Any Internet resource in the public domain becomes a potential target for scammers. There can be several reasons for a site to be hacked, ranging from damage to your company’s reputation or obtaining material benefits and ending with banal hooliganism. But in any case, hacking will cause damage to the site – therefore, it is worthwhile to study in advance both the methods used by attackers and the methods that attackers can resist.
What is dangerous hacking: possible consequences
Hacking a site is an unpleasant incident because any malfunctions at work affect the company’s reputation and the efficiency of business processes. But at the same time, different types of hacking can lead to different consequences:
If passwords are lost or changed by an attacker, the owner completely loses control over the resource and information stored on the servers.
A DDOS attack makes a site inoperable and critical for information portals, news sites, and online stores (reputational and financial losses can be enormous).
When databases are stolen, everything depends on the nature of the stolen information. The customer base is usually used for spam mailings; customer payment data can be used for financial fraud.
When hacked, the site can be used as a platform for displaying ads or redirecting users to pages with malicious scripts. In the latter case, any visitor to your site risks getting several viruses on their PC or smartphone – most of them are configured to gain access to the device or steal personal data.
Even if direct financial losses and loss of control can be avoided, the damage will be tangible. Reducing traffic due to technical issues and reputational damage is almost guaranteed. In addition, hacking a site is a reason for sanctions from search engines; therefore, paying attention to security will nullify all investments in search engine promotion and SEO optimization.
Protection methods
A range of measures must be taken to prevent a site from being hacked and if unauthorized attempts are made to resist them successfully. Protecting a resource from hacking is the case when there is no “magic pill”: you must block all possible ways for malware to enter and constantly work to increase security.
Here it is worth highlighting several areas of work. The first is the protection of the administrator’s computer. The easiest way to access a resource is to control the PC from which it is managed. Therefore, the presence of an effective antivirus becomes not only desirable but necessary.
Important! Remember the human factor. The administrator himself can use compromised access passwords – very often; this is what attackers use. Organizational measures and an established control system solve this problem. Well, and the selection of an administrator with sufficient qualifications, of course!
In addition, it is necessary to take other measures simultaneously; they demonstrate maximum effectiveness precisely with complex implementation.
Reliable hosting
We said above that very often, hacking is carried out indirectly – hosting neighbors that do not have sufficient protection are used as a “launching pad.” But this is only one of the reasons why the site’s hosting choice should be approached as responsibly as possible.
The role of reliable hosting in protecting against hacking is difficult to overestimate. Companies providing such services care about their reputation, so high-quality hosting does everything possible to block third-party access. The advantage will be the ability to create backups, an extensive toolkit for differentiating access levels, and even adequate technical support (if it works, then the help of a technical specialist will be invaluable when trying to hack).
We also recommend using the tools offered by the hosting provider. For example, websites are regularly automatically scanned for common vulnerabilities and possible hacking. If you receive such a warning from the host, you should respond immediately.
