What Are the Website Security Vulnerabilities That You Must Avoid

If we look at the trends behind the adoption of website security measures, we will notice one very strange phenomenon. A majority of the organisations decided that they needed to invest in website security only after facing some serious security breach. The reason it is strange is because such security breaches can set a business back by many years, greatly affecting the trust and reputation of the brand and causing financial loss as well. Yet, the organisations are gambling with it, not giving website security protocols due importance right at the time of the development. So, unless you wish to test your luck, you need to know about the major security vulnerabilities that you must avoid in your website.

Major website security risks to avoid in 2022

Let’s take a look at some of the common yet major security mistakes that creep into websites, which you must avoid.

Injection Flaws

Injection flaws allow unauthorized and ill-intentioned users to inject commands within the website to exploit the users in multiple ways. Some common injection methods include SQL injection, XSS, and LDAP injection. This happens when unfiltered data is allowed to pass into the SQL server, browser, or LDAP server. To avoid this flaw, it is advisable to maintain a whitelist and filter every input. The use of a framework is a much better way as compared to anything else while building the website.

Authentication Problem

This issue crops up when someone decides to run their own authentication code. Not to doubt anyone’s capabilities, but authentication is a tricky business. With frameworks available to do just that, it is much safer to rely on them rather than building your own. There are numerous mistakes that can happen during authentication that will make the entire process vulnerable. However, if you do have to create your own authentication process, it is advisable to be extremely cautious about it. Find out every pitfall that you may encounter and ensure that they are not present in the final draft of the website.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

A CSRF attack happens using the access granted to a verified user. A third-party gains access to the user’s browser logged in to the website, and has used the user’s access to send a forged request. One way to ensure that this flaw is not exploited is by keeping a hidden field that will be inaccessible to the third party and to check and verify this field regularly. You will also need to grant unique request tokens to the authorized user and put checks like re-authentication in place.

Insufficient Transport Layer Protection

Today the data transmitted every second has increased manifolds. Numerous personal and sensitive data gets transported every time any user uses a website. These include authentication data, banking data, and other highly valuable information that an attacker can access if your website does not have proper transport layer protection. This issue happens when expired certificates or weak algorithms are used for the purpose of transporting data. You will need to ensure that your website security certificate is never expired and always force the transfer of data via HTTPS protocol. This is one thing that even Google is forcing, and not doing so will result in your website being tagged as unsafe.

Keep yourself updated

These are some of the flaws that have cropped up over the years. However, these are not all that there is, and numerous other flaws exist. One way to ensure that your business or users are never compromised is through regular updating of the security protocols to cover all aspects. It is essential that you invest in website security because the cost of not doing so is often much higher.

Maintaining Website security is a time-consuming procedure that necessitates the use of specialised knowledge and abilities. It is possible to free up significant time by outsourcing your website security to a reputable website development firm or a professional. You can look for such professionals at Outsourced365.