Today when you hire a website developer, don’t just expect him or her to build a website for you.
Creating a website is not very challenging these days. Even you can also build a website using any CMS like WordPress, even if you don’t possess any technical skills.
But the most important thing that you must look out while considering your website development is getting security.
You may have heard of several cases of website hacking and malicious code injections. Therefore, you must ensure that it doesn’t happen to you.
Therefore, before hiring any website designer or developer, you must ensure that he is able to provide you with a secured website. And if you already own a website, you can still hire a website developer to ensure the security of your website.
Here, I have shared 7 ways in which a website developer can secure your website.
Let’s get started.
#1 Encryption Of Sensitive Data
What should your website designer do if you absolutely must store sensitive data in your database?
Well, they must never store any data unencrypted.
Do you really want to be the business that loses its customer’s sensitive data because it was stored as plain text in the database?
Your website developer can encrypt any sensitive user data, like passwords, using one-way encryption. That way, even of your server gets hacked, no one can get hold of your sensitive data.
#2 Updating Sofware
Hackers are always looking for the path of least resistance when targeting your website. In a lot of cases, this involves looking for insecure or outdated software.
Many of the libraries/packages used as part of website development are open source.
There could be some vulnerabilities discovered in these libraries quote often, such as improper validation of inputs, or special boundary cases that can be exploited to gain privileged access to the website.
These details get published online and are available to hackers who then use this information to look for websites that may be using these libraries.
Once a patch becomes available, your website developer must immediately apply it to keep your website secure.
#3 Disabling Useless Software
All unused software must be disabled to improve website security.
It is not uncommon for businesses to have unused software connected to their websites. This provides an excellent path for attackers if left unchecked.
Every piece of software or service running or installed on your web server introduces an additional gateway that can be potentially hacked. For instance, redundant themes or plugins or modules.
A professional website designer would always remove or disable anything that is not being used, to decrease the chances for any website of getting hacked.
#4 Validating Both Client & Server Side
Your website developer can adopt secure development practices while accepting user input on your website. There are two aspects to it: server-side and client-side.
Server-side validations protect your website against malicious input, like users trying to inject their own code into your database (SQL injection attacks, for instance).
Client-side validation protects your website against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks that happen when malicious JavaScript code is added to a webpage. Your web developer can use mechanisms like Content Security Policy (CSP) to add client-side protection.
#5 Securing Cookies Sessions
Session high-jacking is a huge problem related to website security.
Many web applications secure their login system, set a cookie, and then allow the user to navigate to other pages over an insecure channel. While this may improve performance, the cookie used to identify the user session is now vulnerable.
Anyone with network access can imitate the user within the application and gain complete access.
Therefore, your website developer can secure all connections that use cookies.
#6 Testing
Total website security needs routine maintenance and assessment. There are lots of free and commercial tools your website designer can use to gauge your website’s vulnerability or penetration.
These tools help figure out a range of issues, your developers can choose to overlook low risk items while focusing on the most critical aspects.
On the whole, these tools are helpful in giving your website developer a comprehensive view of your website’s security.
#7 Using Plugins
Plugins are add-on software components that increase a website’s functionality.
Your website developer can find the right security plugins to improve your website’s security.
Irrespective of what web platform or CMS you are using for your website development, search for the best plugins to prevent attacks on your website.
Also, make sure that your developers are keeping the plugins updated, else these may become targets of attacks by hackers.