Websites with excellent design focus on more than just aesthetics – they attract visitors and put products and services on display to generate awareness.
Every element of the online platform works towards a defined goal. There’s only one way to become an experienced web designer: design and build web pages.
This can mean building layouts on paper, conducting affecting card sorting, or writing lots of CSS. To become a professional requires not only a lot of practice, but also quality competition to hone your skills.
Now more than ever, websites must be protected from the large number of cyber threats performed by individuals with harmful intent, whose goal is to steal, expose, alter, disable, or destroy information.
It’s critical to consider security from the very beginning of the web design process. While the Internet allows businesses to connect with target audiences and drive growth in ways that were formerly impossible, it can also be a dangerous place. It’s a reason for concern for all stakeholders involved, from executives to security personnel.
As a web designer or software developer, you may be held responsible – unfair but true – for the damages caused by cybercriminals on the sites you created. By prioritising data security, you can design a positive user experience and avoid unintended consequences.
Web Designers Play A Key Role In Building The First Line Of Defence Against Cyber-Attacks
No matter if you build server-rendered apps, Single Page Applications (SPA), or backend APIs, the Web offers ample opportunities.
Nonetheless, power and responsibility are two sides of the same coin – you can’t have one without the other, so you must be prepared to give them the necessary attention they “deserve”.
It’s not possible to come up with a complete list of potential threats to which a website is exposed because there are too many variables at play. Be that as it may, there are some well-known threats you should be aware of, namely:
- Phishing: By posing as a reputable source with an enticing request, the malicious actor lures the victim to trick them. The most prevailing examples of phishing are on-path attacks and cross-site scripting attacks.
- Ransomware: Threat actors can seed sites with malware so that when Internet users visit, they accidentally download malware on their computers. The attackers promise to provide decryption keys and/or delete the data once the victim pays.
- SQL injection: In certain cases, cybercriminals gain administrative rights to a database, which is highly detrimental to a business. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in the application code by inserting an SQL query in form fields, such as login boxes.
- DDoS attack: The website is flooded with too many requests, therefore reducing its capacity and making it unable to respond to legitimate requests. Put simply, it’s a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server.
- Spyware: Also known as adware, spyware rewrites search engine results and delivers fraudulent, harmful, unwanted websites. While not always destructive, spyware unlawfully gathers data, such as credit card and bank details.
At this point, you may be wondering what strategies to apply to your projects. The approaches range from simple to complex, and you must be aware of their limitations.
So, What Are The Security Considerations For A Website? Let’s Find Out, Shall We?
Securing a site is a continuous activity that requires constant vigilance, so you must be proactive to prevent threats from infiltrating and maturing in your environment.
Knowing every detail of every threat will push you beyond your expertise as a developer, but it’s the best available protection to counter cyber-attacks.
Additionally, you should look at the following strategies to guarantee a safe online experience for your users:
Leverage Cloud Hosting As Your Website’s Foundation
Several traditional web hosting solutions exist for launching a website, including but not limited to shared, dedicated, and virtual private servers.
Nevertheless, you can run your application on a virtual server in the cloud, which allows for greater scalability and flexibility. You can spread your data across multiple interconnected servers.
Third-party cloud computing providers may undertake the management of the infrastructure, yet the responsibility of cloud security doesn’t necessarily shift along with it, so you need to make your own considerations. Credential compromises are some of the most common causes of data breaches.
The lesser-known newcomer to the cloud hosting arena is Microsoft Azure, which includes countless features with corresponding developer services that can be deployed individually or together.
You can publish and manage a website without having to work with underlying servers, storage, or network assets. Specialists like Intercept help those interested in automating, developing, and securing software in the Microsoft Azure cloud.
You can control many things related to your website from the management portal – you can see the metrics, create backups, and scale the platform.
Facilitate Secure Login Processes Without Compromising Usability
Stolen login information can be used by threat actors to gain unauthorised access, which presents unique challenges and risks to security systems.
Multi-factor authentication reduces the risk of account takeovers and helps ensure compliance with industry standards. Most solutions offer APIs and SDKs that simplify integration, but you should test the chosen solution to ensure it’s compatible with your application’s authentication framework
No doubt, security is paramount, but think about the user experience. Legitimating users shouldn’t be overly complicated.
Address The Importance Of Secure Session Management
As users navigate through web pages, make purchases, read content, or engage in other activities, they’re at risk. Malicious actors can take control of authenticated sessions between users and web applications by stealing the token sessions or cookies that identify users to the server, which allows them to impersonate legitimate users.
By implementing best practices, you can properly secure and manage sessions to prevent broken authentication. Automatic logout, for instance, prevents unintentional unauthorised access to shared devices.
Last, but certainly not least, be wary of session fixation attacks that exploit the flaws of authentication and session management of web apps.
It’s a subset of hijacking where threat actors set up a fake session before legitimate users can log in, which leads to the entire system becoming compromised and used to steal personally identifiable information.
The only way to prevent such an occurrence is to follow security practices when creating websites.
