Despite all the advancements that have been made in information security, hacking attacks continue to be a major problem, inflicting damage on some of the biggest companies.\u00a0 Every year, it seems as if we hear a story where some major company has been hacked and thieved of invaluable information. Although large corporations make better targets, small businesses are not exempt from such attacks.\u00a0\u00a0 You may feel that the data on your website is not all that confidential or mission-critical, but an ambitious hacker might think otherwise.<\/p>\n
What Motivates a Hacker?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hackers hack websites for a number of reasons.\u00a0 Some are after personal information while others merely do it for the thrill and gaining stripes in the hacker community.\u00a0 While every hacker has their own motivation, a successful attack boils down to one factor – the webmaster’s lack of knowledge.\u00a0 Even an intermediate hacker can break into your website, change your home page and steal sensitive information all by downloading readily available tools from the internet.\u00a0 Whether you are a beginner or seasoned webmaster, the best way to protect yourself against website hacking is knowing how a hacker operates.<\/p>\n A Two-step Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n The first step a hacker will take is to scan your web applications for any known vulnerabilities.\u00a0 This can be done with a penetrating test process that is performed either manually are automated by certain programs or scripts.\u00a0 Finding an insecure application is the most crucial step in any website attack and translates to holes you can’t afford to leave open.<\/p>\n The next step in website hacking is coming up with an exploit able to take advantage of the vulnerabilities.\u00a0 There are many exploits but all share the similar goal of allowing an intruder to penetrate your website.\u00a0 Here is where you need to be aggressive and take steps to prevent an exploit rather than trying to bounce back after the attack.\u00a0 If you scripted your own applications, you need to go back carefully and look them over to process any modifications that may be needed to the source codes to close the gaps.\u00a0 When done correctly, you can dramatically reduce the probability of a website attack.<\/p>\n Practicing Website Security<\/strong><\/p>\n Properly securing your applications is something that can be accomplished even if you are not an expert in the security field or simply do not have the money required to hire a thorough, experienced web developer.\u00a0 In fact, security knowledge comes at an inexpensive price and is worth looking into when considering that it can keep your website safe.\u00a0 Basic knowledge can be obtained by keeping yourself informed on the web applications you are using along with all known vulnerabilities that relate to them.\u00a0 Additionally, you can minimize vulnerabilities by applying the latest updates and patches to your applications and using the best security practices.<\/p>\n Aside from practicing website security, it also a good idea to have a basic understanding of common techniques attackers employ to hack websites.\u00a0 Some of the most popular methods include SQL injection and cross site scripting to name a few.\u00a0 The best way to deter the attempts of a savvy hacker is to defeat them with your own knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite all the advancements that have been made in information security, hacking attacks continue to be a major problem, inflicting damage on some of the biggest companies.\u00a0 Every year, it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[432,321,431,102,429],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security-issues","tag-exploit","tag-hackers","tag-insecure-application","tag-security","tag-vulnerabilities"],"views":172,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}