Keeping the Wolves at Bay: How Web Developers and Site Owners Can Stay Safe Online

The internet, in its infancy, was like a village noticeboard – maybe with more neon lights and a few dancing GIFs. It was a place to share, learn and communicate – mostly by people leaning over a fence, swapping information. What it wasn’t, back then, was a digital warren of alleys filled with faceless opportunists waiting to snatch whatever they could get their hands on.

Fast forward to today and the internet has become that. A paradoxical world where a website can be a thriving business hub or a trapdoor to financial disaster depending on whether the owner locked up properly. Web developers and site owners, the gatekeepers of the online world, are now on high alert. Security is not a side issue – it’s the whole game.

The Digital Burglar’s Favourite Entry Points

There’s a myth, largely perpetuated by Hollywood, that cybercrime is carried out by shadowy figures in hoodies huddled in dark rooms lit only by the glow of their monitors. These fictional hackers tap away at keyboards like a pianist playing a particularly aggressive sonata before triumphantly whispering, “I’m in.”

In reality, most online security breaches don’t require Hollywood-style theatrics. They happen because someone didn’t tick a box, update a plugin or use a password more sophisticated than password123. They happen because security for many is a thing to be assumed rather than actively maintained.

One way to plug those digital entry points is SASE – or Secure Access Service Edge for those who prefer things spelled out in full. It’s a system that embeds security into the very fabric of a network rather than an afterthought. A digital neighbourhood watch if you like, keeping an eye on who’s coming and going and sending those without legitimate business packing before they can start rummaging through the valuables.

Foolishness of Leaving the Back Door Open

Many a website owner will go to great lengths to secure their login credentials and then blithely integrate a third party service without a second thought. This is like double locking the front door and leaving the back door open with a brick. A poorly maintained plugin, a vulnerable API or an out-of-date CMS can be an open invitation for cybercriminals to come in and help themselves.

Then there are those who, instead of making an active mistake, do nothing at all. I once knew a bloke who ran an e-commerce site and stored customer payment details in an Excel spreadsheet called payments.xlsx. He had the air of a man who thought security breaches only happened to other people – until they happened to him.

The Currency of the Internet: Data and its Disappearance

Once, theft was a tangible thing. A broken window, a missing handbag, a television set no longer where it ought to be. These days however, theft can happen invisibly, without so much as a single misplaced hair to suggest that anything is amiss. You could wake up tomorrow to find that your business has been emptied of its most valuable asset—its data—and yet the office door remains locked, the alarm untriggered, and the kettle still warm from the morning’s tea.

In such an environment, encryption is not a luxury. It is not even a precaution. It is the absolute minimum requirement for anyone who considers themselves even vaguely in charge of a website. And yet, it is astonishing how many businesses treat encryption as if it were an optional add-on, like a set of heated seats in a new car.

A decent encryption policy ensures that even if data is stolen, it remains unintelligible to those without the appropriate decryption keys. It’s the difference between a thief making off with a suitcase full of unmarked banknotes and one filled with shredded newspaper. The former spells disaster, the latter merely inconvenience.

The False Sense of Security That Comes With Complacency

Web developers and site owners have a habit of assuming that once security measures are put in place, they are done. The equivalent of planting a hedge and believing it will remain neatly trimmed forever without further attention. But security, much like gardening, requires maintenance.

A firewall set up last year may no longer be sufficient. A password policy that seemed robust in 2020 may now be laughably inadequate. Cybercriminals, being a rather industrious lot, are not content to sit back and let old security measures thwart their efforts. They evolve, they adapt, and they find new ways in. The least one can do is return the favour.

Regular penetration testing—in which security professionals attempt to break into a system in order to highlight vulnerabilities—should not be treated as an occasional luxury but as an integral part of any serious online presence. It is better, after all, to have a friendly expert uncover your weaknesses than to leave them lying around for an actual criminal to find.

The Art of Being Slightly Less Appealing to Attackers

There is an old joke about two men being chased by a bear. One stops to put on his running shoes. “You can’t outrun a bear,” says the other. “I don’t need to outrun the bear,” he replies. “I just need to outrun you.”

This, in a rather crude way, is how website security works. No site is ever completely secure. But attackers are opportunists, and much like burglars casing a street, they will go for the house with the flimsy lock and the alarm that’s never switched on. If your website is harder to breach than the next one, chances are, the attackers will move along.