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Protecting sensitive information from your clients and your own data requires securing your website. Preventive site security solutions can save you money and effort, as well as preserve the reputation of your company.
Securing your website is even more crucial now that cybersecurity attacks and threats have increased. Websites running on widely used platforms like WordPress and those that allow online transactions, such as e-commerce websites, require even greater security.
You must implement preventative security measures if you want to protect your website from hackers. This blog post will look at seven different ways you may safeguard your website without spending any money, including best practices, free tools, and other security measures.
How to Get a Website Secured for Free
Put in place an SSL certificate.
Make frequent updates to your website.
Make secure passwords.
Make frequent backups of your website.
Educate your employees.
Repeatedly scan.
Make use of security tools.
- Set up an SSL certificate.
A web server and a web browser can establish an encrypted connection using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. This implies that any information shared between a website visitor and itself will be safe.
It’s imperative that your WordPress website has an SSL certificate, particularly if you operate an online store. The SSL certificate will aid in safeguarding the private financial information of your clients.
Fortunately, installing SSL security on your website doesn’t require any technical expertise. An SSL certificate can be obtained with ease from a certificate authority (CA), domain registrar, or hosting company. An SSL certificate is available for free, although the costs do differ.
They are frequently given away for free as part of hosting packages. For instance, you can use a free basic SSL to protect your lead data and content if your website is hosted on HubSpot’s Content Hub.
If your hosting company doesn’t, Let’s Encrypt and other CAs offer free SSL certificates. Here is a list of SSL certificate authority that are either free or inexpensive.
- Consistently update your website.
Your website may be vulnerable to viruses, cyberattacks, and other security risks if it uses outdated software. Keep your website updated by routinely checking for updates or configuring auto-updates to help prevent these issues. These updates must be installed as soon as possible because they typically include security patches from developers.
Many hosting companies offer managed hosting for WordPress users, which handles updates for you.
You can select a built-in WordPress option that permits auto-updates for the WordPress core, themes, and plugins.
How to Make WordPress Auto-Updates Active
Use the instructions below to set up auto-update for your WordPress core software.
Step 1: Select Updates under Dashboard.
Step 2: Select the link to enable automatic updates for all future WordPress versions.
Use the instructions below to set your WordPress plugins to update automatically.
Step 1: Select Installed Plugins under Dashboard > Plugins.
Step 2: Every plugin you have installed up to this point will be visible there.
Step 3: Select the Enable auto-updates link that is provided for every plugin.
Likewise, do the following to allow WordPress theme updates automatically.
Step 1: Select Themes under Appearance > Dashboard.
Step 2: Choose a theme (you should update all installed themes on your website if you have more than one).
Step 3: Next, select the link labeled “Enable auto-updates.”
Prior to installing or utilizing any third-party extensions or services, you should exercise caution. You run the danger of adding a plugin or component on your website that is susceptible if you don’t first check the reviews and get the developer’s permission.
- Make secure passwords.
It’s like inviting hackers into your house if you use simple passwords like your name, your website’s name, or common terms. It is simple to break into your website using these kinds of passwords.
One easy and cost-free option to secure your website is to use strong passwords. Strong passwords consist of:
a mix of numbers and alphabetic characters
both lowercase and capital letters
unique characteristics
Your browser can provide you with a password suggestion if you’re having trouble coming up with one.
To manage your passwords on your desktop, laptop, and mobile devices, you may also use a free password manager like Dashlane.
Incorporate Two-Factor Verification.
An additional layer of security that fortifies the security of your website is two-factor authentication (2FA). To keep a malevolent hacker off your website, two-factor authentication employs two distinct types of structures.
As a two-sided puzzle, the security layer ties your password to a text code, facial, retinal, or fingerprint recognition. Your mobile device’s scanner can take a picture of your fingerprint or retina.
A hacker attempting to access your website will have to figure out both riddles. Although two-factor authentication is not a perfect method, it will increase the security of a website.
- Frequently backup your website.
Although regular website backups are not a proactive method to website security, they are crucial in the event of hardware failure, malicious assaults, or natural disasters. Your website can be quickly restored if you have a backup. You could lose all of your settings, customizations, and data if you don’t have a backup.
It is possible to make a backup of the main files, media, non-media content, and databases on your website. You won’t have to spend as much time, money, or effort recovering from data loss if you have backups. You have three options for creating backups: via a tool, manually, or by depending on your hosting company. You can schedule and automate backups using the majority of tools and hosting companies.
