to a website in an attempt to gain access. This is called a “denial” attack and is usually used by inexperienced or new hackers. More sophisticated attacks have the ability to trace back a victim’s internet usage for months to gain access to important data. This kind of cybercrime is categorized as a “cybersecurity” or “cybersecurity breach” and should be reported immediately. Below are some common cybercrime types and the corresponding attack methods: – Denial of Service (DoS) – A DoS attack is performed by sending large amounts of traffic to a web host, reducing the website scan security by downtime. The DoS attack makes the target website unusable. Victims may experience slow loading, reduced security, and erroneous data. Common causes for a DoS include spam, excessive use of resources, configuration errors, and software vulnerabilities. – Security breach – A security breach occurs when security checker websites are not taken to keep the server secure. Most security breaches result from the installation of illegal software or from the lack of updating the operating system. When a security breach occurs, the entire network is affected and the website becomes inaccessible. Common causes of security breaches include denial of service attacks, security bypass attacks, and directory attacks. – Insecure socket layer (SSL) – SSL is an encryption protocol that provides safe communications between a client computer and a server. It secures data exchanged over the internet. Every day, millions of web servers are affected by vulnerable SSL servers, making it easy for malicious code to invade a website. Common SSL vulnerabilities allow attackers to read and alter cookies, passwords, and even credit card numbers. By monitoring network traffic and analyzing any suspicious activity, you can reduce the number of people targeted by these attacks and increase website security. – File compromise – All too often, websites get hacked because of insecure file management systems. File compromise is when a hacker gains access to a website and then begins to upload malicious codes into it. These codes can break down the security of your website and allow attackers to gain access. Most times, malicious code is used to monitor your Internet usage, but sometimes, actual personal information is compromised. – Application firewall – An application firewall is a program that guards against web application attacks. Most of the time, these attacks are initiated from outside sources through hacking or penetration. Using a web application firewall can help prevent attackers from gaining access to your database or internal processes. A successful application firewall will block or deny attackers from accessing your website. Weaker firewalls that are poorly built are more likely to be attacked by hackers. – Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks come in many shapes and sizes. Usually, these attacks are initiated by attackers using a bot to send spoofed packets to large numbers of computers. When these computers attempt to connect to the target website, the response is usually weak, making it easy for the attacker to attach the various payload to the Web server and ultimately gain access to the website. With today’s Internet connections, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS proxy) attack can easily shut down a company’s entire server. Therefore, companies should implement an effective web application security solution such as SLAS (stand for Service Level Agreement) to ensure maximum safety.
