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Tag: Security

Why You Must Have An SSL Certificate

We use the internet for everything these days, from sending crucial information over the world to purchasing and selling goods and services. With the rise in the usage of the internet, cybersecurity has become a serious concern. The reality is that there are dangerous cyber-crooks who look for chances anywhere and everywhere to get their hands on your data. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to protect oneself online. If you have a website, you should use an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate to protect it.

If you have a website, even if it’s a simple one, you’re probably wondering if you need an SSL certificate. With all of your other expenses building up, you could be tempted to forego one more bill. You may have also heard a lot about SSL certificates. However, what exactly is the big deal about these certificates, and do you need one for your website? 

A Glance At SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate or a TLS certificate is a kind of digital file that secures and authenticates your website. It ties your company’s cryptographic key with the brand, ensuring that anyone else can not use it. It’s an important part of establishing a protected website, and it’s what causes the protected padlock to appear in the URL bar. It’s also what causes the “HTTPS” to emerge at the start of the URL. An SSL Certificate establishes an encrypted connection between your website server and a visitor’s browser after it is installed.

HTTPS is a secure protocol, While HTTP is not. Anyone with a basic understanding of things would know that it is much preferable to use a secure form of mechanism to share private and sensitive data than to use an insecure one.  

If an insecure HTTP protocol is employed by users to create a link to websites that do not have SSL/ TLS certificates, then the data is sent across untrustworthy connections. That private information is moving around on the internet for hackers to steal and manipulate and then later exploit. The advantage of utilizing connections with sites that possess SSL/ TLS certificates is that cybercriminals are not able to access your data since it is encrypted. Encrypted data cannot be intercepted by anyone.

In its most basic form, the SSL certificate allows you to encrypt data that travels between your customers’ clients as well as your server. SSL achieves this by permitting your server to authenticate itself to customers. 

Technically, this certificate provides your web server with data and instructions which can be utilized to create safe interactions with users. Previously, all these were accomplished using the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)  protocol. But now, the TLS protocol (also known as the transport layer security) is the preferred secure protocol. As a result, we previously said that these are TLS certificates. 

What Is The Need For An SSL Certificate?

It was announced in late 2014 by Google that security would be a ranking consideration. When you have an SSL certificate installed on your site, it gives you a slight growth in Google ranking. Google Chrome began labeling websites that gather login and payment card details as insecure in 2017.

The latest development, which occurred in July 2018, had an impact on everyone. That’s when Chrome began labeling any site without an SSL certification as ‘Not a Secure website.’ Regardless of whether data collection takes place by a website or not, Google is hinting that secure websites will become the norm. 

New rollouts are expected to happen all through 2018, and Chrome will no longer label secure websites with a green colour padlock. Rather, SSL-secured websites will display black lettering without any padlock. This would hint at the normality of SSL in the industry. As opposed to this, websites that do not have SSL certificates would be marked with a red warning signifying that it is not secure. 

Risks Of Not Having An SSL Certificate

There has been a massive surge in the complaints reported about cybercrime all over the world. This, of course, emphasizes the significance of data protection and security. SSL/TLS certificates are merely one of many important cogs in the complicated data security mechanism. Failing to get an SSL certificate makes your website and your users vulnerable to various threats. 

If your website does not possess one, it will be flagged by Google as insecure. Websites in the hold of SSL certificates are provided a greater preference by Google. This would subsequently spell bad news for your business. Your rival companies with SSL certificates would be able to top you in Google’s ratings, even if you had made more efforts.

Apart from this, there are other consequences of not possessing an SSL certificate.

  • Attacks: A mitM attack happens if a cybercriminal intercepts data transmitted between users’ web customers and the server, as we’ve already discussed. An SSL certificate is much more than a ‘nice-to-have’ for your website. They are now considered indispensable. A secure website is ensured through this for you and your visitors. 
  • Data leaks: When you’re not using a secure and safe connection that is encrypted, there’s a risk of data leakage in situations where you send or receive data.
  • Phishing Attacks: This occurs, when your site fails to have an SSL certificate, you are also failing to verify your site and your company. Because customers can’t tell the difference between genuine websites and sketchy ones, your brand is ultimately more likely at the risk of phishing attempts.
  • Suspicious Browsers: We all wish to have our website at the top of the search results when the name of your brand is entered into a search engine. Moreover, few people know that if you don’t use an SSL/TLS certification on your own website, the main browsers would not be able to trust it. These include Chrome and Firefox as well.
  • Noncompliance: Not having a TLS certificate for your website creates more problems. There is a chance that it might result in noncompliance difficulties with industry laws including GDPR, HIPAA, FIPS, CCPA, and PCI DSS.

