6 Expert-Approved Website Security Best Practices

As we move into 2024, it is clear that cybersecurity, data privacy, and safety will remain at the forefront for businesses and organizations – and with good reason. Recent figures indicate that global cybercrime costs could reach $10. 5 trillion annually by 2025, underlining the need for more robust cyber defenses. Because web apps run on the internet, there is an increased need to consider security and data protection when using them – whether as an individual or a business, particularly with continued financial investments in low-code application platforms. Understanding Website Security Best Practices for building web applications will be vital in safeguarding company data and mitigating possible threats.

Are you using HTTPS Protocol?

If not, this should be your top priority for online security.

HTTPS protocol is crucial because it enables secure communication between a web server and a client (such as your computer). In addition, it adds a layer of encryption to all websites, regardless of content – hackers can’t easily steal passwords or credit card numbers simply by intercepting them en route.

It also verifies that users are connecting to the correct server. Without HTTPS, someone else who controls a Wi-Fi router (or similar point of access) within range of your device could potentially alter information on the page (say by changing the total price on the e-commerce site before you purchase) without knowledge – perhaps leading to sender sharing sensitive details thinking they’re safe when they’re anything but!

It’s vital if you want Google to like you too to know Website Security Best Practices: Web browsers flagging insecure sites has been standard practice since the early 2017 Chrome browser update; those still running old HTTP-ONLY websites automatically trigger a ‘Not Secure’ warning message next URL bar, discouraging most people from proceeding any further because well aren’t several aspects life where first impressions count?

Always Double-Check Your Policies & Processes

It’s vital to have a solid web security plan in place as part of your broader cybersecurity strategy. This should include:

Adopting a cybersecurity framework.

While you could devise your cybersecurity framework, it makes sense to start with established industry-standard frameworks such as:

ISO 27001: The International Organization for Standardization’s guidelines on information security management systems (ISMS).
NIST: A US National Institute of Standards and Technology standard presently the most widely utilized framework for cybersecurity planning at significant organizations.
CIS Controls: Published by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), this is a framework for Effective Cyber Defense – protecting websites and networks from common cyber threats.
ASVS: Application Security Verification Standard provides a basis for testing web application technical security controls and includes a checklist of requirements for secure development.

DDoS Protection

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks can see sites flooded with traffic from multiple sources, rendering them unavailable to legitimate users. This can be hugely costly in terms of downtime and causing reputational damage.

By choosing secure web hosting with robust DDoS protection, you help thwart such attacks by

Web host DDoS protection typically uses algorithms to block malicious traffic before it reaches servers. Secure web hosting services also employ advanced filtering techniques to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate data ‘packets.’

In this way, even when waves of harmful traffic are being ‘broadcast’ towards your site, good quality web hosting providers can ensure your webpage continues to load quickly into any customer’s browser; they click it from anywhere globally.

Hostinger includes DDoS protection even in its basic web hosting plans, so customers don’t have to worry about purchasing additional services elsewhere just because their online business might soon become successful!

Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) protocols are crucial to secure web applications. SSL and TLS encrypt communication between a client and server, preventing attackers from intercepting and reading sensitive information.

By implementing SSL/TLS certificates, you ensure that all data transmitted between your website’s visitors and its servers is secure and encrypted.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

To protect web applications from SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other common online assaults, use a web application firewall (WAF).

A WAF functions as a reverse proxy, inspecting all HTTP traffic between clients and servers. Blocking malicious requests before they can reach your applications or databases provides an essential layer of protection against cyber threats.

Regression-test upgrades

After making any changes to a web app – even routine patches or updates – you should always conduct regression testing to ensure that existing functionality has not been broken. Although rare, there have been cases where an upgrade has inadvertently introduced bugs that attackers could exploit. Thorough testing helps to reduce this risk significantly.

Mitigating cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks

With CSRF attacks, the attacker tricks their victim into visiting a malicious website while already logged into another site; the attacker then uses this existing session to perform actions on the target site without consent from the victim e., g., changing their email address on file.

To best defend against CSRF assaults, we recommend implementing multiple layers of protection rather than relying solely on one technique.

SameSite cookies explained

The SameSite attribute lets us tell browsers whether cookies should be allowed in cross-origin requests. This is one of the best Website Security Best Practices.

It can take three values: None, Lax or Strict.

If set to None, cookies will continue working as they do today in exact- and cross-origin requests.

If set to Lax or Strict, then same-origin cookies won’t be sent anymore in case of a cross-site request at all—with one exception:

Lax will still send the cookie if it’s coming from an external site—like when you click on the link with target=”_blank” that opens up a new tab

Strict will never send it because, hey—that’s strict!

By setting SameSite=Lax or SameSite=Strict, we can mitigate against CSRF attacks since, during such an attack, the web application’s cookies will not be sent along with requests from a malicious site after a user has submitted a form (for example).