Web security related to a web page is one of the most ipmortant factors in the design and development of websites. There is no absolute security, however, it is your responsibility, whether you are a company or an individual that your website is as vulnerable as possible.
There are currently numerous ways to attack a website. The main target of attackers is customer databases. But they also attack databases of large companies or forums that are very attractive to hackers.
Checking the security of a website is something that must be taken into account as it is of vital importance due to the large number of attacks that are experienced daily on all websites.
First concepts to check
There are a number of startup concepts that need to be checked. Listed below are some issues that we must check regarding the security of our website:
- Use HTTPSprotocol. With the use of this security protocol we guarantee that the information that travels between the browser of the user who is visiting the page and the server of our site is encrypted so that the information is not readable. If someone intercepts that communication, it will not be easy for them to decipher it.
- Updatedsoftware . Our hosting provider must ensure that the software is up to date. The PHP or Mysql version or similar, has to be updated. This way our website will be less vulnerable to attacks. In addition, something that we have to control is that if our website is made by a content manager (Joomla, WordPress,…) it must be completely updated.
- Plugins. The plugins we use on our website must also be updated so as not to put our website at risk. This this poses a potential danger to our site. It is very important to confirm that the plugins we use have not had any security incidents before installing them.
- Passwords. We must be careful with the passwords used on the sites, because a large part of the attacks that occur are due to the lack of a strong enough password.
User authentication
Currently websites, regardless of the operating system they use (paid or free), perform user authentication by requesting a username and password. Each user who accesses the website is assigned a username and password that allows the system to perform identity verification when performing authentication.
Therefore, the security of our website will depend heavily on the password we choose. Companies, on their servers, have defined good password policies so that users have to create strong enough passwords.
Tools to improve online web security
Below we will see some online tools to analyze the security of a web page. You can use one or all three, surely they are of great help.
- Observatory by Mozilla. This tool is designed for users using the Mozilla Firefox browser. The Mozilla Observatory has helped more than 240,000 websites by teaching developers, system administrators, and security professionals how to set up their sites securely. Performs 11 different checks of the website, offering a score from zero to one hundred and with a note that can range from A to F. With A being the highest note and F being the lowest.
- SUCURI. SUCURI is one of the most popular free website security and malware scanners. You can do a quick test of malware, blacklist status, injected SPAM and other variables of your website. .
- Qualys FreeScan: Offers a fairly complete report of the vulnerabilities they detect depending on their severity, making a brief explanation of each of them.