Conclusion

While customers believe they are getting more security-aware, fraudsters are adapting and coming up with new ways to deceive them. These evil guys are finding more and more novel tricks that would help them in defrauding people and businesses and causing general havoc. An SSL certificate not only helps you earn your client’s trust but also protects their data against man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks.

An SLS certificate is not a necessary prerequisite for opening up your website. However, if you fail to acquire one, the chances of your company achieving success are substantially reduced. Since most search engines would not trust you either, you would have a hard time establishing an online presence.

Better WordPress Security In 5 Easy Steps

WordPress is amongst the most common targets for cybersecurity threats, as it powers more than 40% of the internet. Furthermore, because it is open-source software, any developer may contribute to it, and there may be certain weaknesses in the code. Cyber thieves use WordPress security flaws and other difficulties that may be easily prevented, such as popular usernames, weak passwords, obsolete plugins, and so on.

The Most Common WordPress Security Vulnerabilities And Issues

  • Core software that is out of date

One of the factors that hackers seek in a website is out-of-date core software. That’s why you should be aware whenever an application or library receives an update.

  • Themes and plugins that are no longer supported

Ensure that all of your plugins and themes are up to date so that any current problems are addressed in the most recent release.

  • Attackers using brute force

Using a security plugin or establishing brute force mitigation with your hosting services provider are two approaches to prevent brute force assaults.

  • Malware

On a regular basis, use malware detectors and cleaning services to prevent the insertion of harmful software into your website.

Here Are Five Simple Steps For Increasing WordPress Security

1. Enforce the use of strong passwords

Yes, the majority of individuals choose to use their birthdate as their password. Do you realize who enjoys it the most? Attackers.

So, what is it that works? Passwords that are difficult to guess. It’s fantastic to have long, random sequences of letters and symbols. The difficulty is that we tend to write things down since they are difficult to recall. If you lose the book in which you recorded them, an assailant will have the keys to the house. (It doesn’t matter if the book is physical or electronic.)

If you have normal users as well as admins, writers, and other higher-level accounts, you may want to just impose strong passwords on the higher-level accounts to limit the amount of friction your users experience when registering and login into your site. 

Invest in a passcode if you want to deal with passcodes without writing them down. The majority of new ones function on both mobile and desktop devices and synchronize your data across all of them.

2. Admin Username should be changed

It’s a no-brainer on this one. STOP using admin, administrator, or any other username that is simple to guess as to your administrator’s identity! An attacker only needs two things to get access to your site: a username and a password. You’ve already given them 50% of what they really want if you use the default admin account. Let’s make it a bit more difficult.

To manually modify the admin name, follow these steps:

  • Use your current Admin account to log in.
  • Click “Add New” under “Users.”
  • Make a new user account and give it the role of Admin. Except for Admin, Administrator, or your name, you can choose whatever username you like.
  • Sign out of WordPress and sign back in with your new Admin username and password.
  • Click Users to see a list of users, then click “Delete” under your original administrator account. To avoid losing any material, make sure you choose “Attribute content to” and your new admin account.

3. HTTPS must be enforced

You really should be doing this one. If you’ve been sleeping under a rock, Google came out and announced a number of years ago that if your website isn’t using HTTPS, it would be ranked lower than other HTTPS sites. Apart from SEO, HTTPS encrypts all of your traffic and keeps it safe from prying eyes. If you’re not using HTTPS, any user at a cafe is broadcasting anything to anyone who chooses to look. (To put it another way, “sniff the Wi-Fi”)

You’ll need to acquire and install a security certificate through your hosting provider. You must then instruct WordPress to update its URL to HTTPS.

