When it comes to the integrity of your website, it’s important to take a proactive approach and ensure that you have enough security controls in place. This will allow you to make sure that your website is protected from malicious hacker attempts.

Taking precautionary steps such as using strong passwords and securing your site with HTTPS connection is imperative and useful, but—alone—not enough.

Here are five proven ways to keep your website protected from hackers.

Protect your website from SQL injection using parameterized language

SQL injection attacks remain one of the prominent ways to gain illegal access to your website’s database.

Basically, a hacker uses a web form field or URL parameters to insert code into your query to manipulate your data. You can make such attempts futile using parameterized queries.

It’s not very difficult to implement and most programming languages support parameterized language.

Make sure to validate on both browser side and server side

It’s important to remember that validation should not simply be done on the browser side, but also on the server side.

Though browser can recognize simple failures, they can often be bypassed by professional hackers who attempt to insert malicious code or script into the database.

Having validation on the server side will act as a second layer of protection, which is more difficult to breach.

Beware of error messages—share minimal information

Always practice extreme caution with how much information you allow to pass in your error message. A good practice is that you should only allow a minimal amount of information to your users. This will ensure that your server does not become a victim of a leak such as API keys or database passwords.

Also, ensure that you’re not providing complete exception details to the end user as cybercriminals can use this information to create complex cyber-attacks such as SQL injection.

Ensure that server OS and all software are latest and up to date

It’s crucial that you keep the server operating system and any software used in your website up to date by installing regular updates. An outdated system is vulnerable to cyber-attacks and may contain loopholes that a hacker can exploit to gain access to your website.

If you’re running your website using a managed hosting solution, the host company will take care of the updates. But if you’re using a third-party solution, you’ll be the one responsible for ensuring regular updates.

Choose a reputable web development service provider to design your website

The best way to safeguard your website from hackers is by using a reputable web development service provider to design your website.

A professional web developer will design a website, optimized for maximum speed and functionality while ensuring a high level of security. As a result, you’ll have a well-designed website with no loopholes for cybercriminals to breach. Remember, most hackers rely on your mistakes.

A strategically designed website with strong security controls will exponentially reduce the chances of a successful hacking attempt on your website.

Final words

These were some of the simple ways to protect your website from hackers and ensure that your website remains safe.

If you’re looking for a professional, reputable nearshore outsourcing company to design your website, contact EX² Outcoding. We provide high-quality and reliable website development services in Costa Rica. To learn more about our services, feel free to give us a call at +1 800 974 7219 ext. 202 or visit our website.