If you want to make your website security more robust, you need to think about hardening. Hardening your website means adding additional layers of security to reduce the potential attack surfaces. Manual hardening usually involves manually adding code or making changes in the configuration.
Hardening your website involves allowing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or a security plugin to automatically harden your website.
Hardening is an important part of a defense-in-depth strategy that protects your web server from vulnerability exploitation. Similar to other Information Technology areas, web developers must understand website security in an overall way.
When you add layers to your website’s security, you implement controls that take into account:
- The depth of the defense: adding multiple controls to protect your website.
- The breadth of the attack surface: covering all potential attack vectors and security domains.
Adding website hardening means protecting websites from attacks on many different levels, including:
- The application
- The operating system
- The webserver
- The database
Website CMS
It is important to point out that each environment is different. For example, if you’re using WordPress, we can give you a few tips to harden it by installing plugins, changing themes, etc.
- Restrict wp-login access for only certain whitelist IP addresses
- Disable PHP execution inside the uploads directory
- Disable direct PHP execution within the entire WordPress content directory whenever possible
However, not all website owners can implement these tips for many reasons such as, not having a whitelist of IP addresses because their IP address is dynamic and so on It doesn’t mean that you can’t use other methods.
For example, in our firewall dashboard, you can add a layer of security by choosing an authentication method of your choice.
Providing hardening tips to all website owners regardless of their CMS can be very difficult. However, our research team has put together a guide to help you secure your WordPress site.
Web Servers
We’ve already discussed the importance of hardening your web server, but now let’s talk about some additional things you can do to ensure that your web server is secure:
- Windows IIS
- Apache
- NGINX
- Node.js
- Lighttpd
Adding security defenses to your server can be very challenging.
You will need to be aware of the server you’re running on and to research suggestions for server hardening. Some hybrids may include varying elements that you might want to be aware of.
Some Examples of Hardening
If you’re wondering what you can do for your website to become harder to hack, here are some tips:
- Keep your CMS and extensions updated.
- Always install security patches to your CMS and extensions.
- Keep an eye out for any changes on your website and keep track of its log activity.
- Install a firewall on your computer or mobile device that you use to access your site.
- Have long, unique, and complex passwords.
- Remove unnecessary plugins and addons from your website.
- Whenever possible, use two-factor authentication.
- Install a Website Application Firewall.
Hardening a Website can be Difficult
The main issue with “hardening” is that not everyone is technically capable of following or understanding the guidance involved.
One of the challenges is to keep up with the newest vulnerabilities. Another challenge is time sensitivity.
How do you apply hardening in time to prevent yourself from becoming vulnerable and exploited?
Make Website Hardening Easier for You
If You Want To Make Your Website Security More Robust, You Need To Think About Hardening. To Harden, Your Website Means To Add Different Layers Of Protection To Reduce The Potential Attack Surface. With Website hardening, the Fix Hacked Site team can apply vulnerability-agnostic patches to any website.
Once you activate the firewall, you won’t need to worry as much about maintaining security plugins and configurations. It will save you time, money, and give you peace of mind to focus on your business.