4. Two-factor authentication should be implemented

‘Two-factor Authentication,’ or 2FA, is a security idea that has been around for a while. Financial institutions have used “Fobs” (small devices that may be attached to your keychain and display an ever-altering number) as an extra component in logging in for decades.

“Something you know, something that you have, something you are” is the overall security notion. Two of them are chosen in 2FA. You only use the “something you know” – the username and password – when you sign in to a site without 2FA. There is a potential that they’ll be compromised, no matter how solid you believe they are. On top of it, 2FA adds a layer called “something you have.”

5. Make sure your plugins are up to date

I don’t just mean the important ones; I’m talking about every plugin you’ve put on your site, and every time it gets updated. What are the benefits of keeping your plugins up to date? 

Of course, the biggest reason is WordPress security. When security WordPress vulnerabilities are reported, good plugin writers respond quickly and provide patches. You won’t need to do anything if you already have auto-update enabled; you’ll automatically receive the latest code. If you don’t, go to Plugins, press the update button, watch things all update, and then attempt to recall why you signed in in the first place as soon as you go in and observe that there are updates.

Conclusion

The trick to site safety is that it’s not about performing one huge thing, but rather a number of small things. These simple actions can help you strengthen the security of your WordPress website. Each additional layer of protection you put on your website makes it more difficult for hackers to get access. To be safe, you don’t have to have a secure site; all you have to do is make the attacker work harder than it’s worth to get in. Attackers ultimately tire of easier targets, such as those whose owners haven’t seen this blog article.

Check These Add-Ons Before Buying Web Hosting for Your Website

One of the greatest things that we have observed over time is that people do have specific choices when they are selecting the type of hosting they want for their websites. For sure, hosting is something that everyone should think about seriously if they think that website is an integral part of their business. To be honest, in 2021, a website is the most important part of any business because of SEO. If you are not searchable on Google or any search engine that users prefer, there is no use of a website. And, if your website is searchable and is not running well if the server is not responding properly, you are damaging your business on your own. This is the reason why everyone should pay attention to specific details when deciding the hosting plan that is good for your website. 

So, in this article, we are specifically going to talk about the Addons you should be looking at when you are buying web hosting. There are multiple service providers that you can choose from. All of them have something special, and that is their USP. Today we will just broadly see which are those Addons that anyone who is going to buy a hosting plan in near future should know about.

Types of Hosting

The first thing that we need to know is the types of hosting that one can choose from. This is important as all of them have different features and limitations and that should be known to the users. Only once the user knows what is suitable in the broader category, they can go and find the addons. Let’s first get into the categories and know about different hosting in brief:

1. Dedicated Hosting:

Just as the name suggests, this hosting is dedicated to just one website or one user. There is no other user involvement in the server or any part of the hosting. This is the reason why people go for it and why it is the best-performing hosting service. The only drawback is that most of the time is not in the budget of the users. That creates problems but that is something that is not a worrisome issue as there are cheaper alternatives like VPS. You can read about it ahead.

2. Shared Hosting:

Just can be explained like the shared version of the dedicated hosting. The users have to share hosting for their websites. Everything gets shared when we think of this hosting type. This is something that divides everything. But, this is the perfect type of sharing for websites that are just entering the digital arena. This can give you the perfect start, but you will have to upgrade as you go ahead in the journey. Things can start getting different when you get more users when you have more data that has to be stored on the backend, and more. This is why, if you have an entry-level website, then this type of hosting would work perfectly for you.

3. VPS Hosting:

VPS or Virtual Private Server hosting that can be used as a middle ground that users can find between the shared and the dedicated hosting. There are no other users but it, not a dedicated one. When the users want better facilities than the shared hosting and lower prices than the dedicated hosting, they go for VPS hosting. You get to operate a virtual server that works on top of a physical operating system. Here you can install different software and use it for the hosting as well. This is one of the best ways for businesses who want something good from their website but don’t have a lot of money.

