Are you worried about the security of your commercial site? How can sensitive data be protected from website defacement and DDoS attacks? Here is what to know.

If you're wondering, “How can sensitive data be protected in 2022?”, you're likely considering how to safeguard your company data by reviewing your cybersecurity measures.

Here, we discuss two of the most common cyber crimes threatening small business websites today - website defacement and DDoS attacks - and explain how to protect your site from these two cyber threats.

Your website’s security is more important than you think

An expanding digital ecosystem poses dozens of cyber-related risks that may have major financial impacts on your small business. The last thing you want is your brand to be on the statistics of the many small and medium enterprises that have been victimised by fraudsters through malicious attacks like ransomware.

The most troubling trend is how hackers are increasingly targeting and exploiting the vulnerabilities of e-commerce sites.

Considering how the IoT is growing, cybercriminals are now taking advantage of weak device passwords, broken authentication, outdated software, and weak CDN. The truth is most new IoT devices are in their infancy stage, giving internet scammers a bigger attack surface.

Website defacement

Website defacement usually targets smaller websites with inferior security protocols and maintenance issues. The perpetrators are probably novice hackers who may not have intentions of creating severe damage.

They cause unauthorised modifications to the appearance of your homepages or other parts of your web content.

Sometimes, they can pull down everything or add something new, e.g., pop-ups, threatening messages, and images. A defaced website might also have malicious codes with the potential to infect the readers’ devices.

If your site is rendered inaccessible, a security breach of the clientele database can occur and your SEO Shropshire ranking, for example (This page on this website) could be negatively affected.

How can sensitive data be protected in the event of website defacement?

Ultimately, website defacing tarnishes your brand image and infringes your visitors’ information, so you’ll end up losing trust among prospective and existing clients.

Such damages may result in legal fines.

With a few security measures from top website development in Shropshire, you could save your business the embarrassment and frustration that comes with defacement.

Use the following tips to protect your employee devices, company data, and online traffic from the dangers of website defacement:

Update your software and have a backup plan.

This should be your first line of defence against website defacement. Cyber crooks are very quick to abuse any security loopholes in outdated software. Make sure that your site's security features are activated and up-to-date.

The same goes for its servers and other software application that keeps it up and running, including the content management system (CMS). We also recommend constant backing of your website data

Handle file uploads with utmost care.

Did you know that fraudulent people can access your servers through uploaded files? Files infected with malware provide easy access to the website database once executed by servers.

So, anytime you’re uploading something, watch out for unknown details because they could be a gateway to corrupting your existing files.

You can prevent the potential entry of malicious payloads by:

• Limiting certain file extensions and large sizes
• Scanning all files with anti-virus software
• Saving uploaded files in a safe place away from the root directory using a unique identity
• Modifying permission for uploaded files to prevent automatic execution by the server
• Avoiding file uploads wherever possible

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