Top 4 Web Security Tips for New Business Owners to Learn About

By Amy D

Posted on November 2, 2022

New business owners encounter a plethora of challenges. As new business owners are busy dealing with them, as well as focusing on making their businesses successful, they often forget about securing their websites.

This makes your site vulnerable to attacks by malicious elements. Once your website security has been compromised, it is tough to win the trust of your customers again.

Malicious elements are more likely to target small companies and not larger enterprises. New businesses usually do not have sufficient resources and expertise in MSP cybersecurity to thwart attacks by cybercriminals. You, however, cannot make the mistake of overlooking web security, as it can prove to be a costly affair.

Here are four tips that can enable you to defend your business.

1. Protect Your Website with an SSL Certificate 

You can secure your website by installing an SSL certificate, short for secure socket layer certificate. One of the most common security certificates, it helps protect customer data and ensures secure online transactions. A trusted SSL certificate authority issues SSL certificates.

Once you buy an SSL certificate and add it to your website, it prevents malicious elements from accessing data. The certificate makes it impossible to read customer and internal data, thereby blocking its misuse.

SSL handshake is the term used for the establishment of a secure connection between browsers of users and your site’s web server. After users connect to your site, browsers used by them seek to verify the identity of your web server. Once they confirm that they can trust your site’s SSL certificate, the web server receives a message. Your web server sends a digitally signed acknowledgement to start an SSL-encrypted session, which leads to sharing of encrypted data between browsers and the web server. This makes sure that your customers and your data are safe.

2. Backup Data Regularly

As you may not have a team dedicated to website management and security, you may fail to back up your database. You must remember to back up your data daily and make a complete copy of your website files. And it is best to save your data on an external hard drive that is not connected to a network.

If cybercriminals succeed in deleting your files, backups can enable you to recover them quickly. It reduces downtime, thus limiting the impact of the cyberattack on your business. 

3. Document Your Web Security Policies

Once you invest in a protection plan or install an SSL certificate, draft your web security policies. You should document everything, including best practices that employees must follow and what they need to do in case of a security breach. Then, inform each employee about your web security policies via emails or by organizing cybersecurity sessions.

4. Secure Internal Network Using Private PKI 

Private Public Key Infrastructure (Private PKI), also known as Private CA or Internal Certificate Authority, allows you to create your own local CA without requesting an external authority. The private PKI is usually meant for internal use and is trusted only by users within your company. As it limits certificates to only a few users or devices, you can create a more secure internal network or intranet.

It is not easy to track and manage security certificates and do effective PKI management. Look for a service provider known for being a reliable PKI and SSL certificate manager to help you with multi-layered web security.

Also read: Here Are the Best and Most Affordable Tech Tools To Help Your Business Grow

Top 4 Web Security Tips for New Business Owners to Learn About