4. Cloud Hosting:

Most people might not know what this exactly is but this is exactly what you are thinking. This is a website that is hosted over a cloud. Generally, what happens is that a website is hosted over a network of computers. Even the VPS is created over a physical operating system, and that is how it works. Here, in Cloud hosting, everything happens over the cloud. Data storage, other things, everything happens on the cloud, and the best part is that even if you lose your data, the cloud data recovery features can get it back for you. This is something that might not be possible when you are working on the normal servers. This might be the newest of the hosting services but it surely is worth all the hype that it has created in the world.

These were some of the hosting plans that we thought you should know about before you know about the Addons that you should be looking at. Now, when you know this, let’s move to the main part.

Add-Ons that You Should Look For When Buying Web Hosting For Your New Website

Addons are just some of the additional services that you get with the software or digital services that you buy. When you buy web hosting for your website, it is important to look at some of the things that can help your website. Below mentioned addons are not just important but necessary; without them, your website might not feel complete. 

1. SSL Certificate:

SSL or Secured Socket Layer certificate is important for any website. It is always offered whenever you buy a hosting plan but still, it is better that you check for it. Most hosting providers make sure that it is available for all users. This certificate encrypts all the information that is sent out from the website and it decrypts it only when it reaches the destination. In this sense, it saves it from any kind of intermediate interception. There can be modifications in the data that is being sent by the website owner if they don’t pay attention to it. Considering the importance of this certificate for the website, you should check for it every time you are buying a hosting plan or you are upgrading it to a better one.

2. Automated Backup:

It is always great if you have additional features that help you with automated backups. There might be situations when your website crashes, or it might get hacked and many other things. This is something that you should look for in the hosting plan.

3. Security:

The security of your website is important, and you need some addons that can take care of it.  This is important to maintain the credibility of the website. You may take user signups, and the security of all the information that they provide your website is your responsibility.

4. Business Email:

Business email hosting is really important. It tells your clients or customers that you are legit and also gives you a professional email setup. This can be used to interact with the team and send out communication from the point of the website.

Conclusion

These addons are just basics, and there are more add-ons that you can get when you buy web hosting plans for your brand new website. It is important that you look at all of them and then decide which ones can help you improve your website. Add whatever can improve your website’s performance and security. Web hosting is something that you need to pay attention to a lot, especially in 2021.

How Does A Hybrid Cloud Be Capable To Eliminate Security Threats?

A hybrid cloud is a system that integrates a private cloud alongside one or multiple public cloud providers, with unique technology allowing interaction among each separate division. A hybrid cloud approach gives enterprises more versatility by shifting workloads across cloud providers as demands and prices change. 

Hybrid cloud technologies are effective because they provide organizations with more management over their sensitive information. A company can keep confidential material in a private cloud or regional database servers while also leveraging the powerful computation capabilities of a controlled public cloud. In contrast to a multi-cloud model, which requires administrators to manage each cloud environment independently, a hybrid cloud depends on a single plane of administration.

Transitional Blunder

Using public and private clouds enables organizations to accept accountability for data within their management, which aids develop confidence with end customers who recognize who owns their data. For instance, private data may be housed in a secure private cloud, but applications that use that data could run on freely available public clouds. This is supposed to provide for seamless functioning, unambiguous accountability for data, and tighter cybersecurity.

Memory Issues

One of the main concerns with cloud-bound data is the storing of information that is no longer being utilized. There are minimal issues with information in travel and information in action, but this cannot be stated for the storage of data. 90% of data breaches in recent years have been attributed to data in rest, which occurs when data that is not constantly handled is released or taken. A hybrid cloud-based approach would allow companies to preserve encryption keys in the private cloud while storing encrypted data on public clouds for usage by organizations.

Data Security In The Hybrid Cloud

The safety of data stored in the cloud is one of the key issues that limit cloud migration. While private cloud data centers may be physically situated on-premise. The cloud computing model remains the same: data stored in the private cloud is accessed via the private IT network connectivity, which is conceivably highly susceptible to breaches, data leaks, snooping, and man-in-the-middle threats.

Hybrid cloud computing enables businesses to use both public and private cloud models. The benefits include lowering the risk of security attacks; nevertheless, better security precautions are necessary when the total IT infrastructure evolves into a complicated mixture of public and private cloud installations.

