The Importance of Web Security
Web security is the set of tools and procedures that keep your website protected from hackers, cyber vandalism, and data theft. It includes everything from firewalls to encryption, and is one of the most important aspects of your IT infrastructure. The rapid advancement of cloud and mobility technology allows employees and customers to connect with your business from anywhere – but that also gives attackers new ways to compromise your website. Investing in the right web protections will allow you to spend more time capitalizing on these opportunities and less time worrying about threats.
A good web security solution will be able to stop malware and ransomware, block phishing domains, restrict the use of credentials, and more. The ideal solution will be a cloud-based platform that combines these technologies into a single solution to build a comprehensive defense.
As attackers become increasingly sophisticated, leveraging tools that automate the attack process and bypass legacy security, it becomes more important than ever to protect against these threats. In fact, it is estimated that by 2025 global cybercrime will exceed the world’s illicit drug trade.
This new reality requires businesses to make investments in cybersecurity expertise and technology solutions, training for employees and contractors, and additional resources for incident response. The cost of a cyberattack can be staggering, and the loss of revenue due to compromised websites or lost customer trust can be irreparable.
Cyberattacks are also incredibly profitable for attackers, as they can sell stolen data or access to your network to other criminals and hackers. This can include selling your users’ personal information, using the data to commit fraud, or stealing sensitive business information to compete with you unfairly.
With advances in software supply chain monitoring, it’s essential to only download extensions from legitimate and trusted sources. Look for the age of the extension and its number of installs to determine if it has been updated regularly and is safe to download. Avoid downloading extensions from sites that provide pirated versions of plugins or themes, as these can contain malicious code.
Another common type of attack is a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. This happens when an attacker injects code into a website via unprotected user input, such as in the URL parameters of GET or POST requests, cookie data rendered by browsers, or in user-uploaded files. The best way to prevent XSS attacks is to never trust input from the browser, and always check and sanitize all incoming data.
A good web security solution will be able encrypt all traffic between your web server and your customers’ browsers. This will not only help to protect against unauthorized access to your servers, but it will also improve performance and reduce the risk of data breaches. The best solutions will also have the ability to break open inbound and outbound TLS/SSL decrypted traffic to inspect and re-encrypt it before sending it on to its destination. This helps to prevent malware and phishing attacks that exploit SSL vulnerabilities.