You can select a backup plan from your hosting provider for a tiny website. Some of them offer free or inexpensive automatic data backups for websites. In contrast, a large and intricate website needs a massive quantity of storage capacity in order to store backup data. If you want your data to be accessible from anywhere at any time, you can buy cloud storage.
If you use WordPress to manage your website, you can find detailed steps in our post on How to Backup Your WordPress Site With a Plugin or Manually.
- Educate your employees.
Smart hackers have the ability to trick even the biggest cyber security firms, but in certain cases, inexperienced employees are the real culprits. Even if your staff members are the greatest in their industry, they are still susceptible to viruses and attacks due to simple blunders.
Your staff needs to be trained to spot suspicious activity and to be wary of clicking on dodgy links or emails from senders they don’t recognize in order to prevent making blunders like these. Employees may provide unauthorized access to sensitive information, including credit/debit card details, email addresses, phone numbers, and login credentials, as a result of phishing assaults in particular.
Implement a cyber security awareness training program in your firm to provide guidance to team members on safeguarding the company’s and its clients’ data.
- Continue to scan.
By regularly scanning your website, you can make sure that any problems or dangers are found before they seriously impair the user experience of your visitors or the reputation of your business. Numerous complimentary services for screening websites for malware exist, such as:
Free Website Scanner SiteLock
Quttera Astra Security VirusTotal MalCare SiteGuarding
In addition to selecting a standalone security program, plugin, addon, or business, you can choose a hosting provider that offers virus and malware removal services to its clients. When financial transactions are not conducted through a website, this option works best for non-ecommerce websites.
Because Namecheap and Hostwinds feature an integrated malware scanner, they are the best hosting companies for all kinds of web applications. For WordPress websites, WPX and WP Engine are also excellent options.
- Make use of security equipment.
You can use free tools to secure your website as well. We’ll examine some of the most important security tools that are accessible with both free and paid subscriptions below.
Sucuri
A cyber security company is called Sucuri. They can assist you in protecting a website from a number of serious security risks, including hackers, malware, spyware, trojans, and denial-of-service attacks.
SiteGround Security
With its wealth of high-end security features, SiteGround Security is a free security plugin for WordPress that helps you safeguard your websites. Users can take use of tools and features that guard against malware, hacked logins, brute-force assaults, data breaches, and more. The plugin includes weekly security reports, thorough monitoring, and is simple to install and set up.
Qualities
Qualys is a cyber security company as well, however it also offers server and cloud-based application protection. It can support you in safeguarding your IT servers and web application by assisting in the identification of a variety of security threats.
UpGuard
Another network security firm that focuses on protecting sensitive data from businesses is UpGuard. Third-party risk management, attack surface control, and managed security are among the services offered by UpGuard. To stop data leaks, it keeps an eye on data flowing from your vendor and other sources.
Determine
While UpGuard and Detectify offer comparable services, Detectify offers an AI risk monitor that scans your website for any of the more than two thousand security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hostile actors.
ImmuniWeb
Swiss-based ImmuniWeb is a security firm. They use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to monitor criminal activities and SaaS-based application vulnerabilities. A website is inspected by ImmuniWeb utilizing many standards, such as HTTP headers, front-end library vulnerabilities, PCI, DSS, and GDPR compliance, as well as a CMS-specific test for WordPress and Drupal sites.
A Checklist for Increasing the Security of Your Website
Securing your website is essential, regardless of whether it is built on HubSpot, WordPress, Magento, Drupal, WooCommerce, Craft CMS, OroCRM, Sylius, or ExpressionEngine and is an e-commerce or membership site.
To obtain a website at no cost, you ought to:
Put in place an SSL certificate.
Make frequent changes to your website or set up automated updates through your hosting company or an add-on from a third party.
Encourage your staff to use secure passwords.
Make frequent backups or make advantage of the automated backup services that your hosting company or a third-party add-on offers.
Upskill your staff to combat and avert phishing and other online threats.
Utilize anti-malware software, which is included with a number of hosting packages.
Make use of free security resources.
Lastly, you need to pick the best hosting company that offers integrated or built-in third-party plugins for regular anti-malware scanning, automated upgrades, and automated backup and recovery. Additionally, search for features like auto-scaling, CDN, SSL certificates, and the ability to host larger websites with enterprise hosting.