Make Use Of Diversity

To avoid assaults, businesses must use heterogeneity to limit the likelihood of establishing a single point of breakdown. If you have more than one species but just one Domain Name System (DNS) system, it may be targeted by the identical malware, therefore all can be targeted by the identical virus. When there is a lot of variation across individuals, the route of assault does not always work the same way for everybody.

Hazard Evaluation And Management

Cloud network threats develop quickly as fraudsters discover new ways to compromise susceptible network terminals and channels of communication. A comprehensive risk assessment is required to understand cloud network activity at any given time. This information is crucial for doing the appropriate risk mitigation procedures proactively. As a result, it is critical to adhere to the following best practices:

  • Assess and assess the risks associated with private cloud migration activities
  • Create a risk assessment and determine the resources needed to address security concerns within the budget constraints
  • Update all software and networking devices with security fixes regularly
  • Keep an eye on network activity for any unusual activity
  • Utilize powerful AI-based system surveillance solutions that link network behavior with possible cloud risk assessments

Cloud Transparency And Management In A Hybrid Environment

Because cloud computing is maintained and administered by a third-party provider, it provides minimal visibility and control over the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. The justification for an on-premises private cloud is different since the infrastructure is devoted to a single client business and its authenticated users. The data center is frequently virtualized or software-defined, allowing clients to have absolute ownership over their assets. Fine-grained transparency and management to fight hybrid cloud security mechanisms, on the other hand, the need in-house knowledge, innovative technological solutions, and enough computational power to accommodate the expanding amounts of security-sensitive information.

Management Solutions Help To Reduce Cyber Threats

Considering the instability of the environment, employing an independent vendor in charge of staying up with developments and ensuring safety uniformity throughout systems is critical. An as-a-service managerial supplier is just as important to a company’s hybrid cloud footprint as a Global Positioning System (GPS) as well as air traffic control to an airplane. They not only assure security uniformity across platforms, but they also open up a company’s inside security staff to handle specific localized issues, double the security advantage.

Many firms who are migrating to cloud services are unaware of the possibility of cloud fragmentation. When cloud apps are deployed as independent silos, they create administrative, integration, and, most importantly, security challenges—all of which may be controlled, if not eliminated, with the correct hybrid cloud management solution. Obeying coherent quality standards, such as data encryption in transit and at rest, utilizing identity and access management (IAM) capabilities, and using Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) network procedures for communication systems among unprotected communication networks, for example, can alleviate many managerial flare-ups and potential threats.

Managed hybrid cloud may assist enterprises to decrease or remove duplicate information housed in distinct silos, as well as provide more control over their security profile through cryptography, management, security systems, automation, and endpoint protection, to mention a few. Whether done domestically or through a managed solutions vendor, identification and authenticity are key components of contemporary vulnerability management. Using a solution such as Azure AD hybrid identities with SSO or Federation provides a means for securely sharing credentials between on-premises and cloud-based systems with relatively little effort.

The Importance Of Stability

Whenever it pertains to safeguarding hybrid systems, constancy is more important than unique skills. Only when a controlled hybrid cloud service provides security policy uniformity in domains such as access control and incursion tracking can an organization reap the benefits of such infrastructure’s flexibility and adaptability. To truly realize the rewards of freedom and variety that hybrid systems provide, enterprises must have a solid management plan in place across all systems. The aim is to have continuous protection, which starts with using a hybrid cloud administration platform to streamline your procedures.

A maintained hybrid cloud service offers all of the advantages, knowledge gained and best practices garnered from a large number of clients  – depth of skill and real understanding that you cannot reproduce on your own. Furthermore, many managed services conceal details of the implementation while increasing the degree of safety capabilities accessible to an organization – yet another example of getting more security bang for your budget. Cybersecurity is difficult and costly, but using the efforts of cloud providers to collect those issues and answer them may be like enchantment to the businesses that utilize it.

Conclusion 

Whenever there is a combination of global and personal cloud installations, the danger of security attacks is reduced. However, whenever there is a combination of commercial as well as highly confidential cloud implementations, attention must be taken to manage the confidentiality and integrity of the entire IT infrastructure.