How to Build a Secure Website in 2022

It feels like barely a week goes by where we don’t hear of another significant data breach or website hack. Online criminals are not particularly discerning in who they target, with both small businesses and large corporations falling victim.

It might seem like there’s nothing you can do to keep valuable customer data safe. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. As these hackers become more advanced in their tactics and strategies, so too do the protective mechanisms that are designed to prevent anyone from accessing confidential information. 

Building a secure website in 2022 isn’t particularly difficult. It just requires excellent knowledge and good technical skills. If you’re going to outsource your website build to a web development company, as many do, be sure to have a serious conversation with them beforehand about what measures they will take to protect your customer data, as well as your own.

Building a secure website starts all the way back at the point you choose your content management system. Now, most of the top CMS platforms offer the same, high level of security. If you’re working with Wordpress, Drupal, Kentico, or any of the other big name brands, you will have all the tools at your disposal to protect private information.

Be wary if you’ve chosen to use a lesser name CMS. These may not be secure and are less likely to offer customer support if something does go array.

Many developers rely on third-party applications and plugins in order to personalise a website and increase its functionality. There is nothing wrong with this approach, providing that the web development services team is confident the software comes from a secure source. 

Be selective with what kind of applications and plugins you choose to introduce to your website; research them thoroughly before granting them access to valuable data.

One of the main benefits to using a CMS is that more than one person can access the back end at the same time. This is particularly advantageous for large businesses with multiple teams, all of whom need to make content changes.

However, you don’t necessarily want all of your employees having equal access to the most important areas of your website. Top CMS platforms have thought of this and provide the option to restrict certain pages or actions based on access level.  

Now, this is not to suggest that your employees would intentionally expose private data. But, it will protect you should they themselves be the victim of a hack and the criminal ends up with their CMS login information — which brings us onto our next point! 

Passwords aren’t only important from a personal perspective. They can also prevent valuable workplace data from ending up in the wrong hands.

Impress the importance of practising good password security on all your employees and your web development company. Passwords should be made from a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. They should be unique and wherever possible, protected by two-factor authentication.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a type of technology that is now fairly standard across all websites. An SSL certificate encrypts all information that passes between users and websites, making it impossible to be read by prying eyes. 

In 2022, it’s fairly easy to tell whether or not a website has an SSL certificate. To start with, the URL of all websites protected with this technology start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP. A small lock will also appear in the URL bar, signalling that the website is protecting your data.

Whatsmore, Google will now tell a user if the website they’re visiting is not protected by an SSL certificate. Customers will be incredibly reluctant to hand over personal or financial information if they know it can be easily intercepted by unauthorised parties.

Finally, the best way to protect your customers is by thoroughly testing a site before it goes live. By systematically going through every element of your website, you can deal with any unexpected bugs and glitches before they have a chance to do any serious harm. 

Testing might seem like an unnecessary step, particularly if you are keen to launch your website to the real world. However, when the security of customer data is at stake, you want to be confident that you’ve done absolutely everything you can, even if just for your own piece of mind. 

As a client, it’s certainly not your job to make sure your website is secure — that’s the responsibility of the team you have hired to provide web development services. However, it certainly doesn’t hurt to understand the types of tools and strategies that are out there to ensure your website is as secure as it can possibly be in 2022.

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