{"id":5914,"date":"2019-02-12T17:36:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T12:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stylemixthemes.com\/wp\/?p=5914"},"modified":"2022-07-06T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T07:21:12","slug":"website-vulnerability-check-why-self-security-assessment-is-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stylemixthemes.com\/wp\/website-vulnerability-check-why-self-security-assessment-is-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Website Vulnerability Check: Why Self-Security Assessment is Important"},"content":{"rendered":"

You also need to make sure they\u2019re secure. Everything you put online is susceptible to hackers, data miners, and other unscrupulous internet users waiting to exploit the flaws in your code. Alongside putting your clients at risk, leaving your websites vulnerable to these attacks can also tarnish your reputation and threaten your career as a developer.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why conducting a self-assessment of your all the websites you design is so important. If you find the flaws in your security configurations before you pass a website over to your client, you can protect both them and you from cybersecurity disaster.<\/p>\n

Not sure what to look out for? Take a look at our 8-step security self-assessment checklist below.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Create a Secure Development Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to building a secure website, your first step is to secure the environment you\u2019re developing it in. You may think no one would be interested in hacking a website-in-progress but remember that all your clients have competitors. It\u2019s not unheard of for these competitors to hire hackers to find and steal information about new products or new strategies from \u2018under construction\u2019 sites. One of the best ways to shore up your in-progress development is to use a VPN when building all your sites. If you\u2019re asking yourself, ‘how does a VPN work?<\/a>‘ , we have a handy guide to help you.<\/p>\n

Step\u00a02. Check Your SSL<\/strong><\/p>\n

One security precaution almost all developers know to use is an SSL certificate, which verified that your client\u2019s site is legitimate and trusted. However, not everyone knows how to configure them for the utmost protection. Many developers make the mistake of only enabling SSL certifications on e-commerce checkout pages. However, it\u2019s important to note that payment processing isn\u2019t the only place where sensitive details can be exposed. Any page with a form could expose information to hackers if it\u2019s unencrypted. To avoid this, it\u2019s best to use SSL on your entire site.<\/p>\n

You should also regularly check your SSL certificate\u2019s expiry date. Websites with expired SSL verification are blocked on most browsers, which can halt your clients\u2019 business operations and seriously affect their public perception.<\/p>\n

Step 3. Check Your HTTP Strict Transport Security<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the topic of SSL, it\u2019s also crucial that you check whether you\u2019re using HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). HSTS is a protocol that tells a website user\u2019s browser to only access the site using SSL. This automatically switches any non-SSL request (http:\/\/) to an SSL request (https:\/\/). Checking that you\u2019ve enabled HSTS is an important part of shoring up your SSL<\/p>\n

precautions because it prevents hackers from hijacking, redirecting, or otherwise attacking your client\u2019s website during the crossover between HTTP and HTTPS.<\/p>\n

Step 4. Check Your Forms<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Keeping your entire site encrypted with SSL is a great way to prevent data from being extracted from forms. But what about preventing dangerous data from being inputted? You may be surprised to learn that what goes into a website\u2019s forms can be just as much of a cybersecurity risk as what comes out of them. Attackers can \u2018inject\u2019 queries into unsecured forms that can read and modify data or even issue commands to the OS and database. Before handing websites off to your clients, make sure all the forms are configured to validate user input so that only safe, relevant data can be sent in each field.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 5. Check Your Cookies<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cookies are another area where the websites you develop could be vulnerable. To keep your clients safe, you must use secure cookies on your websites. If you don\u2019t, the cookies could be intercepted during transit. This would give hackers access to parts of your website that only you and your client should be able to see. Secure cookies can only be sent over an SSL connection, so don\u2019t forget to enable SSL across your whole website first. Alongside that, check that your cookies are HTTPOnly. This will keep client-side cookies safe from being sniffed and manipulated by cybercriminals. <\/span><\/p>\n

Step 6. Check Your DDoS Mitigation<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

DDoS attacks are one of the most common cybersecurity problems. By bombarding your client\u2019s site with connections and packets, hackers can overload the servers like a traffic jam. This stops legitimate users from accessing the site, causing big issues for clients. On every website, you build, check what mitigation measures you have in place to prevent these DDoS attacks. One of the best and easiest solutions is to use a cloud-based mitigator like CloudFlare, which automatically blocks malicious traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 7. Check Your Header<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A website\u2019s header code contains a lot of important information that hackers can use to exploit your client. Specifically, even data as basic as software type and version can be a big help to cybercriminals. Once they have that information, they can use it to determine your website\u2019s vulnerabilities\u2014the first step in a harmful cyberattack. Thankfully, you can obscure your site\u2019s header information to prevent any visitors from accessing it. Remember to do this on every website before they go live.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Short<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the list above is not exhaustive, following these eight steps will go a long way in keeping your websites secured against threats. Remember, when it comes to preventing vulnerabilities, the best thing you can do is stay vigilant. Every time you work on a website update for your client, make sure you do a routine security configuration test. Finding flaws before hackers do is key, making regular checks the best hack prevention.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

FURTHER READING<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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